The Cat Came Back Cast list
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Stuart Shelley: Hapless cartoonist
Writer of the Crew's code book of operational manoeuvres in Book 1, a court fool in Book 2 (read into that what you will),
and simply himself in Book 3. Significantly, Stuart is also one of the Cat's creators- the cartoonist who gave him his current
form and who drew these cartoons in which the cat took his opportunity to exact revenge.
PS: Yes, he's me.
The Cat: "The bad guy"
Conceived by Andrew Rogers, originally scripted by Chris and later revamped by me, the Cat enters Book1 within the first
six pages, until which point I was simply drawing a comic book for the fun of it. From page 7 onwards, however, it became
clear that the Cat was a central character and he gradually guided the entire storyline. He's just so easy to draw!
Jim Kennedy: Bison-herder
The Cat's mad scientist, although there's a suggestion in Book 3 that he was actually working against the Cat, and in Book 2
he only talks about rescuing his "employer". Open to speculation.
Gambourde and Lorin:
Based on two bumbling detectives, Lambourd and Gorin, in a play by Marcel Aymé. In the whole play they were the only two characters I liked. In
Book 3 they take on the roles of Jean Réno and his sidekick in "Les Visiteurs".
The wizard:
During his stay in the sub-dimension the Cat leaves the Courrineans, persuades Gambourde and Lorin to join him, and teams up with a hermit wizard (again based on the
time-travel scene in "Les Visiteurs") in order to return to the 'real' world. The wizard observes their progress and hampers the Witch's efforts to locate the Cat.
Aaron Edgeley: Ecclectic pagan, Dr Cheese
By far the most ecclectic of the group. Aaron forms part of the anti-Cat magical task force, and later fulfills his one-time
ambition to be on "Time Team".
Kitty: Herself
I drew her in as a way of bringing the Genie back in, but then it instantly occurred to me that she could be my key to tying up the trilogy for good.
The Genie: Himself
Another by-product of a song by Chris (Book 2, page 20) who turned out to be a useful character (and fun to draw!). His
motivation in the story seems to be to try and become a living human being again. Oh, and that picture of the floating lamp
under "THE END" in Book 3 - that's not for nothing...
The Witch: Herself
Originally just a by-product of the song in Book 1 (pages 17-18), written by Chris Parsons. However, she turned out to be a
useful character and as such is one of only three fictional characters that appear in all three books. She is the daughter of one
Jerry Hat-Trick, and drives a truck bearing that name. It's understood that the Cat has encountered her before. In any case,
her desire to see the Cat terminated grows stronger with each book.
Karen Gallantine: Transport councillor
Hannah Morley: Grand Vizier & Master of the Tees
Gemma Austin: Charities officer
All three were flatmates at the time. I wasn't at all pleased with the way I drew Gemma - very little likeness (see the bottom of page 16). pretty pleased with the portrayal of the other two.
Sam Tolmie: Head of council
Why Head of Council? Because Sam is always up for anything and because this was the worst thing that could happen to Stockton-on-Tees.
Dimosthenis Koutsioubas: Sports councillor
Dennis is pretty true to life, watching life go by and occasionally swearing in Greek or laughing at random things.
Linda Smith: Councillor for Public Spending
I thought spending might go down well here. The scenes in Millennium were reminiscent of many a night out.
Zarna Devine: Councillor for Taxation
True to life, Zarna is the one character who criticises the comic while it's still running. The closing frames were representative of an actual comment made by her when she read the last few pages.
Tom Sloan: Foreign Affairs councillor
Tom was away in France when I started the comic, but had been back for a while by the time I finished. As a result, his return to England in the story takes only one day. We have to assume he's travelling while most of his
correspondance is being read.
The Vietnam scene was a running theme in many conversations, and a tribute to all the 'Nam films ever made except for Deerhunter, which I thought was naff.
Christian Blyth: Crew's chauffeur
The Crew's driver. Christian didn't actually have a driving licence when I started drawing so I don't know where that came
from. His pride and joy in the comic is the Crew's green van.
Anis Ahmed: Crew's technician
The Crew's scientific genius, inventor of all their weapons. Also perhaps the most easy-going, certainly a reflection of his role
in the stage crew!
Chris Parsons: Scriptwriter
The man who used to write all the Cat's scripts before "The Curse" was ever conceived of. In the comic he works for Mssrs
Rogers and Jack in "Rogers' Theories Inc."
Briefly in Book 1 he appears as "The Wizard of Happy Land", something to do with an old school play in which he and
Naomi had parts during their childhood. This then explains his appearance as a wizard in Book 2.
A.M.Rogers: The Cat's genesis
A maths teacher and hospital radio librarian in real life, but in the comic he is the Cat's genesis, and has gone on to head his
own "Rogers' Theories Inc" with Peter Jack, a business that…
Comes up with theories.
In Book 2 he is an inventor and creates yet another cat, this time a war machine.
Richard Cordiner: Crew's occultist/frontman
The Crew's frontman, and part-time occultist, Richard is often the directing force behind the Crew's actions. In the stage crew
this was often the case too!
The British stereotype:
Drawn just before the movie of "The Avengers" was released, so no, he's not based on John Steed.
Jane:
Not much of a character. Note how Jim enters Stewart's office with a stinging cheek (Page 14).
Stewart:
My character's alter-ego in a group created by the Cat to match the Crew man for man. Violent, irritable and a bit scatty, he nevertheless survives the carnage suffered by his colleagues in Book 2 (an oversight on my part when I drew the scene) and goes on to manage the Cat's assets during his absence.
Kauser Maqsood: Councillor for Education
The proposal Kauser made for the bridge (page 15) has since become reality. It's called Millennium Bridge.
Sahdia Hassen: Councillor for Finance
Comes across as a little bit scatter-brained, but only because, in the company of the other lasses, she often was. Odd, that.
The bison:
There it is again. How did that get there?
Jason: Physicist and martial artist
Whenever we passed by his flat someone would always suggest visitng him, no matter what we were doing at the time. We'd get there to find he had
been researching into some new realm of unchartered science, and he often had other visitors.
Also a big fan of martial arts.
Jean-Pierre Rozel: Cockney Maurician
Ah, JP. Full of witty and cutting repartee, but often a man to keep his thoughts to himself. Sometimes he didn't appear to be in the same world.
The vodka scene at the end of the book really happened, and was something of a psychology experiment carried out by Sam, to see if JP really got drunk, or whether he thought he did
Arun: Tamil entrepreneur
The man of business. The man of action. Who knows what schemes were being hatched in that mind.
Arun had a following of business acolytes, including his girlfriend, and someone else's car.
Peter Dixon: Sci-fi expert
Previously employed at Popcorn, Pete packed this job in while I was working on the comic and so it entered the storyline at a random stage.
Pete's easy-going nature comes across pretty well in this I reckon. He never takes sides.
Stuart Davenall: Hitman squad leader
Portrayed right from the start as rather evil, this is quite an unfortunate representation of the real Mr Davenall. It all stemmed,
however, from his initial appearance as a Wild West gun-slinger, which in turn was inspired by his vague resemblance to
Texas Pete from the SuperTed cartoons.
Barry:
Thug stereotype working for Davenall. Picture Barry as the one who looks after his mom.
Agnes (Wing) Wong: Arun's better half
Not a huge role, it was hard not to make her look like one of Arun's tag-alongs. But since we hardly ever saw her after she got together with the guy then what else was I supposed to go on?
Tony Robinson: Presenter of 'Time Team' (special guest star!)
In fact an effort was made to draw this guy in Book 1, where Richard turns into MacBeth and Banquo has a very Baldrick-style script. The result was so unlike Mr Robinson, however, that I didn't mention him in the credits.
Even here I had to practise drawing him loads of times before I got even a vague resemblance.
Dave Colls: Computer wizard
Chips employee and a big fan of heavy metal and, at the time, Linda. Thought I'd leave that out though 'cos past experience taught me not to mention relationships in the comics.
(It's bad enough when people keep changing their hairstyle!)
Quentin Tarantino: Customer in Millennium (special guest star!)
Cheech Marin: Barman (special guest star!)
We must have seen 'Desperado' at least twenty times at our house so everyone of us knew the scene. For those that don't though it goes something like this:
Tarantino enters bar in Mexican town with his friend. He walks up to the counter and addresses the barman who's watching him with cautious interest.
"Two cervezas... and these are for you" Passes two small slips of paper over the counter, one for him one for his friend.
(In the film these slips are to allow him access to the back room where nefarious deals take place, in the comic they're his entrance tickets to the club)
Quentin proceeds to tell a long winded joke about a guy in a bar, at the end of which the barman pulls out a gun and shoots Tarantino's friend in the face.
Then he turns the gun on Tarantino...
"Your friend didn't check out.... But you...
You checked out just fine...."
("Oh and, actually, good work by the way. Nice to see that you cross the... I's and dot the T's here... Hey! S'cool I say!... Lead the way...")
