Author(s): Kim Deitch

GRAPHIC NOVEL

At the centre of "Alias the Cat" are Kim Deitch and his wife Pam - a passionate collector of Halloween cats from the 1920s and 30s. But when she buys a mysterious old cat costume, she and Kim find themselves in wholly new territory: the lost world of "Alias the Cat", who, in 1915, appeared not only in a comic strip and film serial, but in real life as a freedom-fighting superhero.When Kim begins to research this forgotten figure, he uncovers one almost unbelievable story after another: about the Furries, a tiny subculture of people who dress up as cartoon animals in order to have sex; about Keller and Frankie, two seamen stranded on a Pacific island, forced to make cat toys to appease the natives; about the secret lover of Alias' alter ego, Malek Janochek; and, of course, about Deitch's own "Waldo the Cat", the common thread weaving the stories together as Kim and Pam move toward a fateful showdown in Midgetville...New Jersey, of course. "Alias the Cat" is Kim Deitch at his eye-catching, mind-bending best.