Matt and the Cat: Difference between revisions

{{Comicinfo

|seriestitle=''Matt and the Cat''

|bgcol=#fffb00

|format=Half-page gag strip

|TFUKfinal=[[The Transformers issue 73|Issue 73]]}}

'''Space-age problems for a kid and his feline friend!'''

==History==

In March 1979, after several phone calls, cartoonist [[Mike Kazybrid|Mychailo Kazybrid]] met up with Mike Priestley and John Hewitt of the [[w:Telegraph & Argus|Bradford Telegraph & Argus]] to pitch a daily comic strip. Though the pitch was rejected, Hewitt was taken by a drawing in Kazybrid's portfolio of his then-two-year-old son, Matthew. If Kazybrid could adapt the drawing into a daily strip, Hewitt would accept it. Kazybrid did so in short order, and the first strip of this new comic, titled ''Matt'', ran in the newspaper on 18th April, 1979. With the strip centred around the existential ponderings of [[Matt]] and his young pals, as well as the bizarre exploits of his quirky bipedal cat, [[Humph]], the influence from ''[[w:Peanuts|Peanuts]]'' was obvious – though just as often, strips would instead facilitate plays on words or absurd slapstick. ''Matt'' ran in the Telegraph & Argus, and later the [[w:Manchester Evening News|Manchester Evening News]], until 1985.<ref>[https://kazybridscharactercreation.blogspot.com/2011/04/blast-from-past-matt-cartoon-strips.html "Blast from the Past: Matt cartoon strips 1979/85" on Mychailo Kazybrid's Character Creation]</ref><ref>[http://mychailokazybrid.blogspot.com/2007/01/early-days.html "The Early Days" on the Humph the Cat Blogspot]</ref>