Matt and the Cat: Difference between revisions
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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>
In 1984, Marvel UK's {{TF|Sheila_Cranna|Sheila Cranna}} accepted Kazybrid's humour strip into ''[[The Transformers]]''. In concession to the book's theme, Kazybrid's characters went on more space adventures with robots than they would in the newspaper. With Humph stepping into a larger protagonist role, this new incarnation of the comic was named '''''Matt and the Cat'''''.<ref>[http://mychailokazybrid.blogspot.com/2007/01/its-november-1984.html "It's November 1984..." on the Humph the Cat Blogspot]</ref> It was first published in [[The Transformers issue 5|issue 5]], and ran until [[The Transformers issue 73|issue 73]] in 1986, with only a few interruptions – though its last couple of strips provided something of an abrupt resolution, with several story threads left hanging. ''[[Robo-Capers]]'' shortly took over the half-page gag strip slot.
This was not the end
There's a missing puzzle piece here that we'll shortly get back to. First, we'll look at Kazybrid's second Transforce appearance in 2001. That year's magazine, ''{{TF|Alignment|Alignment}}'' Book 1, included another strip focussed on Humph's adventures.<ref>[https://groups.google.com/g/alt.toys.transformers/c/RmjT-MyMAM8/m/UmsUcYH5pjwJ (Convention) Transforce 2001 Report already! - possible spoilers for the magazine on alt.toys.transformers]</ref> Much more in line with its form of publication, this story featured Humph actually ''at'' the Transforce convention – or did it? With Humph revealed to still be in the clutches of the [[Slave-Master]], readers were encouraged to go to the Humph the Cat website to find out more.<ref>[https://twitter.com/mellowshade/status/1797363763592437937 Humph the Cat's ''Alignment'' strip, courtesy of mellowshade on twitter]</ref>
Which brings us back to that missing piece. In August 2000, Transforce organiser Paul Cannon took to alt.toys.transformers to advertise his new "official" ''Humph the Cat'' website featuring a new story: "This is not the story featured in the Transforce magazine," – i.e., not "Humph the Cat in Shefferham".<ref name=goog>[https://groups.google.com/g/alt.toys.transformers/c/qy27g9PZCEQ/m/ARnAxgNJXm8J "(UK COMIC) Humph the Cat, a new strip" on alt.toys.transformers]</ref> A panel from the "Shefferham" strip ''was'' used to advertise the subsite on the revamped main page of the Transforce website in late 2000.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20000915080802/http://www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk:80/primus/comics.htm Transforce: The home of UK Transformers and Beast Wars (archived, 2000)]</ref> The text on the ''Humph the Cat'' website references a four page appearance in ''Do-Do Man'' issue 4 before being "pleased to offer just a taste" of the Humph-centric storyline due to appear in ''Do-Do Man'' issue 5.<ref name=humphweb>[https://web.archive.org/web/20010708134320/http://www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk/primus/humph.htm Transforce's ''Humph the Cat'' website (archived)]</ref> ''Do-Do Man'' issue 5 does not appear to have actually been published,<ref>[https://kazybridscharactercreation.blogspot.com/2011/01/do-do-man-issue-4.html "Do-Do Man issue 4"], [https://kazybridscharactercreation.blogspot.com/2011/04/do-do-man-cover-artwork-for-mobile.html "Do-Do Man cover artwork for mobile phone strips"], and [https://kazybridscharactercreation.blogspot.com/2011/05/do-do-man-series-1.html "Do-Do Man the series #1"] on Mychailo Kazybrid's Character Creation. Note that the four published issues were preceded by [https://kazybridscharactercreation.blogspot.com/2011/01/do-do-man-limited-edition.html a stand-alone limited edition], explaining references made to "all five published issues".</ref> and archives of the ''Humph'' website have not retained any images,<ref name=humphweb/> so exactly what was published on it is entirely up to speculation.
So here's the speculation: the 2000 Transforce mag included an interview with Kazybrid, conducted by Paul Cannon, in which he revealed that, after two abortive attempts to produce a ''Matt and the Cat'' graphic novel, a new story was being put together featuring "old favourites" such as [[Olia-cym]], [[Digbeth]], and the Slave-Master. Cannon's mid-2000 a.t.t. post mentioned that the ''Humph'' web comic would feature "familiar faces [cropping up] from past Transformers comics".<ref name=goog/> It seems likely that the ''Humph the Cat'' website featured at least some of the 23-page sequel story that Kazybrid would publish on his blog in 2010,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130504040529/http://mychailokazybrid.blogspot.com/ Humph the Cat Blogspot (archived, 2013)]</ref> which did indeed feature several familiar faces (as seen in these freely available pages<ref>[https://kazybridscharactercreation.blogspot.com/2011/01/humph-cat-page-5.html Page 5] and [https://kazybridscharactercreation.blogspot.com/2011/01/humph-cat-page-6.html page 6] on Mychailo Kazybrid's Character Creation</ref>) and follow up on the cliffhanger in the 2001 Transforce mag... though this does make the comment about ''Do-Do'' man issue 5 crossover to be a bit of an enigma. By 2015, the story was removed from Kazybrid's blog;<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150720205441/http://mychailokazybrid.blogspot.com/ Humph the Cat Blogspot (archived, 2015)]</ref> it saw a more prestigious publication, colourised by Kazybrid's partner Sarah Sier (and chopped into A5 landscape pages), in volumes [https://www.acesweekly.co.uk/vol17-issue1 17] and [https://www.acesweekly.co.uk/vol18-issue1 18] of [https://www.acesweekly.co.uk/home-aces ''Aces Weekly''], a digital comics anthology series established by [[w:David Lloyd (comics)|David Lloyd]]. Kazybrid frequently contributes other strips to ''Aces Weekly'', so we can once again only speculate if Humph will cause havoc once more on the printed (digital) page...!
==''Matt and the Cat'' strips in TFUK==
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