''King-Cat Comics and Stories'' is a long-running,

photocopied A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopiers u ...

mini-comic A minicomic is a creator-published comic book, often photocopied and stapled or with a handmade binding. In the United Kingdom and Europe the term small press comic is equivalent with minicomic, reserved for those publications measuring A6 (105& ...

series, authored and self-published by

John Porcellino John Porcellino (born September 18, 1968, in Chicago, Illinois) is a popular creator of minicomics. Porcellino's self-published, photocopied, mostly autobiographical series ''King-Cat Comics'' is among the best-known and longest-running minicomic ...

. It is among the longest continually-published mini comics in existence.

Publication history

Porcellino (publishing under the moniker Spit and a Half) began producing ''King-Cat'' in 1989. (The title of ''King-Cat'' comes from the

Beat Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ( ...

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

"Sometime During Eternity", by

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. The author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, an ...

,Ferlinghetti, Lawrence
"Sometime During Eternity"
PoemHunter.com. Accessed Dec. 18, 2012. which Porcellino reprinted in an issue. In the poem,

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

is referred to as the "king cat".) Content-wise, ''King-Cat'' has evolved considerably over the years: through the mid-1990s, Porcellino's stories were much more angry and humorous, with a punk rock sensibility. A popular, ongoing feature was "Trail Watch", where Porcellino affectionately criticized the various drawing and story peculiarities in the syndicated

Mark Trail ''Mark Trail'' is a newspaper comic strip created by the American cartoonist Ed Dodd. Introduced April 15, 1946, the strip centers on environmental and ecological themes. As of 2020, King Features syndicated the strip to "nearly 150 newspaper ...

comic strip. Porcellino also did an entire issue chronicling his (fictional) romantic relationship with

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

, and did a series of strips following the adventures of "Racky Racoon", a

slacker A slacker is someone who habitually avoids work or lacks work ethic. Origin According to different sources, the term ''slacker'' dates back to about 1790 or 1898. "Slacker" gained some recognition during the British Gezira Scheme in the early t ...

-ish animal who works at a series of dead-end jobs and likes to get drunk. But mixed in with these stories there were always more quiet, melancholy or philosophical stories, and as the years went on these stories increasingly took over the book. (Porcellino developed a strong interest in

zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

, and he began creating very zen-like stories reflecting on the transient nature of life and sometimes recounting tales of various zen masters or illustrating ancient zen

koans A (; , ; ko, 화두, ; vi, công án) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement which is used in Zen practice to provoke the "great doubt" and to practice or test a student's progress in Zen. Etymology The Japanese term is the Sino-Jap ...

.) These stories alienated Porcellino's old fans who had enjoyed the humorous elements of his work, but they won him a new audience. ''King-Cat's''

letter column A comic book letter column is a section of an American comic book where readers' letters to the publisher appear. Comic book letter columns are also commonly referred to as letter columns (or lettercols), letter pages, letters of comment (LOCs), or ...

is titled "Catcalls". As of February 2022, Porcellino had published 81 issues of ''King-Cat'' (an average of three issues per year).

Collections

La Mano,

Zak Sally Zak Sally is an American musician and comic artist. He was the bass guitarist for the bands Low (1995 to 2004) and Enemymine (1998 to 2000) and is the singer and guitar player in The Hand. Sally is from Duluth, Minnesota, and owns and operates ...

's publishing venture, released Porcellino's ''Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man'' in 2005, collecting various ''King-Cat'' stories about Porcellino's experiences as a pest control worker. The book won the 2005 Outstanding Anthology or Collection

Ignatz Award The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping a ...

, presented at the 2005

Small Press Expo The Small Press Expo (SPX) is an American alternative comics convention. A registered 501(c)(3) that was created in 1994, every year since its inception, SPX has put on a festival, known as The Expo, that provides a forum for artists, writers and ...

in Bethesda, MD. Another collection, ''Perfect Example'', was released in 2005 by

Drawn & Quarterly Drawn & Quarterly is a publishing company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, specializing in comics. It publishes primarily comic books, graphic novels and comic strip collections. The books it publishes are noted for their artistic content, ...

. ''Perfect Example'' focused on stories of Porcellino's final days of high school and the following summer in

Hoffman Estates, Illinois Hoffman Estates is a village in Illinois, United States. The village is located primarily in Cook County, with a small section in Kane County. It is a suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 52,530. The village now serves a ...

. Drawn & Quarterly released the 320-page collection ''King-Cat Classix'' in 2007. The 2009 collection, ''Map of My Heart'', published by Drawn & Quarterly, collected material from ''King-Cat'' in celebration of the title's twentieth anniversary. Translations of ''King-Cat Comics'' have been published in French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Italian, and Korean.

References

External links

*
Porcellino page at lambiek.net

2006 Podcast interview with the creator of King-Cat Comics, John Porcellino
{{DEFAULTSORT:King-Cat Comics American comics titles Minicomics