As an anarchist cartoonist Donald Rooum has two crosses to carry. He has to face the normal cartoonists dilemma of incorporating a mood or idea in a few frames and as an anarchist cartoonist he needs to be able to encapsulate ideas in his comics that people have little familiarity with. The most successful cartoonists are those who are able to convey an idea or mood in one frame. Cartoonists who are able to carry this off successfully are normally part of a mass culture.

Few political cartoonists are able to cross cultural and national barriers. Rooum has attempted to overcome the problem of a cartoonist who is not part of a mass culture by developing a cast of regular comic strip characters who are able to carry an unfamiliar message to a mass audience. The revolting pussy cat WILD CAT is the central character in Rooum's comic strip. Donald normally uses anywhere between three to six separate frames to convey an idea. Wild Cat holds centre stage in the strip, the other characters are there to help sell the message.

Donald Rooum's comics are verbal as well as visual. His cast of characters appeals to peoples intellectual and visual senses. Freedom Press needs to be congratulated for incorporating some of Rooums more memorable contributions in Freedom as well as some comics specifically produced for the Twenty Year Millennium Wild Cat in this easy to handle, read and digest collection of Rooum's comics.

Rooum has successfully been able to create a comic strip that not only tackles the issues of the day but tackles them in a way that brings an anarchist analysis to what is happening. The only criticism that I'm able to make of Twenty Year Millennium Wild Cat is that you need to know what's going on in Britain to understand many of the comics. This criticism is leveled at the limitations of the medium the cartoon strip, rather than Donald Rooums handling of the medium.

Thanks to Freedom Press for providing me with the review copy of Twenty Year Millennium Wild Cat.

Freedom Press (in Angel Alley), 84b White Chapel High Street, LONDON. E17QX Britain.