''Le Chat'' ( French for "the

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

") was a Belgian daily comic strip, created by

Philippe Geluck Philippe Geluck (born 7 May 1954 in Belgium) is a Belgian comedian, humorist, television writer and cartoonist, who sold more than 14 million albums worldwide. He studied at the INSAS (''Institut National Supérieur des Arts du Spectacle'', N ...

and published in the newspaper ''

Le Soir ''Le Soir'' (, "The Evening") is a French-language Belgian daily newspaper. Founded in 1887 by Emile Rossel, it was intended as a politically independent source of news. It is one of the most popular Francophone newspapers in Belgium, competing ...

'' from March 22, 1983, until March 23, 2013. During its run it quickly became one of the bestselling Franco-Belgian comics series and the

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

of ''

''. While virtually an icon in

Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...

he's far less well known in

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...

Concept

''Le Chat'' is an adult, human-sized obese,

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

cat who typically wears a suit. He always has the same physical expression. He often comes up with elaborate reasonings which lead to hilariously absurd conclusions e.g. by taking metaphors literally or by adding increasingly unlikely ''what-ifs'' to ordinary situations. One page in length, it appeared weekly in the "Victor" supplement of Belgian newspaper ''

''. For Le Chat's 20th anniversary in 2003, Le Soir allowed Geluck to illustrate that day's entire newspaper. An exhibition of Le Chat's history (and that of his creator), "Le Chat s'expose", was first held at the Autoworld Motor Museum in Brussels in Spring 2004, and has since toured Europe. In March–October 2006 it even appeared at Les Champs Libres in

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

In popular culture

As part of the

Brussels' Comic Book Route Brussels' Comic Book Route (or ''The comic strip route in Brussels'') is a path composed by several comic strip murals, which cover the walls of several buildings throughout the inner City of Brussels, as well as the neighborhoods of Laeken and Au ...

a wall in the Zuidlaan/Boulevard du Midi in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

was dedicated to "Le Chat" in August 1993. On October 11, 2008, Le Chat received his own market place in

Hotton Hotton (; wa, Houton) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium. The municipality lies 12 kilometers from Marche-en-Famenne in the Ardennes and has more than 5,400 inhabitants. The river Ourthe crosses Hotton. ...

in the Belgian province Luxembourg. A statue of him, sculpted by François Deboucq, was placed in the center, depicting him holding an umbrella which rains water down from inside. On July 3, 2015, it was announced that "Le Chat" would receive his own museum.

Bibliography

# ''Le Chat'', 2001 # ''Le Retour du Chat'', 2001 # ''La Vengeance du Chat'', 2002 # ''Le Quatrième Chat'', 2002 # ''Le Chat au Congo'', 2003 # ''Ma langue au Chat'', 2004 # ''Le Chat à Malibu'', 2005 # ''Le Chat 1999,9999'', 1999 # ''L'Avenir du Chat'', 1999 # ''Le Chat est content'', 2000 # ''L'Affaire le Chat'', 2001 (Available in English as "The Cat's travels" in 2010) # ''Et vous, chat va ?'', 2003 # ''Le Chat a encore frappé'', 2005 # ''La Marque du Chat'', 2007 # ''Une Vie de Chat'', 2008 # ''Le Chat, Acte XVI'', 2010 # ''Le Meilleur du Chat'', 1994 (Available in English as "God save the Cat" in 2008) # ''L'Excellent du Chat'', 1996 # ''Le Succulent du Chat'', 1999 # ''Entrechats'', 1999 # ''Le Top du Chat'', 2009 # ''La Rumba du Chat'', 2019 # ''Le Chat est parmi nous'', 2020

Sources

External links

Philippe Geluck's website
Belgian comic strips Bandes dessinées Belgian comics characters Fictional cats Anthropomorphic cats Comics about cats 1983 comics debuts 2013 comics endings Comics characters introduced in 1983 Mascots introduced in 1983 Gag cartoon comics Gag-a-day comics Satirical comics Fictional Belgian people Magazine mascots Male characters in comics Male characters in advertising {{FrancoBelgian-comics-stub