I first found out about Bee and Puppycat when a woman I was dating sent me a link to the initial animated short Natasha Allegri had created for a Kickstarter campaign. The show I saw completely charmed me with its two leading characters, and the absurd turns their story took, culminating in Puppycat taking Bee on an extra dimensional trip to score them a few bucks. Bee and Puppycat, in its comic form, divides itself between several short stories about the truly mundane problems of Bee’s life to hysterical effect. My favorite of the bunch is the final tale “Hungry,” a story about the otherworldly lengths Puppycat, an animal lying somewhere on the spectrum between cat and dog and possessing the cuteness of both, will go to indulge Bee’s laziness. It’s remarkable that Bee remains such a lovable character despite her lethargy, but I think that it’s because she’s so great at reflecting those moments of our own lives where even the smallest tasks seem to take superhuman strength.

Other favorites of mine from this issue include “The Perfect Sandwich” by Aimee Fleck. Recently I read Bryan O Malley’s Seconds, and like that graphic novel, this short reminded me of the medium’s ability to not only illustrate the awesomeness of food, but how we interact with it, the pair’s astonishment at the finished sandwich encapsulating so many of my own favorite food moments before the sandwich is engulfed by the typically cool Puppycat. And unlike most of the shorts, this one has Bee trumping Puppycat in terms of knowledge, crafting a superb sandwich for which I soon after wrote down the ingredients.

While the writers and artists vary from story to story, one of the most remarkable commonalities is each artist’s decision to illustrate Bee as a full-figured woman, a person who’d be at home in Terry’s Moore’s Strangers In Paradise or Los Bros. Hernandez’s Love and Rockets if she didn’t make the occasional journey to a sentient planet. Even more interesting is Bee’s constant excitement about the minutiae of her life, her reaction to a package’s contents summating her ability to see joy in the strangest of places.

Bee and Puppycat has nowhere near the artistic ambitions of some of the stronger work from BOOM!’s titles, and it shouldn’t because that wouldn’t be keeping in character with its two leads. Bee gets a kick out of anything, and Puppycat carries much indifference in all aspects of its life. It’s a fun romp to unwind at the end of a day, and some times that all a comic needs to rock it.

Score: 4/5

Artists: Various Writers: Various Publisher: BOOM!/KaBOOM Price: $3.99 Release Date: 9/24/14 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital