Lackadaisy: Volume 1

by Tracy Butler

Overview

"A historically detailed and profoundly weird world, with dynamic art and nonstop mayhem purring along." — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"Beautifully captures the visual style of the Jazz Age.” — BOOKLIST

It’s 1927 and Prohibition is in full effect in St. Louis, Missouri. Organized crime has risen to meet the relentless demand for illicit alcohol. Bootleggers, gangsters, and might-makes-right rule dominate the city’s underworld, fueled by the patrons of speakeasies — speakeasies like Lackadaisy.
Hidden under the unassuming Little Daisy Cafe and run by the widowed and strong-willed Mitzi May, Lackadaisy holds its own in a rough-and-ready world, where you're either holding the gun or taking the bullet. But will tenacity, class, and a little bit of crazy be enough to ensure the survival of Mitzi and her gang?
A keepsake collected edition of the cult classic, Eisner Award-nominated webcomic!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781638991038
Publisher:	Iron Circus Comics
Publication date:	04/16/2024
Series:	Lackadaisy
Pages:	100
Sales rank:	41,014
Product dimensions:	11.20(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Tracy Butler was born in 1980 in Springfield, Massachusetts. She studied biology for a year at Our Lady of the Elms College in Massachusetts, before returning to her art. She created a website with some of her work, which led to a job offer from Simutronics, a Missouri game development company. Butler performed illustration and graphic design work before moving into 3D character design and animation. After living in St. Louis for some time, she purchased a 100-year-old house and began researching its history, as well as that of the local neighborhood, and ultimately the history of St. Louis itself. Combined with her interest in jazz music and the characters she had designed in school, this led to her starting Lackadaisy in July 2006.

Editorial Reviews

11/20/2023

Butler’s screwball adventure debut, based on her long-running popular anthropomorphic webcomic, opens as if it were the 10th volume in the series, not the first. Set in a Prohibition-era St. Louis populated by cats, the backstory involves warring gangs of bootleggers. The eponymous speakeasy, run by the widowed Miss Mitzi May, sits at center of a swirling battle for booze-slinging territorial rights. When Rocky Rickaby, fiddle player in the bar’s house jazz band (and Miss Mitzi’s operative), runs afoul of rivals, the conflict escalates—though there’s still plenty of time for flirtations between fight scenes. Butler’s animation background shines through the handsome character designs, reminiscent of the similarly feline Blacksad. Along with voluble trouble-magnet Rocky, other colorful characters include his cousin Freckle, a seemingly innocent lad who turns out to be a secret weapon, and Miss Mitzi herself, a smart businesswoman who’s always ready with a trenchant observation. Occasionally, the dense layouts overwhelm: the sepia tone can make it hard to distinguish between characters, and the sheer volume of allusions, wordplay, and painstaking historical detail demands close reading on every page. Still, this immersive Jazz Age tale offers a rollicking mix of gunplay, quips, and romance. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Wily escapism into a historically detailed and profoundly weird world, with dynamic art and nonstop mayhem purring along." — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"Butler's fine-lined, sepia-toned artwork beautifully captures the visual style of the Jazz Age." — BOOKLIST

"Trust me, bootlegging cats make for great comics." — MULTIVERSITY

"The premise of Lackadaisy is grounded in mystery and shenanigans, a combination as tried and true as canned wet food and chin scritches." — THE MARY SUE

"The lively series is full of drama, comedy, violence, and if you squint, a history lesson or two. Did we mention that all of the characters are cats?" — SYFY WIRE

"In Lackadaisy, cartoonist Tracy Butler re-creates the Jazz Age—with a twist." — ST. LOUIS MAGAZINE

"One of the oldest and most highly acclaimed funny animal webcomics is Tracy J. Butler's Lackadaisy." — COMIC BOOK RESOURCES

"Manages to both simultaneously romanticize the past, while never straying into sentimentality." — SMASH PAGES

"With its detailed, expressive artwork and character-driven plot, Lackadaisy proves that webcomics are more than equal to their print counterparts." — PULP PRESS

From the Publisher

It's always a treat to watch a master cartoonist sell us a ridiculous premise and get away with it. Sweet, vampy Mitzi May takes over the Lackadaisy speakeasy after her husband is mysteriously murdered. But getting booze can be dicey, what with other purveyors competing for limited supplies. So no surprise that Rocky, sent out for a liquor run, is nearly flattened by a train when bootlegging farmers try to put him out of business. Rocky decides to settle the score with a little well-placed arson, but the farmers attack the Lackadaisy. Meanwhile, Mitzi May has been sweet-talking a local mining magnate in an attempt to find backers and customers, while her flirty goddaughter-in-law puts heavy moves on Rocky's innocent younger cousin. What makes these picaresque goings-on both unusual and winning is the adorable cast of anthropomorphic cats in detailed, historically inspired Prohibition outfits. VERDICT This charming and sassy sepia-toned webcomic (www.lackadaisycats.com), enlivened by Butler's absolute command of body language and facial expression, has been only rarely matched in the United States for cute plus hilarious. An award winner recommended for teen and adult collections.—M.C.

Library Journal