that Power of Three was, among other things, the beginning of a new type of Warriors content:

supplemental material.

In between the releases of the main series books, the Erin Hunter team also began releasing

different, separate stories in various different mediums, and this is the first of those entries:

The Lost Warrior, the first third of Graystripe's Adventure, which itself is the first Warrior

Cats Manga.

Now, a few things may catch your ears there.

First of all, yes I am not mispeaking.

These were called mangas, right on the front of the book, and continued to be termed as

such for many years.

I couldn't tell you why.

These graphic novels were not made in Japan, weren't made by Japanese writers or artists,

and aren't drawn in any Japanese-esque style.

But this is what the Warriors comics were called for a long time, and you will often

hear older fans, myself included, referring to them as mangas, since that's what they

are known as at this point in our minds, along with what they are still called in some online

shopping and reviewing spaces.

Secondly, if you're a newer fan, you might be surprised to hear that this is only the

first third of Graystripe's story.

Well, in ye old days of Warriors' past, this was the only way you could get Graystripe's

and a few other mangas, as arcs of three comics each released several months apart.

While the colored rereleases that some of the arcs received were printed all as one

book, they were originally separate entities, and because I am working on this series chronologically,

I will only include the first third, as we were given it.

Speaking of chronology though…

The Lost Warrior came out on April 24th of 2007, the same day as The Sight.

While the story was plotted out by Vicky and the editing team as it usually was, the author

for this book was Dan Jolley (I apologize if that's a mispronunciation), and the illustrator

was a man named James L. Barry, who you just might have heard of before, as he has become

the main illustrator for the Warriors comics.

This book also begins with a quick little message from an anonymous Erin Hunter that

I suspect may be Victoria Holmes where they explain how exciting it is for them to have

Graystripe back, and in visual form, no-less.

They go on to praise the beautiful illustrations and action scenes and how the manga version

of Graystripe doesn't have to do as much thinking and can get his feelings across with

nothing but a brooding look at the camera.

Whatever your thoughts are on the resulting book, it is clear that this mystery Erin Hunter

was very happy with and proud of the product.

There are no allegiances for the mangas, but The Lost Warrior has a total distinct cast

of 16 cats, with various other unidentifiable cats speaking from time to time.

Between the shorter timeframe and the tighter stories the mangas tend to have, only 4 chapters

in this case, along with the number of random cats that can pop into the background to say

one line without ever identifying themselves, the named casts of these books will tend to

be much smaller.

This trend also makes it impossible for me to determine she-cat percentages, since we

never get to learn the genders of half of the unidentified background cast.

Since there are also far less lines, and a far shorter story, for both the mangas and

one other type of upcoming supplemental material, I will measure the percentage of lines from

the top 5 cats instead, and for The Lost Warrior, that is 93%.

The *vast* majority of those lines are Graystripe's, with Millie at a distant 2nd place and no

one else getting even 20 lines in this book.

This is definitely a farcry from any material we've dealt with before.

Even the making of this episode has been different.

Since I'm talking about a work that already is in a visual medium, rather than drawing

up a random scene from my head, I am drawing my own version of one of the comic panels:

this one.

Despite all the changes, this book does still have a plot, and is part of the Warriors world

like anything else, so let's get into the story.

We open with what technically counts as a prologue, despite not being labeled as such,

where we get a visual scene of the twolegs and their cranes tearing apart the forest,

with a reminder from Graystripe that this is his home.

We get to see, from his perspective, the moment in Dawn where he attacks a twoleg to distract

them and help all the captured cats escape at the cost of being captured himself as he

is trapped behind a cage in the monster.

Then we move to our first taste of completely new material with a dream Graystripe has about

the day he met Firestar, and then losing him and the whole of Thunderclan in the mists

and flames as he and his friend are torn apart, a metaphor of course for their current circumstances.

When he wakes up, he is in his twoleg nest, where he has been for at least a quarter-moon,

which is approximately a week.

Graystripe is still finding it appalling and impossible to believe or get used to, despite

his twolegs actually being quite kind, and him often enjoying their company and cuddles.

Even if it feels nice, it also feels deeply wrong for him to be stuck inside and away

from his clanmates.

When he sees a brief moment to escape out the door, he goes for it, and is stopped,

first by the twolegs not letting him go and then by the extreme number of new and intense

sights, sounds, and smells that overwhelm him as soon as he steps outside.

But soon enough he is able to stay in the backyard without much trouble.

When the two twoleg kits try to play with him using a mouse toy, he mistakes it for

a real meal, and when he realizes what's happening he tears it up in disgust, making

one of the children cry and the other get mad at him.

Graystripe feels bad for upsetting them, but desperately wants to get out, and so starts

exploring the neighborhood.

He is scared off by a dog, then a mean twoleg with a lawn mower, then by a monster, and

before he knows it his twolegs bring him back inside again.

At this point, the twolegs keep a tighter grip on him, not letting him outside and catching

him every time he tries to escape.

Graystripe responds by intentionally scratching up their curtains and stairway posts.

I am glad that his twolegs are so nice.

Anyway, he eventually manages to slip out, but gets lost in the endless trail of identical

suburban backyards until he is stopped by a local mean cat called Duke, who actually

manages to beat him.

Graystripe feels down on himself for losing to a kittypet, but another cat assures him

that it's all right, since no one has ever won against Duke.

This new cat is another, much nicer kittypet named Millie.

You might have heard of her before.

She offers to show Graystripe around and get him back to his house, since she's seen

him around and knows where his twolegs live.

That night, Graystripe has a dream where he meets Silverstream and Feathertail who tell

him that they, and Stormfur, are doing fine.

Then they leave, though they promise that they will always be with him.

This dream spurs Graystripe on to become more serious and systematic about his plans to

escape, the first step of which is sneaking out to meet Millie again and learn the layout

of the neighborhood.

However, two other cats tell Graystripe that Millie isn't around, and can't meet him.

They then ask if the rumors about Graystripe are true: if he used to be a forest cat who

ate bones.

Graystripe takes this opportunity to fiercely declare that, of course he ate bones, particularly

those of lazy kittypets like those in front of him.

Naturally the two cats are terrified and run away and Graystripe doesn't think this encounter

was as fun as he expected it to be.

All he's really feeling is lonely.

Cut to a few days later where Millie returns and explains that she was on vacation with

her twolegs.

She takes Graystripe into some woods outside the twolegplace where the now very-excited

gray tom shows her around and tells her all about Thunderclan.

Millie is enthralled by these stories, and asks Graystripe to teach her to hunt, then

fight.

Even though Graystripe is hesitant and unconvinced about her capabilities to match his skill,

he turns out to be miraculously surprised as Millie ends up being a really fast learner

and manages to catch a mouse and master some fighting moves in just the first day.

She doesn't lose interest either, instead becoming even more invested in Graystripe's

interesting life and skills.

They keep practicing together for several days, and on one of these days they are stopped

by Duke, who arrives with a couple of his lackeys…to scare them I suppose.

He doesn't have any other reason.

Millie is ready to leave the clearing to Duke immediately, but Graystripe declares that

a warrior would stand and fight, so as soon as he jumps in to attack, Millie turns and

joins him, and together they end up beating back Duke and his lackeys.

Millie is ecstatic that they did the impossible, but this battle filled Graystripe with memories

of battles in the forest, and he becomes brooding and sullen again as he realizes that this

little kittypet battle isn't a substitute for actually returning to his clan.

Millie tells Graystripe that she understands now, and that he belongs in the clans, but

Graystripe says that he can't, and doesn't even know if the clans exist anymore.

Millie is surprised that he's giving up, and Graystripe gets angry with her for assuming

anything about him.

Back in his twoleg nest, Graystripe gets another Silverstream dream and she tells him that

he is a Thunderclan warrior and that he already knows he must go back, essentially repeating

Millie's message with only one addition: Silverstream mentions that Graystripe may

already have the perfect traveling companion, which is Millie of course.

One of Graystripe's twoleg kits gently brings him downstairs and lets him outside, and Graystripe

even rubs up against his leg in thanks before he sets off for good.

He goes to find Millie and tells her that he is in fact going to find his clan, and

that he wants her to come with him.

Millie is shocked, and flattered, but she says no.

She likes her twolegs, she likes the twolegplace, and even if Graystripe's life is exciting

and she likes him, she can't just drop her whole life on a whim to pad after him.

Graystripe is sad but accepts her decision and leaves on his own.

Millie goes back inside to her very nice twoleg who is offering her a special treat at the

top of her own cat tree.

Around the house are tons of little toys and decorations and beds with Millie's name

on them that show just how loved Millie is in her house.

Millie doesn't know what she should do.

Back with Graystripe, he immediately got lost and is back to getting into danger and wandering

aimlessly around similar streets.

Ten days into his journey, and without many or any meals since he left, he collapses in

a car yard where he has a nightmare about all of his clanmates calling out to him.

But it turns out what he was hearing was Millie's voice as she found him.

Millie explains how tracking him, even with the skills she learned, was really difficult

since Graystripe had wandered around so randomly, and since it turns out he's been going in

circles.

Millie gets him some water and a mouse and then tells him she has decided to come with

him after all, because she wanted to be as loyal to Graystripe as Graystripe was to Thunderclan,

and because he's a cat she wants to share her life and path with.

Millie then asks Graystripe why he called her “Silverstream” when he was still delirious.

Graystripe tells her about his previous mate, and then they set out together, ready to start

their journey now that they have each other to rely on.

I am not a particularly skilled or dedicated artist.

That isn't my main job and I don't know much about it, at least not to the level where

I would feel right in heavily critiquing or teaching other artists.

As such, I won't spend much time in any of the mangas or graphic novels discussing

the art, but since this is a completely new medium, I want to say *something* about it.

Having art, especially with the expressiveness that James Barry uses, helps to get across

the feelings and intensity of scenes much quicker, and allows the story to skip over

any areas of long description for environments or cats' appearances and movements, along

with the continuous clarifications to who is speaking at any given moment.

It's an efficient form of storytelling from the readers' perspective, though of course

making this art takes much longer than just writing the equivalent story, and with the

physical size of art pieces in comparison to paragraphs, even a 300 page manga wouldn't

get across as much information or speed through as much plot as a 300 page book.

And for the record, this manga was 95 pages long.

It therefore couldn't possibly tell as vast or as long of a story as a main series book,

but I do have a couple small criticisms with how they spent their time, knowing how important

every panel was in the smaller space.

The story is a bit too circular and dragging, with a lot of the same elements repeating

over and over, and random filler sections like the first Silverstream and Feathertail

dream or the part where Millie is gone and Graystripe takes the time to scare two random