Inkblot #1 opens with narration by a powerful sorceress known as the Seeker. She sets the stage by recounting how her older brother, Xenthos Voidbreaker, paved the way for her eight other siblings to conquer all the realms of their world. Xenthos Voidbreaker is so named because he traveled to the end of the earth to conquer the Void itself. The rest of the Seeker’s siblings have left their mark on the other realms–the Mountainlands, the Depths, the Desertlands, and Mother Earth–through either conquest, peace-making, or exploration and study. All this is made possible by Xenthos Voidbreaker, the ultimate philosopher king of this fantasy world.

Rather than conduct her own exploits through any of the realms, the Seeker has devoted herself to chronicling and archiving the achievements of her siblings. She spends most of the time in her large, magical library within the Living Castle–a castle contained inside a living tree, the roots of which are rumored to reach to every realm.

One day, as the Seeker is dozing off over her work, a cat appears in her library through a mysterious portal. Suspecting that the cat came from the Void and is possibly dangerous, the Seeker chases it through another open portal into the Mountainlands, before ending up back in her library where the portal vanishes and the cat disappears.

In the development of Inkblot, creators Rusty Gladd and Emma Kubert used the Marvel method, meaning that the dialogue is meant to supplement the artwork. As such, Inkblot has an especially old-fashioned feel in certain places, particularly when the Seeker monologues her way through action sequences across each panel. The fantasy setting and artwork of Inkblot have a whimsical quality that took me back to the hours I spent reading Cricket as a young child. This series is ideal for children or anyone wanting a break from extra gritty comics–not to mention, the cat is wickedly adorable.