Comic Book Cats, number three: American Flagg #10, written & drawn by Howard Chaykin, lettered by Ken Bruzenak and colored by Leslie Zahler, published by First Comics in July 1984.
I’m definitely a fan of Howard Chaykin’s dystopian political satire American Flagg! He did superb work on the series.
One of my favorite characters from the series is Raul, a talking orange tabby. Raul is both a source of comic relief and a close confidante to protagonist Reuben Flagg. At various times Raul makes sarcastic remarks, plays the piano, drinks himself silly, and operates heavily-armed attack helicopters.
Raul is such a very cat-like cat that I figured that Chaykin must have had at least one cat in real life. This was confirmed by Chaykin’s friend and occasional collaborator Don Cameron, who explained:
“Fun fact: Raul was based on a cat Howard had named Cochise who used to “mumble” all the time.”
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