Graphic Content: Stray Dogs by Tony Fleecs and Trish Fortner

 Horror is not just a category; it’s also a spectrum, moving from silly to serious, haunting to gritty.

There are so many subgenres in horror that anyone who likes a good scare is sure to find something to like. Horror also isn’t afraid to go beyond its comfort zone to tell a good story, borrowing from different genres to create something both creepy and original. Praise should go to any work that’s brave enough to incorporate Don Bluth-style animation and anthropomorphic animals. This is the formula for the graphic novel Stray Dogs, and somehow it works.

The story is told mainly through the adorable eyes of Sophie, a small dog who is dealing with a lot of new things, a new owner and several other new dogs that she doesn’t recognize. Sophie is also having trouble remembering her past owner, but as the story progresses, she becomes convinced that something terrible has happened to her previous owner, known as “her Lady,” and she is convinced that the man who has taken her into his home has done something to her. All dogs might go to heaven, but Sophie will do whatever it takes to avoid that fate, especially since the man who now has her may have done terrible things.

One of the big appeals of this book is its seemingly incongruous elements that somehow come together. Tony Fleecs’s story, told through the dogs the man has collected, not only generates actual suspense and stakes with the standard he’s-coming-back-early approach, it also takes advantage of a fallacy of dog memory, which is explained in the book’s prologue. Dogs are more focused on the now, meaning that Sophie doesn’t remember her Lady clearly, and even Sophie’s new four-legged roommates tell her to forget about who she was with. The reader will practically beg Sophie to remember even as she and her new friends try to escape. The story is solid, but Trish Forstner’s artwork makes this work stand out, making it look like a Disney film with a villain very much like Hannibal Lecter. Story and art don’t take away from one another; rather, they combine to create a tale tailor-made for fans of adult animation and true crime. I know that I’m a fan of both as well as of odd combinations.