Lackadaisy vol 1

[cornerofmadness]

Lackadaisy by Tracy J. Butler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I've been hearing about this webtoon for years so when I stumbled upon it in printed form I went for it. It's prohibition era St Louis MO reimagined if everyone were anthropomorphic cats and the art is lush and gorgeous. Also Butler has put in so much historical research and it shows. There's nothing worse to me when reading a historical story when the research is obviously lacking.

More over Butler also manages to capture the feel of the time period. Rocky is the main point of view character but oddly also the one we know little about. He plays violin in the band that provides the information for Mitzi May who owns the titular speakeasy (and she has lost her husband recently, maybe at her own hands the rumors say, and is barely keeping the speakeasy afloat). However, Rocky wants to be more to Mitzy and it opens with him trying to get more bootleg liquor for her, running afoul of another group of bootleggers.

This back and forth of revenge over this happening carries the plot to the end of this volume. We also learn a couple things. Rocky is obviously well educated at one point (given the things he says as he babbles and boy does he babble) and he is bat crap crazy. I don't know how or why he got into the rumrunning business and I also do not know how everyone doesn't slap this boy every day.

He also drags his young cousin Calvin 'Freckle' along for the first round of revenge. Freckle had wanted to go to the police academy but something went wrong. No one knows (yet) why and after a few hours with Rocky that's probably never going to happen.

Into this mix is Mitzi and the young flapper, Ivy Pepper (who takes a shine to Freckle) and Viktor her mechanic/bartender (who obviously used to do much rougher enforcer work for her husband) and the man Mitzi hopes will save the speakeasy, Wick, a wealthy man who brings with him his equally influential and wealthy buddies. There is also the other rumrunners slash pig farmers (useful for disappearing bodies) and some mobsters who occasionally use those services, the Savoys and Mordecai, an enforcer.

Needless to say everything goes down at the speakeasy at the wrong time. There is guns and violence and the story was a lot of fun. Also included in this volume are some of the one-off side story strips and a lot of early sketches. It's worth picking this one up. Can't wait to read on.



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