Alan, King of the Universe by Tom McLaughlin

Alan, a grumpy cat with a huge brain, wants to take over the world. Fido, his sidekick dog, has been reading Science Today magazine and suggests that to help him to do this they clone Alan like the scientists have done with the sheep. Claiming to be from the 'Cloning Machine Inspection Agency' they infiltrate the lab, clone the cloning machine and distract the scientists with free calculators to get the machine out. Of course, the exercise is a disaster, 100 clones instead of 1 and the clones clone themselves. Luckily cats are easily distracted by a feather dangled on fishing line and they are eventually lured back into the machine in reverse. Alan’s next bright idea is to form his own country, the Independent Republic of Alanland and they get a ‘new country’ form from the local post office. The certificate arrives the next day along with an invitation for Alanland to participate in the Olympics. Fido makes a flag and Alan writes an anthem, the only other preparation is that Alan squeezes into some lycra shorts with disastrous consequences when they get to the Olympics. The two have some other crazy adventures including the invention of a new number, Onety Tweven Sillion which they register at the General Board of Numbers, and meeting aliens looking for the leader of the world to prosecute for various crimes; including space litter and ham and cheese pizza. There is a lovely frame where two spacemen are drifting around a pile of poo in space with one reporting 'Houston, we have a floater…’.

Tom McLaughlin has crafted all the text and illustrations and the restricted colour palette, black, white and ginger adds to the hand-crafted feel of the book, with standard, five or six frames to the page, occasionally spilling over the margins to great effect. The fast-paced plot with plenty of bum, poo and fart jokes will appeal to younger readers and the surreal situations and clever storytelling will appeal to all.

Themes: Graphic novel, Adventure, Cartoon humour.

Sue Speck