ECC Cartoonbooks Club: Morbid fun with cats and rabbits

First of all I want to be clear and say I like cats. Sometimes I like teasing them and I like cat cartoons.

our 3 cats...

For those who (dis)like cats there is Skip Morrow's "The Official I Hate Cats Book" (1980). I have a Dutch version and the cat cartoons in that book are very funny.

"Beware of people who dislike cats." - Irish proverb

You can see Skip Morrow's "I hate cats collection" on his site.

For our friends, the rabbit-lovers there is "The Book of Bunny Suicides" by Andy Riley (2003). You must be crazy to make a book of rabbits wanting to suicide, but the result is hilarious.

As above, I have a Dutch version "Het boek van de zelfmoordkonijntjes".

"The Book of Bunny Suicides: Little Fluffy Rabbits Who Just Don't Want To Live Any More (2003) is a collection of mostly one-image black comedy cartoons drawn by author Andy Riley. It was a bestseller.

Each cartoon shows one or more white rabbits in their creative attempts to end their lives using a variety of items. Revolving doors, a toaster, a cricket ball, a boomerang, a hand-grenade, the shining sun, a magnifying glass, smoking of several cigarettes and bowling balls are all featured as suicidal tools. The book also features a few cultural references, most notably a parody of a scene from The Wicker Man, where the rabbit is atop the burning figure. A reference to the Terminator movies is also included, as well as a reference to the scene from Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove where the captain of the bomber rides the atomic bomb as it drops and explodes. Noah's Ark is also featured. While all the other animals are boarding the ark, two bunnies stay behind suntanning on the beach.

The cartoons are often drawn in such a way that the bunny's exact method is not immediately obvious, leaving the reader to work out exactly how the bunnies plan to end their lives.

In 2004 a sequel was published, under the title Return of the Bunny Suicides

The book proved so popular that pirate scans started to circulate heavily online as "Bunnies Suicide" or "Bunny Suicide", facilitating DMCA notices of cease and desist [1]. Cartoonist Liu Gang was inspired by the book to create his Suicide Rabbit.

A special edition, The Bumper Book of Bunny Suicides, was released in the UK in 2007. It contains every bunny suicide ever.

This book has been withdrawn from bookshelves in Shanghai, China for fear of children imitating the scenes." (source: Wikipedia)