The Feline that got away-Cool Kat: AKA ORSON KATZ+A surprising connection(To my affinity to Cats and OMAHA)

No Fanart Fridays today.

Things in life just happen so I need a break.

In the meantime, How's about a nostalgia trip to one of my old Drawings.

This does take me back.

This wasn't my idea.

This was an idea made by someone I knew who's working at the 

Pacific Autism Family Network Community Centre near YVR Airport.

He asked me personally to create a concept for this comic strip featuring a cat named COOL CAT.

I also had my own say about such a basic premise.

You can't just create a one-dimensional character called COOL CAT and just call him that.

You need a backstory and a birthname.

So I came up with the name ORSON KATZ.

This is Orson Katz shown below.

(Pay no attention to the Fiery Sprinter wording above the Y-7 rating. 

I no longer use Fiery Sprinter name as my company. 

My Company is now MAVERICK MARTINEZ.)

Why two cats?

Well, the plan was to have the same cat with another persona called COP-OUT KING.

And the rat?

Well, I needed to create a mediator, 

sort of a Principal Skinner/Lamar Bone style kind of character who would at all odds discipline the main character but also bond with him as well.

The result, was Dr. James Norvegik.

He's a 2 year old Berkshire Rat

(Rat's don't live long so I need to be true to biology)
who's also half Ukrainian.

And he's a therapist.

However, the idea never got off the ground. 

Why you ask?

A multitude of problems I encountered from the start.

But let's simplify the problems so I can get this over with.

The problem was of course, the premise of the character, according to this description page this guy sent me:

This reeks of TUDE, a problematic personality trait that ensures that that's the only defining thing about the character which in turn risks turning or already made the character one-dimensional.

Had to use GEX because using Sonic would have been egregious.

Plus, Sonic has an all-around personality compared to GEX...

Unless you bribe the Gecko with both money and a suit with Glasses, 

and spy training from Pierce Brosnan.

Another reason for backing out of the ORSON KATZ comic was because of this sick Schmuck below:

Ladies and Gentleman, 

that tiger you see above is the infamous COOL CAT, voiced by Larry Storch.

He's from Looney Tunes' much maligned Seven-Arts era.

That Tiger above looks nothing like the staples of anything Looney Tunes.

That's because he comes from an infamous period in time when Depatie-Freleng Enterprises took over the Looney Tunes after retiring the rest of the classic characters.

The irony is that Looney Tunes was being taken by one of the original animators since the 1930s.

That being Friz Freleng.

"Pink Panther and Inspector Clouseau we are not!!!"

Anyway, everybody hated COOL CAT.

Fans and even the executives at Warner Bros. in the 1960s could not take this tiger anymore to the point that they don't even feature him as a staple in anything Looney Tunes related nowadays.

Barring his return to TV via the beloved MeTV Toons Channel 

as well as a purported cameo in TINY TOONS UNIVERSITY.

There are multiple reasons why ORSON KATZ never got off the ground but for the sake of this blogpost, I'm kind enough to simplify it to the two examples I described.

But this did give me experience with designing Anthropomorphic Animal Characters. 

Aside from the Designs above,

I also experimented with drawing my Cat MISO THE FELINE

And it's also a given I do this blogpost because of my interest in developing a Tv Series concept based on Reed Waller and Kate Worley's OMAHA THE CAT DANCER Comic from the mid-80s to 2013.

I don't know why but you can tell that I have affinities for Cats since I have my Miso to thank me for that since 2018 when I adopted her.

I don't know if I'll ever revisit the Orson Katz Concept in the future but if possible, I'd like to fix the issues that plagued me in 2019 and restart the concept but just with a greater control of the premise, as well as not be jinxed by the ghost of Larry Storch and his COOL CAT character he voiced in the mid to late 60s.