The first cats in cartoons and comics
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The first cartoon whose protagonist is undoubtedly a cat is KRAZY KAT, from 1916, a silent film of only 3 minutes entitled: Krazy Kat and Ignatz mouse at the circus.
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Unlike the comic book in which the genre of the cat is doubtful, in the film the cat is female. This jewel of animation was made by William Randolph Hearst and Hearst Vitagraph News Pictorial.
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A curious note is that both the words "Krazy" and "Kat" are actually written with the letter "C", this error was intended to highlight the absurdity of the character.
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The second cartoon of a cat would be by FELIX THE CAT, although in his first filmic appearance he had the name "Master Tom". The year of the film is 1919 and it lasts 4 minutes and 15 seconds and is entitled: Feline Follies.
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The silent film was directed by Otto Messmer, and was followed by another one in which he kept the same name, but in the third film (also from 1919), the cat already got its definitive name from Felix. Although Felix the cat was not the first cat to be featured in cartoons, he was the first cat to have more continuity in celluloid because Krazy Kat had a more sporadic tour. Felix the cat was also the first cat to use his image for marketing purposes.
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As a curious note, Felix's magic bag may have influenced other cartoonists, even across the ocean, I mean Doraemon, the Japanese robotic cat who also has his magic bag.
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The third and fourth cat were from the Walt Disney factory. Julius the Cat and Pete the Clubfoot, these cats were created before Mickey Mouse, and participate together in the silent animated film: Alice Solves the Puzzle, from 1925, a film that is characterized by mixing real characters with animated characters.
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If you see the film, you will notice that the cat Julius is very much like the cat Felix, this is because he wanted to take advantage of the fame of Felix to earn more money (the plagiarism of Kimba to make the lion king was not the first Disney made). Pete clubfoot, has a very different design to the current one, when you see hm for the first time looks like a bear instead of a cat.
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Now we'll talk about comic books
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The first cat in a comic book was Krazy Kat, his/her appearance dates from 1910 in sporadic drawings for the press and continuously since October 28, 1913. It was created by cartoonist George Herriman, and his drawings of the cat were published in the New York Evening Journal, thanks to the unconditional support of the newspaper's owner, William Randolph Hearst (who made the silent animated film), who was a fan of the character.
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Although cats appeared in comic books prior to Krazy Kat, such as the 1894 yellow Kid (the first among other things to use dialogue balloons), it was Krazy Kat, the first to be drawn as the protagonist. Other cats featured in the comic came many decades later as Heathcliff in 1973 and Garfield in 1978.
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Translation done with DeepL and myself, sorry for any grammar and punctuation errors, thank you.
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