A very funny illustrated fiction that is constantly unexpected and wildly inventive. The Napkin sisters, Molly, Mallory and Beatrice are the staff of the Angora Napkin existential detective agency. A client arrives to declare that he has been murdered, just does not know when or where. Using a board game, the Napkin sisters find out and they set out to forestall the murder. It does not go well and the hunt for the Golden McGuffin is underway. From the noir parody opening the story is a rocket propelled journey a not quite satisfactory conclusion.
Angora Napkin is crammed with jokes and set ups and in a physical format this plays against it for a reader. Reading a physical story is a continuous experience, if the story is too full it does not give the reader time to digest the content before adding more equally detailed pages. This works well on a website where a page a day or week creates the natural breaks for the reader. Reading the story is a little exhausting, I have enjoyed the book a lot more after I read it and could let the content settle in my brain. The standout jokes, there are a lot, came to the fore and I found myself laughing more at them than when I was reading.
Troy Little has put significant work into Angora Napkin and it shows, the story never flags or falls flat, it is kept in the air by a smart structure that allows the action to fly. There are so many ideas that it is amazing that they are all carefully used, none are there for decoration. Wi amazing economy Troy Little makes sure that every set up is completed and goes somewhere without any sense of story bloat.
The element that hols everything together is the wonderful dynamic that is developed among the sisters. They are developed and rounded characters, each being true to their demented selves and strike off each other in a way any family member would recognise.
The art is a joy, it has the energy and force needed to support the story, the cast are wildly expressive and absurd as they should be. They have the energy of a animation with the detail of a comic, a stunning combination.
The colouring is perfect, it brings out the details of the set ups, the cast and the gives the story an additional vibrancy that benefits from. Flipping through the book as I was writing this post, I have laughed out loud at each page I looked at, it is a really engaging book. The finale is not come off, it does not detract in the slightest from what come ahead of it.
Angora Napkin The Golden McGuffin is a treat for a comics fan.
