The Boy Who Died
Cat Legend
, by Kat Santoro, is a rather unusual blend of Medieval European Fantasy and Urban Fantasy, with the narrative switching back and forth between two time periods. The comic follows the adventures of a core cast of characters which slowly expands as their places in the medieval portion of the story are revealed.
Major cast includes:
- Cat Nymdemise- The Kid Hero and major protagonist. Starts out dead, but is revived at the beginning of the comic. Has no memory of his past life.
- Sarah Montagnaro- Fox-ear-and-tailed Half Fae, Older-sister figure and Love Interest of Cat.
- Kristin Bing- Blue skinned Fae with fire powers. Sometime guide and companion to the rest of the cast, his own aventures are a side-story to the main plot.
- Dorian Nymdemise- Secret son of the king and queen of Faerie, spent most of his life locked in a small room. Learned practically everything he knows from books.
- Alexandria- The last Delphic oracle. Usually answers to the name of Truth. Cannot be lied to.
- Deedra- Captured in a raid on a human village, she spent most her life in Castle Nymdemise. Has a rather unnerving appearance ever since she had her early memories erased
- Libby- The Vortex, whose presence in the world drains away magic. Starts out as a baby but doesn't stay that way. When she speaks, it may not be just her talking.
And many others whose stories are still being revealed.
Cat Legend includes examples of:
- Anachronism Stew: A lot of things don't really fit in the (admittedly vague) time period. Some of the witches just stop caring.
- Art Evolution: Significant change both in terms of quality and character design. Understandable when you consider how long the comic's been running.
- Blind Seer: Mendel was a Seer before ever going blind, but retains a form of his sight even in blindness.
- Ghost Amnesia: Cat isn't dead (anymore), but dying did take away nearly all memory of his previous life.
- Glamour Failure: In a literal sense; some faeries in the modern-day setting, particularly Vali, seem to be having difficulty keeping their glamour going.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Sarah, with a human father and faery mother.
- Happily Adopted: They don't get to see each other often, but Vali and adopted daughter Dee are nonetheless very close.
- How We Got Here: As of the end of the first act, Cat's retelling of past events is revealed as the Framing Device.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Threnody, the Mad Fae of Forget, possesses the ability to induce this.
- Mad Oracle: Not all the time, but to prophesize, Truth has to become temporarily insane.
- No Social Skills: Dor grew up locked in his room, with no companionship but books and an occasional visit from Bing. Social skills are...lacking.
- Tap on the Head: Subverted. When Bing hits Mercutious Nymndemise in the back of the head with a candlestick, it doesn't simply knock him out, it puts him into a coma, from which his vassals fear he may never awaken.
