On its surface, Carlos Giffoni, Juan Doe, and Matt Krotzer‘s Strayed sounds like a lot of fun. A story about a cat who can astral-project and goes off on space adventures? That seems like it’d be a romp and a half. But reading the book reveals that it’s much more than that. At its heart, Strayed is a series about power and trust, and how both are used and abused to different degrees. The aforementioned cat, Lou, is searching for mysterious flowers that can be used as energy sources to save humanity. He’s doing so at the request of his human companion, Kiara, who unbeknownst to Lou has been manipulated and threatened into helping a corrupt politician, Premier Peely. Peely has plans for these flowers, and for the creature who created them, and he doesn’t care who or what he has to destroy in order to see those plans through.
The third issue of the series had Lou meet that creator, an alien who told him about Kiara’s deception, as well as what humanity has done to all the previous civilizations that Lou has met on his travels. Not believing the alien, Lou returned to his body, almost immediately collapsing in Kiara’s arms as his already-failing physical form buckled under the stress of his recent journey.
In this exclusive preview of Strayed #4, Lou fights to stay alive, and confronts Kiara about the lies she’s told him and what they’re next move is going to be. Will they be able to stop Peely before he carries out whatever he’s planning?
Check out eight pages from the forthcoming issue below. The penultimate issue of the series, Strayed #4 is due out digitally and in stores on Wednesday, November 20th.
Strayed #4
Written by Carlos Giffoni
Illustrated by Juan Doe
Lettered by Matt Krotzer
Covers by Juan Doe and Matteo ScaleraAn explosive development makes Premier Peely’s dreams a palpable reality. Lou struggles with illness as the world around him falls into total disarray.
