Jan 17th 2012 08:22 am le Chat Violet

Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"
When I drew this cartoon in 2005, I was a guest of La Maison des Auteurs in Angoulême, France. “The House of Authors” is sort of a residency program connected to, um, a cartoon school there, that, uh… well, it gets complicated as only French things can. No one associated with the various institutions could explain it all to me exactly. Of course, it didn’t help that I did not speak French, but were they ever good to me! I had a wonderful two months there.

My French friends are, as I write this, gearing up for the 2012 version of The International Comic Strip Festival (loosely translated), one of the world’s best comic festivals, held every January in Angoulême. I wish we were there!

This cartoon actually was inspired by one of my favorite cafes in Angoulême. The original Chat Noir in Paris has been gone for more than 100 years, and today it is remembered more for its iconic black cat logo by Théophile Alexandre Steinlen than anything. We still were selling a ton of those posters when I worked in the college bookstore.

Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J

23 Responses to “le Chat Violet”

  1. db65@comcast.net on 17 Jan 2012 at 8:41 am #

    In case you don’t understand Ludwig’s expression in the third panel and Arlo’s response to it in the fourth….. click the link to the logo creator “Théophile Alexandre Steinlen” and you’ll see the logo that Ludwig is imitating. Quite well done! bravo!

    Dave

  2. Rich in Belchertown on 17 Jan 2012 at 8:46 am #

    Jimmy, this must have been one of those strips you drew just for yourself. Until you explained the reference, Ludwig’s pose in panel three was completely lost on me. I guess I should have googled “le Chat Noir” sooner, but your strips don’t have hyperlinks :)

  3. Anonymous on 17 Jan 2012 at 9:06 am #

    It’s a French cat house.

  4. Mark from Maine on 17 Jan 2012 at 9:27 am #

    How very “cat and mouse” of you!

  5. MINDY on 17 Jan 2012 at 11:53 am #

    Oh! Now I get it!

  6. Jerry in Fl on 17 Jan 2012 at 12:21 pm #

    That Lud understood the reference is a stretch of the imagination of course. but I did teach my cats the word “piano” as they gathered around to check out this large new item in their house. Now I can ask them “Where is the piano?” and they will go to it. They tend to the stereotypical male and female roles as the girls like music and Elvis prefers a good action movie as long as there are no animals fighting.

  7. Steve Conway on 17 Jan 2012 at 12:43 pm #

    The Chat Noir was also a favorite hangout of Toulouse Lautrec, (my favorite painter), and some of his art was done there.

  8. Boise Ed on 17 Jan 2012 at 12:58 pm #

    In today’s A&J, I couldn’t figure out what J was holding until I read the comments below. One commenter said “Had a guy up here (Portland, OR) get two years for manslaughter. Hit a kid while driving and texting …
    to his GF in the seat next to him! Also lost his driver’s license for life. True story.” The “normal” distracted drivers are bad enough, but this one takes the cake.

    Thanks, JJ, for the back story about Le Chat Noir. I agree with Rich in Belchertown. Maybe an asterisk and URL would have been good.

  9. Dave in MA on 17 Jan 2012 at 1:35 pm #

    Toulouse Lautrec ? Monty Python’s Flying Circus anybody? :)

  10. Sam in Alabam(a) on 17 Jan 2012 at 2:04 pm #

    Did anyone see the new TV show “Alcatraz” last night? I only caught the end, but one of the characters used the term “might could.”

  11. Beth in MA on 17 Jan 2012 at 2:15 pm #

    You must click on all the links in Jimmy’s comment. You will see a picture of the classic poster & a photo of his favorite cafe. From the favorite cafe, you can click on the link to see what is next to the cafe. Jimmy is more clever than words can describe!

  12. Mark in TTown on 17 Jan 2012 at 2:20 pm #

    In W.C Field’s movie “The Bank Dick”, his favorite hangout is called the Black Pussy Cat Cafe. Think he had been to Jimmy’s spot when he was on European vaudeville tours? Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges played the bartender in this movie.

  13. John in Virginia on 17 Jan 2012 at 2:38 pm #

    Sorry, Dave in MA, I was thinking about the Inquisition. Did you mention Python?

  14. sandcastler on 17 Jan 2012 at 4:44 pm #

    And then there was a mouse.

  15. Jerry in Fl on 17 Jan 2012 at 5:40 pm #

    I love the topics! I may have to go back several days and get the background so I will understand the comments. WC Fields, religion and the ancient Egyptians are all some of my favorite topics. I’m currrently reading Your Call is Important to Us which started out very interesting but is rapidly losing my interest and the story of Jaycee Duggard which is a fascinating cae study of a sexual predator.

  16. Jerry in Fl on 17 Jan 2012 at 5:45 pm #

    It’s always funny how the typos are much easier to find after the comment has been submitted. That would be “case study”. We still need that edit button.

  17. Galliglo in Ohio on 17 Jan 2012 at 5:54 pm #

    Love the links! I was not familar with the cafe… JJ is educating us in spite of ourselves!

  18. Jeff in Ann Arbor on 17 Jan 2012 at 7:40 pm #

    @ John in Virginia – Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

  19. Debbie in Alabama on 17 Jan 2012 at 8:22 pm #

    I watched Alcatraz last night. Missed the “might could” but thought I was watching a hybrid of Lost, the X-files, and maybe Oz. (Especially since Hurley was there and they opened a hatch in the forest.)

  20. John Read on 17 Jan 2012 at 10:00 pm #

    Jimmy, boy do I wish you’d told me about this festival before now. I would have tried to interest them in “One Fine Sunday in the Funny Pages.” Wouldn’t it have been wonderful to have had them host the exhibit there?!
    BTW, for those of you who’ve not seen “One Fine Sunday” – which features the art of 140 different comics published on the same day, including “Arlo & Janis – the exhibit is at Toonseum in Pittsburgh ’til the end of the month, and then will be in Canton, MS for a month or so.

  21. Mike in Shelburne Falls on 18 Jan 2012 at 6:45 am #

    I didn’t get online yesterday, but today the Wikipedia ‘Black Out’ prevents me from following the links about the ‘Black Cat’. Hope this doesn’t happen for real!

  22. Joni in Western ND on 18 Jan 2012 at 10:22 am #

    I have that poster Jimmy! I just didn’t realize it was famous until today. I have it in a frame in our bedroom. I love that poster.

  23. David Cadogan on 26 Jan 2012 at 9:52 am #

    On many doors, and in many gift shops, in Paris, you can buy little yellow signs imprinted with “Attention! Chat bizarre”. Ludwig qualifies — mind you, all cats do!
    Just ordered the book and am hoping there will be a book signing in the Tampa Bay area so I can get it signed when it comes.