Written and Illustrated by Massimo Mattioli
Published by Fantagraphics
Let’s get one thing straight right up front. Squeak the Mouse is about as NSFW as anything ever gets so if you have the slightest issue with explicit violence or explicit hardcore furry sex, just move on to the next review now and leave Squeak for the more discerning reader.
I’ll be honest, when I first heard of Squeak the Mouse back in the 1980s, I steered clear of it.
Looked like a European version of the over-the-top gory cartoon cat and mouse parody that National Lampoon had already done back in 1973 with Kit ‘n’ Kaboodle.
But now here we are well into the 21st century and Fantagraphics has resurrected and collected not just that original version of Squeak the Mouse but also its two belated follow-up volumes.
My old prejudices probably would have kept me from even paying any attention to it if it hadn’t been sent to me for review but it was, I did, and I have to say I surprised myself by liking it!
The only context is on the text of the back cover, which explains that it’s Italian, was declared obscene in 1985, and strongly influenced The Simpsons’ Itchy and Scratchy.
Set up like an old-style cartoon, complete with character image and title cards, each 12-panel page builds on the traditional cartoon cat and mouse story with increasingly violent and undeniably pornographic acts that take Tex Avery way beyond the pale.
The first six pager isn’t that much worse than what we’ve seen a million times. Cat wants to eat mouse, mouse bedevils cat, who keeps after him and keeps getting his comeuppance. There are some clever gags all done up in the artist’s very expressive cartooning style. It isn’t until the final page, however, when it becomes obvious this is NOT your father’s Herman and Katnip.
Someone must have given creator Massimo Mattioli the idea to keep it going so the sequel continues in the same classic cartoon style only now parodying slasher films and showing the revenge of the late Squeak. From there, it just builds and builds and builds, adding ducks, vacationers, orgies, and aliens. The fact that Squeak the Mouse can still feel transgressive in these post-Underground times when even the once-controversial Happy Tree Friends has faded into a half-forgotten Internet memory, says a lot about Massimo Mattioli.
More than the book does, in fact. Is the artist still around? What else has he done? We get nothing along those lines. (I looked him up. He died in 2019 and he did a LOT of other, very well-received stuff.)
My apologies to Squeak the Mouse for avoiding it all these years. I can’t emphasize enough that it’s not for the squeamish, but it really is a first-class parody of a classic cartoon genre by a master cartoonist. If you’re the open-minded type who grew up with Tom and Jerry, give it a look.
Booksteve recommends.
