MEOW!

MEOW! is a comic book series produced by On My Lap Comics about hero space cat MEOW and his quest to rescue his female companion and fellow pilot, Lady MEOW who has been taken hostage by his nemesis, Evil MEOW. MEOW! was one of the first concepts created by Chris Asselin even before the brand On My Lap Comics existed. The comic book contains no actual dialogue, only "meows" written out with punctuations and structures from word bubbles, thought bubbles, and narration bubbles, as if written by and for cats. MEOW! is typically more light-hearted and child accessible than most On My Lap Comics publications. It is also one of the most popular of all On My Lap Comics titles.

Dialogue Concept
The comic book contains no actual dialogue, only "meows" written out with punctuations and structures from word bubbles, thought bubbles, and narration bubbles. The idea behind this, says creator Chris Asselin, is to "provide a comic book for cats that could only be read by cats, perhaps as a commentary about a percentage of the population who feels that everything should be in one language. What if no one could read it? What if you had to be a cat to read it? Therefore you have to follow the pictures to understand the story. Its kind of a joke, a comic book for cats, that just keeps going and is just cool and actually quite complex as more is shown".

The Story
MEOW! begins with the titular hero MEOW in the cockpit of his large, pink, and mousey-shaped ship with a look of serious determination. The dash panel blips as his ship approaches the atmosphere of a large planet and MEOW initiates the landing sequence. While lowering to the planet, he rethinks the events prior to the start of the story, and with sadness looks at his beloved Lady MEOW's picture which is taped to the wall across from him. With anger, he vows to rescue his love and make the dastardly Evil MEOW pay for her kidnapping. After landing, MEOW goes over his plan, pockets the picture of Lady MEOW, and equips himself with his trusty pistol. Before leaving his ship, he communicates with it via a communicator on his wrist. It appears to be a "hang loose, I'll be back shortly, but be on the look out too" kind of communication. MEOW then begins to travel on foot over the planet's rocky terrain toward an enormous cat-shaped building attached to many other impressive structures. Many large ships can be sen in the sky above the distant mountains. As MEOW reaches the stairs to the candle lit entrance, he utters a meow that could be interpreted as "gulp". With another meow that possibly is better left untranslated, he enters the sacred looking, yet intimidating doorway.On the other side, MEOW finds a long and very dark passage way to another doorway, this one appearing to withhold a considerable amount of light. Halfway through the passage way, MEOW senses a scurry from behind. When he looks, its not an adversary he finds, but a small and orange-gold colored mouse, looking back up at him and squeaking in an urgent manner. MEOW eyes the mouse and sees it's fear. For a laugh, MEOW licks his lips, and seems to tell the mouse how delicious he looks, frightening the mouse and causing it to quickly scurry through a hole in the wall. After a chuckle, MEOW remembers his mission, and continues toward the next doorway. Before entering, MEOW listens to the voices coming from the next room. Hearing that they are speaking of him and his nemesis, Evil MEOW, MEOW charges his pistol for the possible confrontation that may ensue. MEOW enters to find the planet's cat ruler, and his three cat body guard team.At first, one of the members of the bodyguard team, an orange cat, lunges toward MEOW, gun drawn, but the cat ruler calls him back. MEOW proceeds to show the ruler the picture of Lady MEOW and asks him of her presence. The cat ruler denies her presence with a swift shake of the head, eyes closed. MEOW begins to leave the room but stops, as Squeak!, the little gold-orange mouse from earlier calls to him from behind the cat ruler's throne, alerting MEOW of Lady MEOW's presence in the back holding cell. MEOW runs back into the room toward a fat member of the bodyguard team. As the orange bodyguard who lunged at MEOW earlier chases behind, MEOW slides under the fat bodyguard's legs, causing the two bodyguards to collide. The gun of the orange bodyguard went off when they ran into each other, blasting some of the ceiling off and onto them. MEOW heads toward the back of the room, where Squeak! came from and where the holding cell is, but is intercepted by the fiercest of the bodyguards, an eye-patched calico female, who pounces on MEOW. While they struggle, MEOW yells to Squeak! to go to Lady MEOW to tell her that he has come to rescue her. Squeak! scurries off to help.

Squeak finds Lady MEOW in the holding cell farthest back and enters through the holo-bars to deliver the message of MEOW's arrival. Squeak! is not taken seriously however, as Lady MEOW's true nature as a cat comes out and she begins licking her chops and telling Squeak! how she could eat him. This is all interrupted when Evil MEOW arrives, turning off the holo-bars and dragging Lady MEOW away by the wrist. Squeak! scurries along secretly from behind, and joins the two on Evil MEOW's ship.Meanwhile, back in the cat ruler's throne room, MEOW is struggling with the calico bodyguard and taking quite a few punches. The cat ruler begins to join in, blasting at MEOW with the gem on his hat. After missing MEOW, the cat ruler accidentally hits the eye-patched calico, seemingly frying her, and stopping her in her tracks. After some fancy maneuvering and dodging, MEOW fires true and hits the large coin-shaped ancient cat monument behind the throne, tipping it over on the cat ruler. The cat ruler's hat pops off and falls down the stairs to MEOW's feet. MEOW pulls the gem off of the hat and studies it for a moment as it emanates light in his finger tips. The two remaining bodyguards begin to recover from their rock burial earlier and stand up, making MEOW pocket the gem for now and turn on them. Knowing the reason of MEOW's quest and the nature of their hiring, the bodyguards decide they have no beef with MEOW and allow him to pass without any interference.

MEOW dashes to the back holding cell area only to find an empty cell, and an engine rumbling from outside. MEOW makes it outside just in time to se Evil MEOW's ship already in the sky. MEOW utters one word as he looks up at this.:"Meow".