
A special, epic-length story arc begins today in Pooch Cafe. Here's creator Paul Gilligan on "Poncho: Year One":
Revisionist histories have been a popular trend in superhero comics for some time. Alan Moore was a big catalyst, and obviously Frank Miller’s Batman Year One was a landmark. Superhero comics held me spellbound for a good 10-15 years, and their influence is still heavily visible in all my work.
In college my comic-reading world was opened up by “alternative” comics. Between then and now the work of creators like Peter Bagge, Daniel Clowes, Chester Brown, Chris Ware, Los Bros Hernandez, Joe Matt, Charles Burns, David Mazzucchelli, and many others have
impacted my cartooning, the art and - even more - the writing.
Readers of Pooch Café may see this manifesting in the layered characters, ongoing storylines, and orbiting plots. There has been some amazingly inventive work done in graphic novels for many years, and I have fed on them creatively, more so I must admit than I have on other comic strips. It is with all this in mind that I
unveil: Poncho: Year One.

This should not prove to be an entirely drastic departure for Pooch Café. The humor in PC has always been more character/situation based than set up/punch line based, probably more so as the years have gone by. But I will be aiming for an even more in-depth exploration of Poncho’s character and a story arc that will follow his growth over a long
period of time and show us how he got to where he is now. With gags. And cool art.
I’m not 100% sure myself where this will lead. That’s part of the fun. New territories will be blazed, and at the same time long-time fans will be rewarded. I hope it’ll be an enriching ride for all, and perhaps something a little new for the comics page.
As Stan Lee would say: Excelsior!
(I just looked that up. It means “packing material”. Revisionist, indeed).
-Paul Gilligan