'The Adventures of Business Cat'.
Tom Fonder is a British/Australian artist based in the UK, best known for his gag-a-day webcomics 'Happy Jar' (2007-2014) and its spin-off 'Business Cat' (2014-2018). Particularly 'Business Cat', starring the daily shenanigans of an anthropomorphic businessman who nevertheless didn't lose his natural cat instincts, received a large cult following.
Early life and career
Tom Fonder was born in Australia in 1989 and graduated from Edith Cowan University in 2012 with a film degree. He later moved to the UK. Fonder's cartooning career had its origins during his high school years. In 2007, he began passing around little doodles with inside jokes with one of his school buddies, Tobias Phoenix. After a while, the strips began appearing online under the title 'Happy Jar'. By the time Fonder became the sole creator, these gags became more universal observations of life. To alternate with his stick figure style of 'Happy Jar', Fonder decided to try a new graphic approach with a gag about an anthropomorphic cat in a business suit, created in collaboration with Rachael Robins. When this 2014 episode went viral, Fonder decided to pursue cartooning on a more professional basis.
'Happy Jar'.
Business Cat
Between 2014 and 2018, Fonder gained more online fame as the writer and artist of the hilarious webcomic 'The Adventures of Business Cat', which stars "the world's wealthiest playboy business pet" and ran on Fridays on his own website and on Mondays on Gocomics.com. 'Business Cat' toys with the idea of what it would be like if your boss in the office was an anthropomorphic cat. The title character is a human with the face of a gray cat. While he tries to behave like an actual businessman, Business Cat still behaves like a real-life cat. When nobody is watching, he plays with a bowl of string, or enjoys patting his employees on the head and then quickly dash away. Sometimes he stares at his colleagues while they are going to the toilet, or suddenly crawls on their lap. In one gag, Business Cat asks his secretary to open the door, but he just sits down, stares at the door for a while and then turns back. It remains an open mystery how he ever got appointed to such a high-profile position. Other times, he defends his species. When a co-worker says that a black cat brings bad luck, he instantly sends her to a "racial sensitivity training".
With its clever combination of recognizable cat behavior with equally recognizable office customs, 'Business Cat' quickly developed a cult following. As comedy featuring cats has always been popular online, episodes of 'Business Cat' quickly went viral. Since 2016, gags have been collected in book format by Andrews McMeel Publishing. After creating a story arc involving an IRS investigation, Fonder posted the final episode of his strip on 7 September 2018. In an online statement, Fonder said he wanted some time off from doing creative work.
'The Adventures of Business Cat'.