I’ve never been really big into reading online comics such as The Oatmeal and Scandanavia and the World. But when I saw The GaMERCaT, I instantly fell in love with the content, comic style, and the story – which focuses on a cat. Who wouldn’t love that?
A little about the Comic
The comic GaMERCaT is about a male video-game-playing cat named GaMERCaT, who has to hide his secret joy from his owner, Malcolm. Malcolm is completely unaware that his cats have been playing his video games, and even adding to his growing collection. Like a typical cat owner, he is oblivious to the mischief that his cats reign on his world.
Amid GaMERCaT’s friends is his partner named Annoying Fairy that resembles the fairy in Ocarina of Time. She is one of the main reasons GaMERCaT gets into as much mischief as he does. Glitch, another main character, is a stray kitten that GaMERCaT brought home to Malcolm and is slowly teaching the ways of video games, making him a sort of apprentice. Although Glitch is very young and naïve, he catches onto the many video games that they play together.
A few other characters are Sweet and Pixel. As the comic has developed, GaMERCaT has started seeking a group to play games with and slowly finds two new additions. Sweet is a tubby, mean-looking cat with a mellow attitude, and Pixel is one of the first female additions that brings a sort of gender rivalry in the GaMERCaT world. With a mixture of such personalities, it represents different types of gamers.
Subjects covered in the comic
The comic and stories are created by Samantha Whitten, and although there is tons of personal material based on her gaming experience, she also does wonderful takes on important topics and events in the gaming world.
Most recently a comic she developed was the take on E3 2015 from GaMERCaT’s perspective.
As many gamers during the holiday season become obsessed with release dates and planning a purchase system, Samantha embodied that emotion with GaMERCaT, as he obsesses over the subject. I feel as though I can personally relate to the emotions GaMERCaT expresses, while he feels overwhelmed and excited for new games and consoles being released.
A final piece I found particularly amusing in the GaMERCaT comic was her take on the announcement of the “New” Nintendo 3DS, and how Nintendo chose such a hand-held console name. Like many Nintendo fans, I thought the name for the new 3DS system was a bit unoriginal, so this comic was very amusing from my perspective.
What to expect
According to the archives, the comic released on June 10th, 2011 with a storm of game related information. With a new comic every Monday, and content spanning from games such as Assassin’s Creed to Splatoon, you’ll never know what to expect in the GaMERCaT world, which is why I love it.
Supporting GaMERCaT
Samantha Whitten has provided some great ways to support GaMERCaT that not only give publicity to the comic, but also offer some great perks to take advantage of. The most common way of providing a revenue for the comic is of course through PayPal, but she also has a GaMERCaT Support Program which gives special offers, doodles and sketches, and bonus images to the supporters. The more that adds up, the more milestones you go through to earn more.
The last and my favorite way of supporting GaMERCaT is through the Sugar Bunny Shop that Samantha Whitten has partaken in. There’s tons of GaMERCaT merchandise available for purchase such as plushies, bags, and DS skins. I can’t wait to take advantage of these products and stock my closet with them as soon as I can.
Being a loyal reader, I can’t wait to see how GaMERCaT develops over time with the video game industry.
Are there any special comics out there that you guys like and identify with? Share with me, I’d love your opinions.
