Admittedly, I only became aware of this pilot in recent months, and it existed way before this animated pilot, directed by Fable Siegel, dropped. Released on the Lackadaisy channel, this pilot came out on March 29 of last year, and as of writing has 13 million views. It features many characters but the main ones of focus are Rocky, Freckle and Ivy, and takes place in 1927 St. Louis during the prohibition era. The pilot holds a lot of mystery, mainly for those of us who’ve never read the comics.
The webcomic series made its debut on July 19, 2006, and was created by Tracy J. Butler. The general plot is that a man named Atlas May opens a speakeasy called Lackadaisy during the prohibition, but in 1926 was killed under mysterious circumstances. His widow, Mitzi, takes over, but the business is slowly dying out. Rocky and co. act as rumrunners, which leads to conflict with rival businesses.
The pilot only shows a fraction of that plot, as the crew at Iron Circus Animation are aiming to make this into an episodic series on YouTube, and given the overwhelming success of the crowdfunding campaign, that’s looking to be a reality. They ran a campaign on Backerkit last summer with an initial goal of $125,000, with many stretch goals. Backers-including myself- smashed their expectations and raised just over $2 million. With these goals met, fans can expect five full episodes of the show, as well as three mini episodes.
As mentioned, there’s a lot of characters introduced to the show. The main trio is Rocky, a sort of leader to their small group, who loves playing violin and possesses a chaotic side to him as shown in the pilot. Freckle is a nervous guy, but becomes fully confident when he holds a gun in his hands and it’s a life or death situation. Much like Rocky, he has a chaotic side. Finally, Ivy, who is the last in this wayward group, is skilled at cars and seems to be usually the getaway driver. Together, they’re all rumrunners for the dying speakeasy.
We also got a teaser trailer from Lackadaisy a few months after the pilot dropped on July 25th. It gives us a little more context on Rocky and Mitzi. Rocky was a wayward soul looking for purpose when he arrived at St. Louis. He got money by playing his violin in the streets when Mitzi came up to him, along with her then alive husband, Atlas. She enjoys his music and asks what else he could play, and the teaser ends with Rocky smiling at her. Between this and the pilot, we can assume this is how they met and perhaps how Rocky got into the rumrunner business.
Speaking of Mitzi, she’s another important character of the show. She’s trying to keep her late husband’s business afloat, and relies on Rocky and friends to acquire a good amount of alcohol for the speakeasy. They don’t come back with much, as they’re ambushed by rivals we don’t know much about yet, but she’s still glad they came back okay.
Finally, the last set of characters are the rivals we meet in the pilot, Mordecai, Serafine, and Nicodeme. Mordecai seems to be the stoic leader trying to take Rocky out while Serafine and Nicodeme are jovial and take pleasure in shooting and hunting them down. Mordecai also has an interesting trait where when he focuses on shooting someone, there’s a ticking sound like he’s razor sharp focused. However, in the trailer, he chooses not to take the shot at them even though he very well could have. He’s an intriguing character and one I’d like to know more about.
For now, not much is known about when the show will come out, but we do know the crew at Iron Circus Animation are hard at work to get the show up and running. While I never read the comics myself, I did back them during their campaign and will be expecting volume 1 and 2 of the comics in book form some time this year! I’m eager to get my hands on them and learn more about this cat centered crime world. In the meantime, if you haven’t, definitely check out the pilot on YouTube! It’s not one to miss out on.
