La Critique BD – Juta explores our fascination for celebrities in an intriguing surrealist comic

Many admirers of Chat Pernucci are in mourning. One by one, they approach the little raised coffin to pay their last respects. He is not an ordinary cat: blue, without legs or a tail, adorned with yellow stripes and a monobrow of the same color, he looks like a fancy cushion. Only his snout and whiskers actually resemble those of a feline. Outside the gymnasium where the star’s body lies, some vendors sell products in his image: keychains, socks, mugs, phone cases, etc. Why is he so popular? We may never know. After all, Grumpy Cat didn’t have any particular skills either. Nevertheless, one day, Chat Pernucci visited Olga, apparently to apologize for causing her to fall down a stairway. Fausto, the young woman’s lover, was not particularly thrilled to welcome him during his vacation, especially since the animal did not seem eager to leave…

Published by L’Employée du moi, a Belgian publishing house that notably publishes Lisa Blumen, Chat Pernucci is definitely a funny comic strip. The countless items featuring the animal that adorn the pages and the incomprehensible cult that its fans worship evoke a fierce satire of our consumer society always in search of personalities to worship or new gods to generate. Unless it is a reflection on our own relationship with art and beauty, as evidenced by an exhibition of paintings on the comical theme of bone fractures. Was Olga’s accident, adding a fracture – a well-placed one at that – to the event, a “calculated” move to generate publicity?

Misgivings

The satirical nature of the story may just be a playful pretext to bring to life this distant cousin of Doraemon with his eternal enigmatic smile. First, the comic’s narrator multiplies perfectly useless information (“When Chat Pernucci slurps his spaghetti, he closes his eyes”) and vaguely amusing descriptions (“Chat Pernucci, floating armrest”), before revealing bewildering secrets (“His gaze can move away from his eyes [and] can even pass through a keyhole”). Was Fausto’s misgiving justified? The story gradually becomes heavy, bordering on thriller, even as the “curious ovoid feline” plays hide and seek in the garden, bakes cakes for his guests, and draws a self-portrait on Olga’s mantle. She remains fascinated without fully understanding why. Their relationship weakens.

Editorial Cartoons

It is difficult to know which foot to dance on with the mysterious Chat Pernucci, and that is precisely what gives flavor to this atypical comic with a very successful style. The Italian author Juta, former press illustrator born in 1991, proves to be particularly skilled at creating “characters” without seeking realism: Fausto looks more like a werewolf than a human! The pastel colors elegantly accompany the changes in natural light, play with atmospheres, and enhance natural landscapes without the need for denser outlines.

Surreal in its concept but offering a coherent world, Chat Pernucci skillfully juggles between down-to-earth daily issues, subtleties of human psychology, and completely absurd situations (how does the cat manage to ride a motorcycle without legs?). While most of the mystery remains intact, the plot surprises and confuses, the staging captivates, and the artwork dazzles. And unexpectedly, hints of poetry emerge… Upon closing the book, one essential question remains: what have we just read?

Chat Pernucci, by Juta, translated from Italian by Aude Lamy, L’Employée du moi, 192 pages, $22.