Hondle Special Edition

By Matthew Craig
www.thematthewcraig.com

Growing up I had a cat named Biscuit. She was white and orange, not that big, and once left a live pigeon under my bed. I mostly remember her as a middle aged cat who slept a lot, and who, after I moved out, would seem really happy when I came back to visit my parents.

I was sad when I moved to Korea, but figured I’d see her again at some point. But my parents moved back to the UK, and my cat was given to friends of the family. Shortly after that she disappeared (and my parents didn’t tell me for a year). Since then I’ve (foolishly?) thought that she went to find me, and my imagination conjures up images of her shivering in the cold. I try to block these out with ideas of her happily sleeping in front of a fire in the house of whatever people she ended up living with, but sometimes it’s hard.

So what does this have to do with zines? Not very much to be honest. But after reading Craig’s comic about his childhood dog, which he loved despite it doing many incredibly disgusting things that are some of the reasons I’m not particularly fond of dogs, I missed my cat.

Craig grew up with his dog Hondle, and it was when he moved away for university that it died of old age. He still loves Hondle though, and he recounts a series of stories about some of the weird/funny/horrible things that it did. If you’ve ever had (and enjoyed) pets I’m sure this comic will remind you of the good times you had with them, and maybe the sadness you felt when you lost them.

(Speaking of comics about pets that create sadness and a sense of loss, you should all go and read We3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. It’s super good stuff, and that’s not a tear in my eye, it’s just raining on my face.)

The art’s not the best, and the lettering kind of annoys me (constantly changing font sizes, arrgh!), but the comic still does what it set out to do, so it’s a success on that point. I still miss you Biscuit, even if your fur did always show up on my black clothes.