Book Review: Where's It At Sugar Kat? The Thin Of The Land by Ian Carney and Woodrow Phoenix - Page 3

The story succeeds on many levels, just like any good cartoon that we enjoyed when we were kids. On the surface, Carney's plot is classically simple. He introduces us to the Kat sisters. Sugar is a multinational supermodel, adored by all. Rebecca is her largely ignored twin sister. Sugar is a vapid self involved Barbie Doll who, of course, gets her every wish. Rebecca is a super-intelligent private eye who takes on cases that prove too weird for normal investigators. Together they take on an image-obsessed town that has been overrun by one of the more disgusting bands of super-villains to ever ooze all over the pages of a comic book.

When you read a little deeper though, the story takes on a few new levels of meaning. Sugar is spoiled and not self-aware, but very bright in her own way. We are treated to several scenes of Sugar dealing with her agent and proving to us why she is her own cottage industry. Rebecca has a huge chip on her shoulder about Sugar, which prevents her from making friends. It's an intentional over-exaggeration of sibling rivalry that makes its point quite clearly.

All of this comes to light when Rebecca and Sugar are hired to solve a brewing mystery by Rebecca's pen pal Mimi. The residents of Mimi's hometown are obsessively weight- conscious thanks in no small part to Sugar's constant overexposure in the media. This leads the townspeople to strike a bargain with devils for which they pay a terrible price. Of course all of this gets wrapped up with an ending reminiscent of, "And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you meddling kids."

Woodrow Phoenix's artwork compliments the story perfectly. On the surface it's simple, clear and cartoony. Once you spend a little more time with it though, his fine, line- rendered black and white drawings are chock full of subtleties. The fact that Sugar is obviously of African-American decent doesn't hit home until you really look at the pictures. The fact that Rebecca is actually quite beautiful when she lets her hair down doesn't really register at first glance. Phoenix puts in all sorts of visual cues, like the little twinkles that surround Sugar whenever she's on camera, or the fact that Rebecca is always lighted from the floor up when she's being intense, and it works.

Article Author: Dan Traeger

Dan Traeger has been a sporadically published short story writer and essayist for longer than he cares to admit. After finally caving in to external pressures he finally broke his long running and quite comfortable writers block and started his own blog. …

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