''Le Chat'' (''Le Cat'' in English-language editions) is a Belgian comic strip, created by Philippe Geluck. Foremost published daily in the newspaper '' Le Soir'' from March 22, 1983, until March 23, 2013, it is since issued directly as complete albums. Right from the start, it quickly became one of the bestselling Franco-Belgian comics series and the mascot of ''Le Soir''. While virtually an icon in Francophone Belgium, he is far less well known in

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-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, la ...

Concept

''Le Chat'' is an adult, human-sized obese, anthropomorphic 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 '' Le Soir''. 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 appeared at Les Champs Libres in Rennes.

In popular culture

As part of the Brussels' Comic Book Route a wall in the Zuidlaan/Boulevard du Midi in Brussels was dedicated to "Le Chat" in August 1993. On October 11, 2008, Le Chat received his own market place in 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. In 2015, "Le Chat" received 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 # ''Le Chat déambule'', 2021

Sources

External links

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