The idea -- of cats being people and men being pets -- has paled quickly, without the charm it had in the first book. And seeing a comic creator doing a storyline about how hard it is to make comics professionally is something I expect to see from someone much older and jaded. It's a sign of stress and burnout here, I fear, and that made this volume uncomfortable to read.

A fun and funny look at the life of a pet. I enjoyed this so much I immediately bought the second one.

Manfried Saves the Day gives you more of what you enjoyed about this backwards world where men are owned as pets for anthropomorphic cats. The art continues to be adorable and the little men themselves are hilarious but the story did not capture me as much as the original. I feel like this one walked back a lot of the character development that Steve had made in the last one. He had finally turned his life around and found a good paying job in his dream field but he is guilted into giving this up in order to participate in a zany scheme to save the cat shelter. While I love a good competition to save the rec center from the rich ski kids I mean the cat shelter from the rich banker this one just didn't click as well for me. Hoping more Manfried books are made that can recapture the spark of the first.

The adventures of Manfried the man continue. The reversal of cat and man is funny to see. I was a little concerned with the story, it doesn’t seem to wrap up the storyline very well. A couple points are left hanging at the end of the book. Seeing the old characters in this new story was fun, there were some new characters as well. A quick and enjoyable read.

*Review copy provided by NetGalley, in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Not as good as the first book. Storyline was bit predictable and none of the characters were very likable. Some questionable decisions and ethics in there as well.

'Manfried Saves the Day' by Caitlin Major with art by Kelly Bastow is the continuing adventures of a world where cats talk and have men for pets.

Steve Catson is finding some small fame with his art. He is also helping out at the local man shelter. When the shelter is in danger of being closed, he and all his friends find themselves in all kinds of crises. They decide to train some men to participate in a local man show to raise money to save the shelter.

It's still a clever concept, and I like it, but this story was not as good as the first volume. The art is pretty hilarious with all the men putting on silly Halloween costumes and still running around with no pants on.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Quirk Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Manfried Saves the Day

After reading the original Manfried novel, I didn’t think this creative team could outdo themselves. BUT I LOVED THIS ONE EVEN MORE.

While the first book focused primarily in Manfried and his relationship with his owner, Manfried Saves the Day focuses on saving the local shelter and ensuring Men have a safe space until they find new Cats. To do this, the Men participate in a pageant.

Manfriend Saves the Day has:

- Cute Men doing pageant things
- A mystery storyline
- Friends coming together!
- Adorable art that draws you in

If you find humor in:

- cats as people
- men as cats 
- typical cat behaviors

This might be the book for you. With even more heart that Manfried’s first foray into the book world, every cat lover is sure to aww over Manfried saving the day. He really is a hero!

I hope we get more Manfried in the future!

Thanks to Quirk Books and NetGalley for the ARC of this magnificent slice of comics gold in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, Kelly Bastow's art continues to be some of the most charming art in the comics landscape today. If you're a fan of the medium, or just adorable art, be sure to keep an eye on their work!

As for the book, it's just as sweet and fun as the first book, but the story feels more fleshed out. than the first. Cat owners will see themselves in Steve and Henrietta, and those who, like myself, do work with animal rescue, will be touched by this book as well.

Fair warning, there are nude cartoon men in this book, so if you're uncomfortable with cartoon genitalia, you may be a little uncomfortable.

Have you ever wondered how weird would it be if it was us, the humans, the pets?
Well! Here we have a world where humans are the pets, and the owners? Cats!

With a funny plot, and nice art Manfried saves the day is a amazing read! From the characters stories, from the main plot of trying to save the human shelter by winning the show!
I read it so fast the first time and enjoyed it so much I had to re-read it!

Totally recommend!

This was funnier than I expected. I loved the role reversal which had cats acting like humans and humans acting like cats. The artwork was well drawn and colorful. I also appreciated the character guide for the cats at the beginning since there were quite a few cat characters. The story is fast paced and there's a lot going on in every page. It's a quick, fun read that I enjoyed quite a bit.

"Manfried Saves the Day" is a fun, quick story about a group of underdogs (or, in this case, cats) trying to win enough money to save their "man shelter." The basic premise of cats and humans being switched is original and entertaining. The illustration style pairs perfectly with the writing. The story itself is a little predictable buy that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. There are mentions in this book about a previous adventure; regardless of whether or not this is a sequel to said adventure it can be read alone.

This is an adorable book! This is the second book about Manfried the Man and his cat owner, Steve. Steve writes comics for an online cat humor page called Cheezeburger and also helps out at the local shelter which is run by Henrietta Catface. The main crisis for this book is that the owner of the man shelter wants to sell the shelter to a greedy cat who wants to tear the shelter down! So the gang of friends decides that they will raise the money to buy the shelter out from under the business cat. They decide to enter a man show to try and win best in show for the prize money.

I really enjoyed this book just as much as the first one. I like the premise of the story about everyone trying to band together to save the shelter from the evil business cat. The story is great and flows very well and naturally. I liked getting to know the characters better in this book as well. As someone who has dealt with student loans it was nice to see that reflected in the Chelsea Meowmers character and the struggle that she was going through about money and trying to take care of herself and her men. I didn't really think I would find anything to relate to in this book but I really did! I loved watching the various characters deal with the men and trying to get them to all get along. I've definitely been there with my two cats. I would highly, highly recommend this book to anyone but especially if you are a fan of cats!

Odds are if you've spent anytime online, you've seen a Manfried comic or two. The premise of the comics online is very simple, yet effective. They follow Steve Catson and his pet, Manfried. In this altered reality though, Steve is actually a cat, while the pet is a human. It's a fun little twist on things, and is the sort of humor that cat lovers in particular adore.
The graphic novels for Manfried are slightly different, however. These books contain one compete plot, as opposed to a series of quick events. It's a bit unexpected, but honestly they have been a lot of fun. I think they're absolutely worth buying and reading (and they'd make a great gift for the crazy cat lover in your life – trust me, I am one!).
Manfried Saves the Day was a fun and quirky read. It's hard not to adore Manfried and all his man friends, as well as the cats that take care of them. But this graphic novel brings things to a whole new level, showing us the good and the bad of owning cats and running shelters.
It was surprisingly emotional at times, but in a good way. I'm impressed by the amount of depth they were able to put into this series, as it always seems so lighthearted and relaxed. I ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting, simply because I absolutely had to know what was going to happen with the shelter.
I was also curious about Steve's plot as well. It was a fun twist to have him going along with that career, and I love just how far they pushed it. Though I'll confess that I got a bit defensive for him at times. I guess that just proves how invested I became in this plot!
I really enjoyed reading Manfried Saves the Day, and I'm looking forward to seeing more plots like this. I haven't heard if they're going to do more, but I sincerely hope so!

A very interesting read that puts a weird perspective on cat owners relationships with their pets. By switching the places it makes things that would normally be accepted as standard statements and points out just how ridiculous us pet owners can be at times.

A fun idea - having a comic about cats owning humans rather than humans owning cats. I liked that the pets weren't just cats who looks like men, but were actually men (to the point that they say "hey" rather than "meow"). Unfortunately, once the initial newness of the idea wore off, I found the plot itself fell a bit flat, and at the end of the day I didn't think that the concept was substantial enough to justify a 224p book.

So, so deeply unsettling. But a charming romp nonetheless! It's hard to describe a book that invokes such strongly contradictory feelings. The simplest thing to say is that this is definitely a love-it-or-hate-it comic.

Having seen a few snapshots of what Manfried The Man on various social media posts I was interested to take a look at the new graphic novel (Out May 14th). So when I saw the book available for request on Netgalley, I took a chance on it.

First things first, the basics of Manfried. This graphic novel is set in a world where Cats are in charge, and "men" are the pets. Cats are as large as people, and "men" are the size of cats. While it could appear to be a child friendly read, you may want to give it a skim before handing it off as there are plenty of penises on display here (not sure why all the pets have penises.... are there no female "men" in this universe?) as the men, unlike Tobias Funke are almost always nude.

I thought the overall illustration of the comic was very good. For me most of the humour came from what the "men" were up to while their owners were discussing the major plot points of the story. However, this is where the problem is. Once I got beyond the initial few "the man is a pet" and "oop, what's he doing now" jokes, it started to wear a but thin.

The overall plot was weak, and I didn't engage in it. It jumped far too much, and wasn't as seamless as it could otherwise have been. By the time I hit the half way mark, I was bored with it, and only really finished to see what outcome there would be to the story. I had hoped that I would get a few laughs before the end. I didn't.

If you are into this sort of thing or if you were a big fan of the first novel (or even the posts you'll catch every so often on social media) then I'm sure this will be right up you alley. Unfortunately for me, it fell flat. Perhaps if I hadn't been expecting a "hilarious" web comic, I would have read it with different expectations...

Many thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Link below will go live on April 30th

I was a bit bored by the first installment and gave the second one a chance to be fair. The pet man concept is unique but somehow I can't get into it. Perhaps pet owners would enjoy it more.

A second visit to this wacky universe, where very feline adults with jobs, arguments in coffee shops and so on all have pet men, short little things that either lick or fight each other, get in the way when you're working, and come down with 'man flu' (which is a lot more serious than in our world, at least). There are even man sanctuaries for stray men, and when one is faced with closure the concerned cats decide to enter the man show and try for the top prize. Seeing as it's still clever and witty and good with the incidental detail, I felt a little underwhelmed by this book, even with the 'hang everything, we just have to perform to save our club!' shtick in full evidence. The cats seemed too interchangeable, and their bickering seemed too much a driver for the plot. In all, I don't think the whole way the world of Manfried and his human had been opened out to concern others is a great thing. A more insular, nuanced social commentary could have been had from the creature-swap. The books want an all-ages, sweeping drama, but I think something that showed us more of ourselves and less concern for page count requirements would have been better. Still, three and a half stars.

Major and Bastow have put out another endearing graphic novel about a world where cats are the people and men are the pets and I am happy to report that Manfried Saves the Day is just as charming as the previous book! The art is clean and cute, the plot is good, and the characters are great! Definitely recommended!