Comics display incredible feats of artistry, storytelling, and imagination. Some are funny, others provide cutting social commentary, and there are also superhero comics designed to delight children. When it comes to cats in comics, there are more than one might expect; they appear as everything from feline sidekicks to main characters.
If you’re a cat-loving fan of comics, you may wonder where to get your next fix; if so, we have you covered. Keep reading for a quick run-down of 15 amazing comic book cats to provide a bit of inspiration.
The 15 Amazing Comic Book Cats
1. Alley-Kat-Abra
| Creator: | Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw |
| Comic: | Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! |
Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! follows the adventures of a group of animal superheroes. The characters first appeared in an edition of The New Teen Titans in the early 1980s.
The series was eventually canceled after the publication of just a few issues. Alley-Kat-Abra, also known as Felina Furr, is originally from Mew Orleans and is a master martial artist who has a magic wand that allows her to cast spells, teleport, and levitate.
2. Streaky the Supercat
| Creator: | Jim Money and Jerry Sigel |
| Comic: | Action Comic |
Streaky the Supercat is Supergirl’s pet. Exposure to kryptonite endowed him with various powers, including superhero-level strength, out-of-this-world speed, and the ability to fly.
The red cat with a white lightning bolt on his side first appeared in an Action Comic edition in the 1960s. He was later involved in the Legion of Super-Pets and has appeared in various DC Comic plot-lines over the years. More recent cats named Streaky haven’t had superpowers.
3. Chewy
| Creator: | Roberto De la Torre and Brian Reed |
| Comic: | Captain Marvel |
Chewy is Carol Danver’s orange tabby companion, but it turns out that the cat is an alien who can lay eggs. However, it takes a few years for her alien nature to be revealed. The cat is named after Chewbacca of Star Wars fame. In the Captain Marvel movies, she’s called Goose, in honor of the popular character played by Anthony Edwards in the movie Top Gun.
4. Dex Starr
| Creator: | Geoff Johns and Shane Davis |
| Comic: | Red Lantern Series |
Dex-Starr is a blue cat adopted by a friendly Brooklynite. He suffers a series of tragedies, including witnessing the death of the human to whom he was deeply attached.
The cat received his power ring and became a member of the Red Lantern Corps after being thrown from a bridge, and he tends to be a bit on the cruel side, as many of his activities center around seeking revenge for the death of his beloved owner. Dex-Starr’s Red Lantern Ring allows him to create force fields, project energy, and fly.
5. Garfield
| Creator: | Jim David |
| Comic: | Garfield |
Garfield is a chubby orange cat with oversized yellow whiskers. He’s owned by John Arbuckle and is known for his love of lasagna. He’s particularly lazy and has strong opinions about dieting and Mondays, which he hates.
Garfield is proudly lazy and inclined to sarcasm. He also has a girlfriend, Arlene, an adorable pink cat. Most of the comic’s storylines center around the trials and tribulations visited upon the cat by his owner, Jon, and Jon’s dog, Odie. Garfield appeared in a few Blondie strips in crossover storylines.
6. Hobbes
| Creator: | Bill Watterson |
| Comic: | Calvin and Hobbes |
Calvin and Hobbes was a comic strip that ran in newspapers worldwide between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s. It follows the adventures of Calvin, a 6-year-old boy, and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes, as they navigate life in an unnamed suburb in the United States.
Calvin generally spends his days annoying his parents and pestering his neighbor. Hobbes appears alive to Calvin, with whom he regularly interacts, but he’s only a stuffed tiger to everyone else.
7. Puss
| Creator: | John Geering |
| Comic: | Puss and Boots |
Puss and Boots first appeared in the late 1960s in the United Kingdom, and it features a black cat named Puss and a dog named Dog who spend most of their time fighting and tricking each other.
Both Puss and Dog are depicted as human-like; they spend lots of time yelling at each other and getting into arguments. The strip’s title is a nod to the European fairytale of the same name about a cat who uses his wits and a few less-than-honest ruses to help his owner out of various situations.
8. Luna
| Creator: | Naoko Takeuchi |
| Comic: | Sailor Moon |
Luna is a black cat with a half-moon on her forehead who plays a central role in the Sailor Moon manga series. She shows up early in the action and advises Usagi Tsukino that she’s Sailor Moon.
At one point in the past, Luna served Princess Serenity. She was sent along with a white cat named Artemis to guide the Sailor Guardians during their Earth-born lives. Luna can call items into existence for the Sailor Guardians, make the moon on her forehead glow, and speak.
9. Salem Saberhagen
| Creator: | George Gladir and Dan DeCarlo |
| Comic: | Archie’s Madhouse and Sabrina the Teenage Witch |
Salem Saberhagen appears in various Sabrina the Teenage Witch comics. He used to be a human witch but was sentenced to live as a cat for a century due to various misdeeds. In earlier editions, Salem’s mostly black fur is set off by his white face; he also wears a red collar with an ID tag bearing his first initial. He’s played by a black cat in the 1990s sitcom inspired by the comic, during which he spends lots of time plotting and trying to find ways to shorten his sentence and return to life as a human.
10. Lying Cat
| Creator: | Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples |
| Comic: | Saga |
Lying Cat has large ears, bluish-green skin, and gorgeous yellow eyes. The Saga series first appeared in the early 2010s and follows the lives of two star-crossed lovers amid a war between two worlds.
Lying Cat hangs out with The Will, a bounty hunter sent to pursue the lovers. She can immediately sniff out lies, to which she responds with the phrase “Lying” or by growling.
11. John Blackstad
| Creator: | Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido |
| Comic: | Blackstad |
Blackstad is a dark comic series with plot lines that unfold during the 1950s in the United States that features an entirely anthropomorphic cast. John Blackstad is a cat who makes a living as a private investigator.
He grew up on the rough side and was active as a soldier during World War II. The series follows the cat’s adventures solving crimes in contexts like the Red Scare that gripped the United States in the 1950s. The comic’s creators won an Eisner Award for their work.
12. Bill the Cat
| Creator: | Berkeley Breathed |
| Comic: | Bloom County, Outland, and Opus |
Bill the Cat appears in several of Berkeley Breathed’s works, but he debuted in Bloom County in the 1980s. Bill grows up in Iowa and moves to the Big Apple with dreams of stardom, after which he becomes involved in various adventures, including a few stabs at becoming president and running off to join a cult. Breathed won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning for the strip.
13. Heathcliff
| Creator: | George Gately |
| Comic: | Healthcliff |
Heathcliff is an orange cat with black stripes who stars in George Gately’s famous 1970s comic strip. He lives with an older couple and their grandchild and spends most of his time engaging with local merchants and animals.
After the strip’s original creator died, Peter Gallager took over the artistic honors. Animated TV series inspired by the comic were later produced in the 1980s. Heathcliff: The Movie hit the silver screen around the same time, and there are even a few video games with the comic book cat as the main character.
14. Krazy Kat
| Creator: | George Herriman |
| Comic: | Krazy Kat or Krazy & Ignatz |
Krazy Kat is a happy soul who enjoys life in a town in the southwest of the United States. He’s in love with Ignatz Mouse, who regularly tires of the cat’s gullibility. Ignatz regularly throws bricks at Krazy Kat during the series’ earlier years but eventually becomes nicer.
The strip appeared for the first time in the early 1910s and was a fixture in newspapers for several decades after that. It’s often considered one of the genre’s absolute classic works.
15. Kuro
| Creator: | Naoki Yokouchi |
| Comic: | Cyborg Kuro-chan |
Kuro is a cyborg cat who appears in a series of manga volumes for children. The plot follows the adventures of a cat who is kidnapped and turned into a cyborg, complete with super strength and computer chips.
Kuro escapes from his captors and disables the computer chip implanted to control him. As a result of his adventures while kidnapped, Kuro can walk on two feet and speak. He spends most of his time keeping his beloved humans safe and battling with his former kidnappers.
Conclusion
So, there you have it: 15 fun options to peruse if you’re looking for comics featuring cats. Cats have appeared in comic books and strips for years, and there are many options to consider, including fun, lighthearted choices, manga for children, and serious social commentary. Many of the most famous comic book cats have made the jump to other media and can be found as characters in TV shows and video games.
Featured Image Credit: Anton27, Shutterstock
