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Grant Morrison and Gerhard's Smile of the Absent Cat, Collected

Published Fri, 05 Jun 2020 10:00:23 -0500

The Smile of the Absent Cat was a real highlight of the recent Grant Morrison era of Heavy Metal Magazine. Written by Grant and drawn by Cerebus artist Gerhard. Louis Wain, is an Edwardian artist known for being the first to do "cat cartoons." As he died penniless and insane, a state that Morrison assumes all creators strive for, the comic focuses on what happens to the world Wain made ("Catland") without its creator and how it will reflect the real events in his life. And begins with a cat detective who recently returned from the first World War who has a sixth sense, if not nine lives. A classic chat noir, with a missing heiress and a wicked pack of cards and a dark rite.

A collection was promised last year but, with everything that was going down at Heavy Metal, it never happened. Now, however, it seems to be back on the schedule. The Smile of the Absent Cat will be published in both paperback and hardcover for January 12th, 2021.

Gerhard is best known for the incredibly detailed backgrounds he used to contribute to the independent monthly comic Cerebus with Dave Sim. This is his most prominent and length comics project since Cerebus finished with issue 300. Grant Morrison, longstanding comics writer, with everything from Zenith to Doom Patrol to Arkham Asylum to New X-Men to Batman to Happy, was appointed Editor-In-Chief for a number of years, until recent changes at the magazine. But during that time, Morrison brought new talent to the sci-fi/fantasy anthology and a number of them are still working for Heavy Metal. He also contributed a number of notable strips, including The Smile of the Absent Cat. Here's a little look at what ran, and what will now be collected when January 2021 comes round. Not long now.