If by some strange happenstance you have never before seen a Kliban cat drawing, you will instantly recognize that each and every one of them captures the essence of…. cat. A well-established illustrator and cartoonist (Playboy, The New Yorker, Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head, et al) B. Kliban used to devote off-moments in his studio to drawing his felines Nitty, Norton, Burton Rustle and Noko Marie the Snake. An editor friend saw this work and convinced Kliban to let her take it publishers, and in 1975 Workman published CAT, a huge bestseller which inspired an outbreak of cat love that has not abated to this day. That groundbreaking book was followed by more books, and more drawings, which manifested on calendars, cards, mugs, ceramics, clothing – almost 9,000 unique items to date. And the book that started it all is still in print. Cat people of the world, rejoice -- and savor the twice-a-week pleasure of KLIBAN’S CATS.
Comic is updated on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
© Judith K. Kliban - All Rights Reserved.
Kliban by B. Kliban
The Knight Life by Keith Knight
Comments (28) (Please sign in to comment)
Nabuquduriuzhur said, 12 months ago
Mouse and Robin with catnip.
K.C. Fahel said, 11 months ago
Don’t forget the little fishies!
AshburnStadium said, 11 months ago
I have a cat named Willow Beth who likes pizza (and like Garfield, also likes lasagna – she has even been known to eat strawberry Pop-Tarts!).
I found her in an upside-down cat carrier dumped into a shallow creek off of WILLOW Park Rd. near BETHlehem, PA back in 2002 – I believe that she was about 3 years old at the time.
AshburnStadium said, 11 months ago
Willow is a black & white (not tuxedo) DSH with a marking on her face that looks remarkably like the numeral 4. Therefore, one of her nicknames is “4head”!
AshburnStadium said, 11 months ago
Willow Beth has also been corrupted into “wildebeest” as another of her nicknames.
T_Lexi said, 11 months ago
Bless you, dear, for being Willow’s saving angel!
StelBel
said, 11 months ago
@AshburnStadium
Funny how those name corruptions happen. We had a siamese cat many yrs. ago who started off being Figaro and and ended up being Newt (Figaro-Fig- Fig Newton-Newt) and that was the shortest progression! Many animals after him had 2 times more!
Glad you rescued her. Rescues make the best family members!!!
LafInLarry
said, 11 months ago
@AshburnStadium
Good story.
That’s Amy. She showed up one hot July day eating birdseed at the bird feeder. The picture above was taken the following February less than 5 minutes after the first time she consented to let me touch her.
Sitting on my chest is still one of her favorite things to do some 6+ years later. She got off there to go outside for a bit so I could type this (her idea).
Amy was named after an online friend and stray cat champion who died way too young while Amy was still resisting contact. The dead Amy may have given her a push.
Amy disdains all human food including pizza.
Rise22 said, 11 months ago
My baby, Wooden Pinto Bean, was a week-old kitten when found taped up in a box and left in the K-Mart parking lot. I’ve raised bottle babies before, so no biggie….but, now that he’s grown, he still crawls in my lap and sucks his ‘thumb.’ Precious!!!
rasalom said, 11 months ago
caterpillars!
Perkycat said, 11 months ago
Is Kliban’s cat celebrating Garfield’s birthday this month? My birthday is this month – so I celebrate with Garfield. Hmmm – pizza or lasagna?
LafInLarry
said, 11 months ago
I’ll also mention that when we took her to the vet for her initial checkup so we could let her in the house with the other cats, she was spayed. She wasn’t fully grown when she showed up. While it’s hard to imagine anyone getting a cat spayed and then dumping her (we see a bit of cat dumping* living out in the country) we’ll never know if she was a stray or dumped.
*one poor thing was so skinny, I wasn’t sure it’d live overnight so I could take it to a no kill shelter yet it wanted attention from me before it would eat.
AStarofDestiny said, 11 months ago
God bless each and every one of you who has saved/rescued a poor ‘throw away’! Ashburn, Larry, Rise22, you all are awesome. Larry, thanks for sharing the pic! Amy is adorable!
Rikkie Tavi said, 11 months ago
Yes-all hail the rescuers of cats – the good side of people shines through
BlueEyedCatMom said, 11 months ago
A handsome young yellow tabby showed up on our front porch last Friday and is still hanging around. I call him Romeo because 1) he’s just “roaming” the neighborhood and 2) he has fallen in love with my little girl kitty who he can see through the screen door. Squeaky loves the attention from him and the little hussy has been making goo-goo eyes at him. Her big brothers Buddy and Jack aren’t at all impressed with him since he’s so much smaller than them.