Lucas Turnbloom's 'How to Cat' Debuts on GoComics!

by Charlie Upchurch

February 14, 2019

Yeah, yeah. Another cat comic. Big deal, right? It's 2019, and cats have had their time. But here's the secret: Lucas Turnbloom's new GoComics feature, How to Cat, is genuinely lol-worthy content. If you have a weird, smelly feline (and dear GoComics readers, we know 90% of you are cat people due to our meticulous market research), you'll love How to Cat, which debuts on GoComics on Monday, Feb. 18.

Turnbloom isn't new to comics and cartooning. His comic Imagine This has been on GoComics since 2009, and he has a Scholastic novel series called Dream Jumper. But How to Cat wasn't some grand scheme to dominate the internet. It all started with a few comics Turnbloom wrote to make his wife laugh at their strange rescue cat, Sugar (Sugar's name has been changed to 'Sweetie' in the comic, due to her status in the FBI's Witness Protection Program).

Check out some of our favorite comics featuring Sweetie, along with Lucas's commentary:

“I have long maintained that cats are actually the ones in charge, and humans are the pets. My cat, for example, tends to do something cute immediately after she wrecks something — like begging for tummy scratches. Which always makes it difficult to get mad at her. 'Aren't I cute?' we think she's saying to us. But we all know what she's really saying.”

“Let's be real, felines love to kill things. Birds, mice, bugs, random pieces of lint, etc. I have always believed that if cats had opposable thumbs, there would be no shortages of mercenaries or contract killers.”

“It is a well-known fact that cats require attention in the middle of the night. So if you selfishly choose sleep over midnight pet-pets, lord help you. The grudges they hold can last years.”

The real Sweetie has a cute backstory — the Turnblooms ended up finding her at a shelter after she'd been traded in and out of several homes.

"Her original owner had to get rid of her. And then someone else adopted her, but this woman had to give her back. So the cat was very sad. I told my wife, 'Let’s get that one. She seems very calm.' It took her about a month to even open up," Turnbloom said.

As it turns out, this shy shelter cat was an Internet comedy goldmine:

"She would sit there and not do anything, but over time, she got weirder and weirder. She would start doing strange things. I started writing these things down and drawing comics to them to make my wife laugh. She suggested that I post them on the internet. Eventually I was between projects and I thought, 'I’m just going to post these online and see what happens.' It kind of found this life through social media that I never expected."

Lucky for us, Turnbloom's side project garnered a huge response on his social channels, and led to today's debut as a regular feature on GoComics.

"Every artist wants to feel appreciated, and this comic has made me feel really good — I’m so glad it's found an audience," Turnbloom said.

And sure, the stuff Sugar/Sweetie does is objectively very weird, but to cat owners, it's this weirdness that makes the strip so endearing. We're excited to add another hilarious and true-to-life comic to our roster. Check out the How to Cat homepage when it debuts on Feb. 18!