ARTS & CULTURE
Ben Dudley worked with more than 20 artists on The Day the Cat Got Shot. P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY B E N DUDLEY
The Cat’s Meow Cincinnati native Ben Dudley’s graphic novel The Day the Cat Got Shot weaves together tales of madness. BY M AC K E N Z I E M A N L E Y
C
incinnati native Ben Dudley spent nine years working on his new graphic novel, The Day the Cat Got Shot. The book braids together the work of more than 20 artists based everywhere from the Queen City to Italy to Quebec to Venezuela and more. Described on its Instagram account (@ thedaythecat) as an absurd spy thriller, the book was released in April and is gritty but features over-the-top dialogue and snarky humor. That’s intentional. Dudley
tells CityBeat that he wanted to parody the 1980s action movies he grew up with, like Rambo and Predator. The book has plenty of genre hallmarks: a vague South American setting, henchmen, two-dimensional villains and a troubled protagonist. Dudley also was inspired by the Coen Brothers’ 2008 film Burn After Reading. Like the movie, The Day the Cat Got Shot weaves together a wide cast of characters whose disparate antics eventually converge into one cohesive story.
“Burn After Reading was an inspiration in terms of, I like absurd situations and looking at them in a logical way,” Dudley tells CityBeat. “Like, what is going on?” This line of thinking is a recurring theme in Dudley’s body of work. For example, one of Dudley’s plays, Boo Boo, which premiered at the 2016 Cincy Fringe Festival, follows a 30-year-old who lives his life as a toddler. Dudley describes the screenplay as silly with a sad, poignant end. With more than 20 artists featured in The Day the Cat Got Shot, the finished product that can, at times, feel jarring. Artists change every few pages, and some take over more sections than others. Styles range from photorealistic to heavy graphic lines and childlike illustrations. How did Dudley manage walking each artist, many of whom live across the globe, through his vision? The short
answer: emails––around 10,000, to be exact. To prepare, Dudley compiled virtual folders for the artists, complete with his own sketches, written dialogue and action directions plus reference pictures of actors, buildings, clothes and locations that could be used for inspiration. He also sent them illustrations from other participating artists to ensure that each character was recognizable from scene to scene. Artists sent preliminary drawings for Dudley’s feedback, and the editing process would continue until each comic panel was completed. Dudley then would add the lettering. “I think the different styles really did complement the different stories,” Dudley says. “(The process) was mainly about always having open communication with the artists and a lot of back and forth with them having their own ideas. For me, I
MAY 18, 2022 - MAY 31, 2022 |
CITYBEAT.COM
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