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Apr 20

Norton: Loving the cats well before the intermawebs!Click for full image

GK Comments: As we all know, cats love eggs and shellfish.
Published 1989

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 6.58 out of 10)
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49 Responses to “Catfantastic”

  1. A.R.Yngve Says:

    The quote on that cover is so outrageously fanatical, so utterly devoid of truth (metaphorical and material), the cover art is so crazy… that this cover starts to suggest clinical schizophrenia.

    And there are darker, related examples. Just have a look at the sad decline of another cat-fixated artist… whose cat paintings gradually descended into virtually Lovecraftian madness (CAUTION! Disturbing art):
    http://www.cerebromente.org.br/gallery/gall_leonardo/fig1-a.htm

    See? It starts with “harmless” cats in human clothing, and ends with… crawling chaos. You have been warned! Cats are evil! Evilll!!!
    [OVERACTING]

  2. THX 1138 Says:

    Oh sure, try to fool us into believing cats can write with a quill – but you didn’t reckon on the cat writing on the wrong side of the envelope! What a giveaway!

  3. Power Hydrant Says:

    Kind of reminds me of this album cover. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bb/Klaxons-surfing-the-void.jpg/600px-Klaxons-surfing-the-void.jpg

  4. Alessandra Kelley Says:

    Oddly enough, I am less bothered by the weirdly realistic cat head sticking out of that early English Renaissance outfit than I am by the bizarrely outsized cat’s paws sticking out of the cuffs.

    In other words, a cat head stuck on an otherwise human body with human hands does not trouble me. But this … The cat head is so very realistic. Where do those paws come from? Why are they so big? How long are those forelegs? What is the shape of the creature under those clothes?

  5. Phil Says:

    Pigeons, fish, mice: you are not safe. It’s a cat, dammit! Run for your lives!

  6. Imani Says:

    What about font problems? My eyes are suffering here.

  7. Adam Roberts Says:

    How many chins does he have? Fat cat or what!

  8. Jaouad Says:

    Two words: opposable thumbs.

  9. fred Says:

    Cat goin’ down with heat stroke in about 5 minutes in that outfit.

  10. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    How much depth is there in this picture? Doesn’t Kitty rest her head against the shelf?

  11. Yuan Says:

    I’m reminded of a Hans Holbein painting. Could it be based on this? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Portrait_of_Georg_Gisze%2C_by_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger.jpg

  12. Jerk of all Trades Says:

    I keep thinking there’s some kind of otherworldly horror hiding beneath those clothes. It’s only through the greatest of coincidences that its head and one set of it’s pseudopods looks remotely like a kitty.

  13. NGpm Says:

    At the risk of drawing much ire … Kittyspeare asks, “I can haz kwill pen?”

  14. Elizabeth Says:

    Hans Holbien wants his portrait of a 16th C German merchant back
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Holbein,_Hans_-_Georg_Gisze,_a_German_merchant_in_London.jpg
    Gods knowing the original painting just makes that monstrosity that much worse – some artist actually sat down and thought that turning Georg Gisze into a cat was a good idea and not a huge case of WTFery

  15. Jerk of all Trades Says:

    Thank you, i couldn’t remember the name of the painting or the artist Catfantastic was ripping off. It was driving me nuts.

  16. Herm Says:

    Pretty awesome art homage, actually – but those paws, yeesh.

    I think I own another cat-related book by this Andre Norton chap. I’m not surprised. The feline conspurracy runs deep!

  17. Jonesey Says:

    That font has given me a migraine…

  18. Alessandra Kelley Says:

    @Herm: Andre Norton, a major fantasy author, was a woman who took a pseudonym because when she published her first novel in 1934 the feeling was that nobody would buy fantasy written by a woman.

    I don’t think she wrote anything about kitty cats.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Norton

  19. Herm Says:

    Cool, thanks Allesandra. I have an old, battered copy of Catseye from somewhere. Probably a candidate for this site, in fact – the cover is very pink… and cattish.

  20. Herm Says:

    *Alessandra. Sorry, I swear that was what I typed.

  21. Alessandra Kelley Says:

    Pink? Egads, that’s not even a book about cats.

  22. Stevie T Says:

    Dang! Someone beat me to posting this, Although I was going to enter all 5 volumes in a go. Yes, there are 5 of these lovely abominations out there. All of them have covers in which a classical portrait has the person replaced with a cat, to variously ludicrous effect. My personal favorite was vol. 3, where the cat is obviously going to a masque…with a cat mask.

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/0886775914/ref=dp_image_z_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

    In the books’ defense, they aren’t bad collections of short stories featuring cats. All science fiction or fantasy…And there isn’t a single story featuring cat people!! Which is almost unbelievable, but a nice change. Some of the cats talk, though.

    There being no cat people, however, makes the covers an even odder choice.

  23. Tom Noir Says:

    @Stevie T – if you think about it, going to a masqued ball as yourself is really a brilliant disguise. “Your cat mask is so life-like!”

  24. Rachel J Says:

    Somehow I can’t help imagining the next line of that cover quote must have been something *really* crazy…

  25. FearøfMusıc Says:

    Puts me in mind of my neighbors cat Hieronymouser Bosch. And yes that was his name. Til he was flattened by a mail truck.Silly cat couldn’t read but he was always expecting a postcard.

  26. Tag Wizard Says:

    “No, no, I wanted ‘shellfish,’ not something ‘shelf-ish.’ Look, just pop it in the front and be done with it.”

  27. anon Says:

    Fat cat Nasti C
    edited by
    Mr.Dre & Angreen ‘Hating’ Norberton

  28. L.B. Says:

    The font brought to you by too much catnip.

  29. A.R.Yngve Says:

    SPAYFANTASTIC

  30. GSS noob Says:

    Other than the font and giant paws, I’m okay with this. But then I wuv kitties.

    Norton wrote a classic short story featuring a cat (All Cats Are Gray), and a whole juvenile novel about cat people (Breed to Come). Also several books where a guy has a giant telepathic cat, probably some others. She liked the felines. Google her and you get a photo of her holding a rather handsome tuxedo beastie.

  31. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    I tawt I taw a puddy tat.

    *empties cache, hits refresh*

    I did! I did taw a puddy tat!

  32. GSS ex-noob Says:

    On this site, any random page is liable to get you a puddy tat, or at least a puddy tat person.

  33. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    @GSSyvester ex-noob: Yes, and there’s a conveniently placed hyperlink to test that hypothesis.

  34. GSS ex-noob Says:

    Not as many as I’d hoped, actually.

    Whole lotta cleavage, tho.

  35. RachelJ Says:

    Any clues as to the nature of this “sacred and secret” pact? Does it have anything to do with the sinister feline cabals depicted by Louis Wain in his “normal” period? (see link in A.R.Yngve’s first post). What really sent the man mad? And is there any connection with the Great Mermaid Conspiracy?

  36. Tom Noir Says:

    Meh. More like “Catadequate” if you ask me.

  37. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    @Tom: Well, let me ask you. Do you think that this is more ‘Catfantastic’, ‘Catadequate’ or ‘Catinsufficient’? Take your time. 😉

  38. Tom Noir Says:

    @DSWBT: Well I say it’s catpassable. Cattolerable. Catcompetent.

    At least it didn’t leave me catatonic.

  39. GSS ex-noob Says:

    Cat-equate, as it were.

  40. A.R.Yngve Says:

    I suspect that after a brief paws for thought, some truly godwaful puns are about to arrive…

  41. GSS ex-noob Says:

    Why would you purrdict that?

  42. classicOz Says:

    Don’t count your kittens before they are scratched…
    Before he eats he has to say amousing grace..
    You’ll get so many you will have to prepare a …ologue.
    If I try hard enough or post a lot more is there a chance one will be funny? (Rhetorical question)

  43. Noel Says:

    Well I for one am feline better. Concatulations. This site is pawsome!

  44. GSS ex-noob Says:

    Shouldn’t this have the “Cats!” tag now that it exists thanks to “Magicats!”

  45. Tor Mented Says:

    We gato stop making such puns. They should be a feliney offence.

  46. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @Tor: Not nekorarily.

  47. Tat Wood Says:

    @GSS ex-noob, Tor et al: enough of this chat.

  48. Tor Mented Says:

    @GGGxN: Well, if not a feliney, then at least a misdemeow.

  49. FluffyGhostKitten Says:

    @Alessandra Kelley: I know I’m a little late to the party, but I thought she wrote about very little else BUT cats. That and Native American stand-ins.

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