Calculus Cat collected

Published in time for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival last week was Hunt Emerson's Calculus Cat, a smartly produced A4 book consisting of 112 pages collecting all of his strips of the aforementioned moggy and new material to boot!

The book was funded through Kickstarter, as I mentioned here back in June, and managed to reach its target of £10,000 thanks to 338 backers. The standard edition is in paperback, but those who pledged over £20 received a limited hardback edition. 

I've been a fan of Hunt's work since the 1970s when I first saw his strips in the underground comics produced by the Birmingham Arts Lab. His distinctively energetic, surreal, and genuinely funny work raises the spirits and is pure comics. This collection of Calculus Cat strips, ranging back over 30 years and including brand new material, is a prime example of Hunt's best humour work. What is also evident is how Hunt has mastered the art of black and white comics. No colour is necessary; this is superbly balanced work. 

To add a bonus to the volume, Hunt invited a bunch of us comic types to contribute our own spin on Calculus Cat for a gallery section in the back of the book. My own humble effort is there and I'm proud to share pages with such great talents as Kevin O'Neill, Gilbert Shelton, Dave McKean, Graham Higgins, Roger Langridge, Phil Elliott, Kate Charlsworth, Steve Pugh and many more.

Calculus Cat is published by Knockabout and is available to buy now.

Directly from Hunt Emerson:
http://largecow.com/shop/books/calculus-cat 

From Knockabout books:
http://www.knockabout.com/featured/calculus-cat-by-hunt-emerson/

or from Knockabout's eBay store:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CALCULUS-CAT-Hunt-Emerson-/201200904836?pt=UK_Books_Comics_Magazines_US_Comics_ET&hash=item2ed8822a84

Support the Cat!

There's only a few days to go to help Hunt Emerson reach his Kickstarter target to publish a new collected edition of his brilliant Calculus Cat comic strips. The required amount of £10,000 is almost there, but not quite! It'd be a shame for the project to fall short. After all, this is Hunt Emerson, - a cartoon genius who has been entertaining us with his work for around 40 years! 

As well as the existing Calculus Cat strips, there's also stuff that has never been printed before, plus extra guest pages by various artists. (Including me, but don't let that put you off.) So let's get behind this project and make the book become a reality. 

You can pledge whatever amount you choose here, at Hunt's Kickstarter page:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1436027074/calculus-cat

Remember, no one will be charged if the project doesn't meet its goal, and if it does reach its target you'll only have a few months to wait before the book is published, so you can't lose! 

UPDATE 30/6/2014: I'm pleased to see that Hunt has reached his target so the book will definitely be published! 

Calculus Cat Kickstarter Campaign

Hunt Emerson is without a doubt the most brilliant cartoonist in the universe. Even though we haven't explored the universe yet and we don't know if there are eight-armed octo-toonists out there with 4-D pens dipped in funny ink. Hunt would still come tops anyway. 

If you're only aware of Hunt's work through his current strips for The Beano and Fortean Times you've only sampled a smidgen of the man's talent. One of his greatest creations was Calculus Cat, which first appeared in the 1980s in comic mags such as Escape. A collection of those strips, entitled Death to Television, was published by Knockabout years ago but is long out of print. Now, Knockabout want to produce a new edition, and they'd like our help. 

There's a Kickstarter campaign up and running where people can pledge their money to get this brilliant book back into print. There's a series of incentives for pledges, starting at £5 for a digital copy increasing to more for the paperback, hardback, and numerous extras. 

You can find out more about Calculus Cat and this campaign, including a short video from Hunt himself, at this address:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1436027074/calculus-cat

Let's get Calculus Cat back in print!