Felix the Cat

In 1919, the world was introduced to “Master Tom,” in the silent cartoon Feline Follies. Three films later, he would be re-named Felix and quickly became the world’s first popular cartoon animal. Pat Sulivan, owner of Sulivan Studios that created Felix, was wildly successful. Due to Sulivan’s lack of interest in creating “talkies,” the silent Felix films would be surpassed by the sound films of Disney and other cartoon companies. Alcoholism, depression and general disorganization would lead to the company’s downfall and his early death at 47 in 1933. Otto Messmer, an artist at Sulivan Studios (and possible actual creator of Felix,) would carry the torch. He, with a couple ghost writers, would write and draw all of the newspaper strips and comic book material for the next 30+ years.

The first Felix newspaper comic strip appeared on Aug. 1st, 1923 in England’s Daily Sketch. These were penciled and inked by Otto Messmer. They would be published in America on Aug. 19th, re-inked (for some reason) by Pat Sulivan.

This is where his comic origins begin. Depending on your definition of a “first appearance,” Felix gets a little messy. Even CGC does not have a solid notation. Having various platnium age formats makes it even more difficult. Let’s explore his published history.

Felix v.2, 1. November 1962. Published by Dell.

Felix 1. Magazine Management (UK) August 1956. Also published in Australia by Junior Readers Press.

Felix the Cat 62. August 1955. Depite the numbering, this is the first Harvey issue of Felix.

Felix the Cat 1. Feb/Mar. Published by Toby/Dell 1948. Original comic stories by Otto Messmer. First American on-going series.

Felix 1. January, 1948 by Elmsdale Publication in Australia. Issue one is undocumented. The photo below is issue 2 from Feb, 1948. Ran for 82 issues until 1954. Collected newspaper strips.

Four Color v.2 119. September 1946. First published original comic book material. Written and drawn by Otto Messmer. A very underrated key book in my opinion.

New Funnies 66 (issue 2.) August 1942. Re-publishes newspaper strips.

Four Color v.2, 15. August 1942. Re-publishes Otto Messmer’s newspaper strips from 1935. The first American “floppy” Felix titled comic. This seems to be considered thee book to own by current market standards.

The Adventures of Felix 1. Published in Australia, April 1938 by Fitchett Brothers pty. ltd. Collects the syndicated newspaper strips. This series is incredibly scarce and no photo of issue 1 is known. This is issue 2. They did at least 39 issues dating till possibly June of 1941.

Kis Szinhazi 1938, month unknown. Published in Hungary. Could be earlier issues as I can find no other referrence to this series anywhere.

Here is an interesting cover of Paquito published in Mexico, 1936. They published Felix strips in later issues for sure. I don’t have a copy of this or any other issue this early to confirm what’s inside. Felix is clearly featured on the cover here though.

Felix The Cat (Big Little Book). Published by Whitman, 1936 US. Based off the strips. Text story with illustrations.

Felix The Cat. Published by McLoughlin Bros. in 1932, US. This is a bridged edition of their 1927 “Felix The Cat Book.” This format is square, floppy and stapled. Resembles a modern comic. Contains 8 newspaper strips.

Felix Le Chat 1931, France. Collects newspaper strips.

Felix. Published in the US, 1931. Very rare. Described as “hardcover comic.” I assume it collects strips as there is no mention of original material anywhere before Otto Messmer’s Dell comics.

Felix The Cat Book. McLoughlin Bros. 1927. This is the first American Felix book. Oblong and appears to be hardcover (I have not held one of these.) Definately a platnium age style book. Reprints the newspaper strips.

The Felix Annual, UK. Hardcover collecting the first year of the strips. This book is undated but it is the first of their Felix Annuals. The Comic Book Price Guide for Great Britian says “The first annual came out around September 1923 but is regarded as a 1924 annual.” A collector shared a photo of an inscribed copy dated “1924,” so we can assume it is at least that old. I believe this to be the first time Felix comics were published outside the newspapers. If anyone knows of anything earlier, I would love to see. Thanks to “Beige” on the CGC messageboards, and a very special thanks to Margaret for dating this book.