Untitled Ape’s Epic Adventure

U.K. cartoonist Tillotson tells the story of an unlikely friendship—a smoking, boozing cat named Cat and a giant, unnamed purple gorilla with a blank, skull-like face—and adventures stemming from the ape’s desire to get home from the wilderness to his family in the jungle. In episodic chapters, the two meet narwhals, woolly mammoths, and other creatures. Tillotson soon reveals that the ape has been enslaved in hell to work as a demon, adding a bleak undertone to an otherwise lighthearted story. Transformations, personal power, and the magic of naming oneself lie at the heart of the book. Sumptuous drawings and idiosyncratic dialogue (“Oi mate! Big fella!” the Cat says to the ape upon meeting him) carry this oddly sweet tale of friendship. Tillotson uses an unexpected mix of cartoony visuals and realism to create a sense of unease. (Nov.)