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Complete Uses Of A Dead Cat
Book by Bond, Simon
200 pages, Paperback
First published October 14, 1993
1 person is currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Simon Bond
41 books2 followersFrom the "Guardian" obtiuary:
Simon Patrick Everett Bond was born of British parents on 19 August 1947 in New York City. He was the second son of Terence Bond, a political secretary at the United Nations, and Hilda Everett. The family returned to England when he was four. In London, he attended Preston Manor County Grammar School, Wembley, before studying graphics at West Sussex College of Art and Design in Worthing (1965–68). His first job was as a paste-up artist on Tatler magazine (1969–70) before returning to the US on health grounds.
For more than a decade he lived in Phoenix, Arizona, where the climate was better suited to his chronic asthma. He then worked in a variety of jobs, including dealing in antiquarian prints and pictures and performing stand-up comedy in clubs while also contributing cartoons to the Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, National Lampoon, New Yorker, Men Only and Vole.
In 1976 he published his first book, Real Funny (1976), and soon afterwards mentioned the idea for a macabre cartoon book about dead cats to his friend, Terry Jones of Monty Python, who he had met in London. Jones liked the idea and recommended it to the British publisher Methuen, who published it as 101 Uses of a Dead Cat (1981). The book was an instant and enduring success, eventually selling more than two million copies and being published in 20 countries. Despite frequent attacks by cat lovers (Time magazine called him "the Charles Addams of ailurophobia"), Bond always maintained that he meant no harm by the book and was not only fond of cats but had even owned four himself at various times (as well as a dog); the only problem was that he was allergic to them.
At first he had no plans for a follow-up cat book and concentrated on a screenplay, Shorts, satirising the media, and another cartoon collection for Methuen, Unspeakable Acts (1982). However, in 1982 he returned to London, began contributing to Punch and Private Eye, and produced a new cat collection, 101 More Uses of a Dead Cat (1982) with tie-in calendars appearing in 1983 and 1984.
In 1985 he married Linda Marshall, and moved to the Jacobean Great Addington Manor near Kettering in Northamptonshire. Here he continued to produce at least one cartoon book a year, including Uses of a Dead Cat in History (1992). In 2001, to mark the 20th anniversary of the first book, Methuen published Complete Uses of a Dead Cat (2001), incorporating all three volumes. In 1993 Bond and his wife moved to Langer, Nottingham.
In all he published more than 20 collections of drawings, including Odd Visions and Bizarre Sights (1983), Uniformity (1986), A Bruise of Bouncers (1987), Battered Lawyers and Other Good Ideas (1989), Odd Dogs (1989), Holy Unacceptable (1990), Commuted to Life (1992), Everybody's Doing It (1993) and three children's books featuring the teddy bear Tough Ted. He also illustrated two books by Alan Abel, Don't Get Mad, Get Even! A Manual for Retaliation (1983) and How to Thrive on Rejection: A Manual for Survival (1985), as well as Percy Richer's Richer's Legal Nuggets (1987) and Tom Isitt's Secrets of the Queen's Closet (1988). His last published book was 101 Uses of a Dead Roach (2002) with an "epitaph" by the celebrity drug-dealer Howard "Mr Nice" Marks.
Bond, who once said that he loved thinking up ideas but truly hated drawing, usually sketched his cartoons with a 2H pencil on A4 cartridge paper, working up the finished drawing with a fine Edding needlepoint nylon-tip pen. However, for his bookwork he tended to draw actual size. He never used washes, tints or cross-hatching, preferring to draw up-and-down lines for shadows. For colour work he preferred coloured pencils.
Below average height, he spoke with a soft English accent and usually wore spectacles. He was a keen collector of antiques and was also very interested in sport, especially cricket and football (Nottingham Forest FC).
Simon Patrick Everett Bond was born of British parents on 19 August 1947 in New York City. He was the second son of Terence Bond, a political secretary at the United Nations, and Hilda Everett. The family returned to England when he was four. In London, he attended Preston Manor County Grammar School, Wembley, before studying graphics at West Sussex College of Art and Design in Worthing (1965–68). His first job was as a paste-up artist on Tatler magazine (1969–70) before returning to the US on health grounds.
For more than a decade he lived in Phoenix, Arizona, where the climate was better suited to his chronic asthma. He then worked in a variety of jobs, including dealing in antiquarian prints and pictures and performing stand-up comedy in clubs while also contributing cartoons to the Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, National Lampoon, New Yorker, Men Only and Vole.
In 1976 he published his first book, Real Funny (1976), and soon afterwards mentioned the idea for a macabre cartoon book about dead cats to his friend, Terry Jones of Monty Python, who he had met in London. Jones liked the idea and recommended it to the British publisher Methuen, who published it as 101 Uses of a Dead Cat (1981). The book was an instant and enduring success, eventually selling more than two million copies and being published in 20 countries. Despite frequent attacks by cat lovers (Time magazine called him "the Charles Addams of ailurophobia"), Bond always maintained that he meant no harm by the book and was not only fond of cats but had even owned four himself at various times (as well as a dog); the only problem was that he was allergic to them.
At first he had no plans for a follow-up cat book and concentrated on a screenplay, Shorts, satirising the media, and another cartoon collection for Methuen, Unspeakable Acts (1982). However, in 1982 he returned to London, began contributing to Punch and Private Eye, and produced a new cat collection, 101 More Uses of a Dead Cat (1982) with tie-in calendars appearing in 1983 and 1984.
In 1985 he married Linda Marshall, and moved to the Jacobean Great Addington Manor near Kettering in Northamptonshire. Here he continued to produce at least one cartoon book a year, including Uses of a Dead Cat in History (1992). In 2001, to mark the 20th anniversary of the first book, Methuen published Complete Uses of a Dead Cat (2001), incorporating all three volumes. In 1993 Bond and his wife moved to Langer, Nottingham.
In all he published more than 20 collections of drawings, including Odd Visions and Bizarre Sights (1983), Uniformity (1986), A Bruise of Bouncers (1987), Battered Lawyers and Other Good Ideas (1989), Odd Dogs (1989), Holy Unacceptable (1990), Commuted to Life (1992), Everybody's Doing It (1993) and three children's books featuring the teddy bear Tough Ted. He also illustrated two books by Alan Abel, Don't Get Mad, Get Even! A Manual for Retaliation (1983) and How to Thrive on Rejection: A Manual for Survival (1985), as well as Percy Richer's Richer's Legal Nuggets (1987) and Tom Isitt's Secrets of the Queen's Closet (1988). His last published book was 101 Uses of a Dead Roach (2002) with an "epitaph" by the celebrity drug-dealer Howard "Mr Nice" Marks.
Bond, who once said that he loved thinking up ideas but truly hated drawing, usually sketched his cartoons with a 2H pencil on A4 cartridge paper, working up the finished drawing with a fine Edding needlepoint nylon-tip pen. However, for his bookwork he tended to draw actual size. He never used washes, tints or cross-hatching, preferring to draw up-and-down lines for shadows. For colour work he preferred coloured pencils.
Below average height, he spoke with a soft English accent and usually wore spectacles. He was a keen collector of antiques and was also very interested in sport, especially cricket and football (Nottingham Forest FC).
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 28, 2022
Another of Kiwi and my favourites
June 14, 2017
I feel bad for only giving this one a 3/5, especially because my girlfriend got it for me for my birthday. I should clarify by explaining that I don’t think it’s a bad book – it’s just mediocre, and not as amusing as I was expecting.
Still, it’s pretty cool for what it is, a collection of Bond’s ‘dead cat’ drawings which show quirky little ways that you can use a dead cat – for example, as a golf club or as a lunch tray. He often draws felines with sharp, rigid tails, which are used as bayonets or to drive cats into the ground like little furry signposts.
I’ve made the book sound more sinister than it really is. I mean, I’m a (relatively new) cat owner myself, and I’d never dream of hurting an animal. I’m a vegetarian. But I do have a dark sense of humour, which is why I thought I might enjoy it. And I did enjoy it, it just didn’t make me laugh out loud. I didn’t even smile, and from time to time I struggled to tell exactly what was going on in one of the images.
Still, if you’ve seen some of the dead cat images elsewhere then you’ll already know what you’re in for. This book is effectively an amalgam of three different collections – A Hundred and One Uses of a Dead Cat, A Hundred and One More Uses of a Dead Cat and Uses of a Dead Cat in History. It’s alright but it isn’t great, a decent enough addition to your collection but nothing that’s worth going out of your way for. Still – thanks, Becca, for the birthday present. It’s very much appreciated.
Still, it’s pretty cool for what it is, a collection of Bond’s ‘dead cat’ drawings which show quirky little ways that you can use a dead cat – for example, as a golf club or as a lunch tray. He often draws felines with sharp, rigid tails, which are used as bayonets or to drive cats into the ground like little furry signposts.
I’ve made the book sound more sinister than it really is. I mean, I’m a (relatively new) cat owner myself, and I’d never dream of hurting an animal. I’m a vegetarian. But I do have a dark sense of humour, which is why I thought I might enjoy it. And I did enjoy it, it just didn’t make me laugh out loud. I didn’t even smile, and from time to time I struggled to tell exactly what was going on in one of the images.
Still, if you’ve seen some of the dead cat images elsewhere then you’ll already know what you’re in for. This book is effectively an amalgam of three different collections – A Hundred and One Uses of a Dead Cat, A Hundred and One More Uses of a Dead Cat and Uses of a Dead Cat in History. It’s alright but it isn’t great, a decent enough addition to your collection but nothing that’s worth going out of your way for. Still – thanks, Becca, for the birthday present. It’s very much appreciated.
May 3, 2021
A fun little book that collates 101 Uses for a Dead Cat, 101 More Uses of a Dead Cat, and Uses of a Dead Cat in History.
There are some real laugh out loud moments but many of the cartoons are a little naff. Overall, however, I did enjoy this.
May 26, 2019
Funny
October 13, 2012
How do i read it..... :/
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews