Cat & Ghost

A Short Wordless Graphic Novel

This time every year I’m gripped by the strange desire: the desire to make a spooky Halloween book.

I’ve drawn a few haunted house comics. I’ve drawn even more cat comics. But I’ve failed to make a picture book on either theme. The closest I’ve come was my first picture book, WHAT COLOR IS NIGHT?, which focuses on the wondrous qualities of the dark, not the creepy ones.

CAT & GHOST, the short graphic novel/picture book draft I’m sharing today, was inspired by the Father Christmas books by Raymond Briggs and BOW WOW’S NIGHTMARE NEIGHBORS by Megan Cash and Mark Newgarden.

The comics of Raymond Briggs are groundbreaking and intricately crafted. They have few words, brilliant illustrations, and a warm sense of humor often tinged with sadness. Are they picture books? Are they graphic novels? Are they for kids or grownups? Either way, they’re way ahead of their time.

BOW WOW’S NIGHTMARE NEIGHBORS is spooky, funny, and trippy. It’s a surreal silent comic drawn in the precise style of the classic strip Nancy. It’s the kind of book that makes a lifelong cartoonist think, I wish I could do THAT.

The setting for my story came mostly from my sketchbook. I wandered the College Hill neighborhood of Wichita, Kansas, full of picturesque 1920s-1940s era homes, and imagined a wild ghost pursued by curious cat.

CAT & GHOST was a fun exercise in the silent comics style, though I don’t think I nailed the visuals in this rough sketch dummy. Would words help the story? I’m not sure. Would a more visually rich technique (watercolor, for instance) better suit the idea? Probably.

Still, I think the silent picture book/silent film connection is a strong one. And now I have the perfect name for the stoic, slapstick feline character: Buster Kitten.