| Seven Years in Dog-Land | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Self-published (website) |
| Format | limited series webcomic |
| Publication date | 2009-2011 |
| Number of issues | 7 |
Seven Years in Dog-Land is a webcomic produced by Singapore graphic novelist Johnny Tay, who wrote the 18-chapter children’s fantasy comic Anima: Age of the Robots in 2003. It is the first graphic novel in Singapore to be published internationally as an e-book.[1] In October 2011 it was one of Graphicly.com's 'featured titles' [2].
Seven Years in Dog-Land is vastly different from Anima in both story and art direction. It is drawn in black and white instead of full-color like Anima, with heavily rendered and detailed images. The story is also much grimmer, targeted at older readers.
Part of the comic is hosted on the author's new portal[3] and the rest can be read via the e-book version.
Contents |
This synopsis of Seven Years in Dog-Land is presented on the webcomic site.[4]
The seven years in this story correspond with the idea of the Seven Ages of Man.
Alice Carroll is a ten year-old girl staying with her widower father and pet dog Charlie in a run-of-the-mill suburban neighborhood. While on a sightseeing trip one day, Charlie runs off into the forest for no apparent reason. Alice is devastated that the police cannot help her and all her searches amount to nothing.
In the following months she begins to hear howling noises in her head. After an argument with her father, runs away to find the source of the howls, believing they belong to Charlie. Naturally, Alice gets lost in the forest but traces the source of the howls to a hole in a tree. In an obvious reference to Alice in Wonderland, Alice slips into the hole and ends up in a bizarre alternate world where dogs are the masters of the land, and humans are their pets (they are called Canines and Sapiens instead). This land is called Cania.
The author describes Dog-Land as “gritty and cruel”,[4] and Alice’s experiences portray just that. She is netted by a hunter of wild humans (Sapiens), who judges her to be genetically superior to the usual prey, and sells her to a Sapien pet store owner. Alice witnesses shocking cruelty in the pet store, which parallels the treatment humans mete out to animals in real-world pet stores. The Sapiens are abused, force-bred and trained to perform circus tricks. The store owner Dulac is delighted to learn that Alice is the only Sapien who can talk, and makes her the star attraction in his performing circus.
After one year, Alice attracts the attention of Activa, a Sapien-rights advocate (a parallel to our animal-rights activists) and Lela, who turns out to be the princess of the realm. Lela buys Alice and shows her off to Canine royalty as a novelty pet. Upon meeting the king (Charles Saban), Alice believes that he is actually Charlie, her pet, although like all Canines he is a lot larger than her and the Sapiens in this realm. To Alice’s devastation, King Charles has no memory of Alice.
The princess Lela and her brother prince Ike treat Alice well, gradually getting the Canine royalty to accept Alice. By listening to conversations among the royals, Alice learns a great deal about the Canine mentality towards their natural environment and less intelligent animals, which they call “lesser beasts”. She also learns about the plotting and intrigue that goes on among the royal elite. In an attempt to retain her humanity, Alice learns to sew and make clothes for her “owners” Lela and Ike. Eventually she begins to miss home. In his compassion Ike carelessly mentions the presence of the “Royal Vaults”, which he thinks may hold some answers for her.
The story is scheduled to continue from this point.
The most obvious reference in Seven Years is Alice in Wonderland. Apart from having a main protagonist of the same name, the story also introduces Alice’s father as “Lewis Carroll” – which is the name of Alice in Wonderland’s author.
The story format also follows the Seven Ages of Man, as popularized by Shakespeare - Seven Years is divided into seven chapters, each depicted one year in Cania, and Alice’s experiences will reflect the stage of personal development in its corresponding stage in Seven Ages of Man.
From initial feedback,[5] readers expressed that this webcomic reminds them of My Neighbour Totoro, Planet of the Apes and A Dream of a Thousand Cats.
Seven Years in Dog-Land first appeared in Smackjeeves,[6] a public webcomic network in 2009. It was then published in Webcomics Nation,[7] another webcomic network later in the year. After the third chapter “Year 3”, all development stopped.
In February 2011, the author launched a new, self-hosted portal that houses his blog and all webcomic titles, including Seven Years in Dog-Land. The mirror in Smackjeeves does not hold the comics anymore, and the mirror in Webcomics Nation stops at Year 3.
In May 2011, Seven Years in Dog-Land was launched with its complete story as an ebook with Graphic.ly.[8] a US digital comic distributor that also handles titles from top comic studios such as Marvel and IDW. With this, the ebook version can be read on a variety of devices, including the iPad, iPhone, Android, and desktop.[1]
Reader feedback for Seven Years in Dog-Land has been largely positive. Both its art and story impressed regular webcomic readers. It has been described as “riveting”, “cinematic” and “fantastic”.[5]
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