Comic Book Cats, number 147: Samurai Cat #1, cover painting by Mark E. Rogers, published by Epic / Marvel Comics in June 1991.
I recently discovered the three issue miniseries Samurai Cat that was published by Marvel under its creator-owned Epic imprint. The comic book was an adaptation of the 1984 humor / satire / fantasy book The Adventures of Samurai Cat by Mark E. Rogers. As per Wikipedia:
“Samurai Cat (aka Miaowara Tomokato) is the main character in a series of books by Mark Rogers. To accompany the anachronistic satire, almost every page in each book has a picture painted by Rogers, depicting the events described on that page. Each chapter is a bizarre parody of some historical or pop culture event, but the event is always treated as an entirely serious one. For example, no one finds it at all unusual that Tomokato is an upright, talking, sword-wielding cat.”
Rogers wrote six Samurai Cat books between 1980 and 1998, along with several other novels. Although the comic book was adaptation was done by others, Rogers himself provided the painted cover artwork for the three issue miniseries. Regrettably he passed away in February 2014 at the age of 61.
Tomorrow I’ll be taking a look at some interior pages from the Samurai Cat comic books.
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