Le Chat (Le Cat in English-language editionsLe Chat, official website of Philippe Geluck.) 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.
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