''Le Chat'' (''Le Cat'' in English-language editions) is a Belgian 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. His best-known work is the comic strip ''Le Chat'' (''Le Cat ...

. Foremost published daily in the newspaper ''

Le Soir ''Le Soir'' (, ) is a French-language Belgian daily newspaper. Founded in 1887 by Émile Rossel, it was intended as a politically independent source of news. Together with '' La Libre Belgique'', it is one of the most popular Francophone newsp ...

'' 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 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, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

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 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 to ...

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 appeared at Les Champs Libres in

Rennes Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...

In popular culture

As part of the

Brussels' Comic Book Route Brussels' Comic Book Route (; ) 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 neighbourhoods of Laeken and Auderghem. The large comic strip mur ...

a wall in the Zuidlaan/Boulevard du Midi in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

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

Hotton Hotton (; ) 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. The mun ...

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