Rabbi's Cat HC (2005-2012 Pantheon) comic books

Volume1 - 1st printing. Story and art by Joann Sfar. The preeminent work by one of France's most celebrated young comic artists, The Rabbi's Cat tells the wholly unique story of a rabbi, his daughter, and their talking cat - a philosopher brimming with scathing humor and surprising tenderness. In Algeria in the 1930s, a cat belonging to a widowed rabbi and his beautiful daughter, Zlabya, eats the family parrot and gains the ability to speak. To his master's consternation, the cat immediately begins to tell lies (the first being that he didn't eat the parrot). The rabbi vows to educate him in the ways of the Torah, while the cat insists on studying the kabbalah and having a Bar Mitzvah. They consult the rabbi's rabbi, who maintains that a cat can't be Jewish - but the cat, as always, knows better. Zlabya falls in love with a dashing young rabbi from Paris, and soon master and cat, having overcome their shared self-pity and jealousy, are accompanying the newlyweds to France to meet Zlabya's cosmopolitan in-laws. Full of drama and adventure, their trip invites countless opportunities for the rabbi and his cat to grapple with all the important - and trivial - details of life. Hardcover, 8-in. x 10 1/2-in., 146 pages, full color. Cover price $21.95.

Volume 2 - 1st printing. Story and art by Joann Sfar. While the rabbit is away on an errand, the rabbi's cat tags along with Malke of the Lions, the rabbit's enigmatic cousin who roams the desert with his ferocious-on-demand lion. Some believe Malka to be a pious Jew, others think he's a shrewd womanizer, but the cat will be the one to discover the surprising truth. Back in Algiers, the rabbi's daughter, Zlabya, and her new husband fill the house with their fighting, while the city around them fills with a rising tide of anti-Semitism. On a whim, the rabbi's cat, the rabbi, the sheik (also a cousin of the rabbi), and a very misplaced Russian painter set out on a fantastic journey in search of an African Jerusalem. And it turns out to be fortuitous that the rabbi's cat is not just a talking cat, but a multilingual talking cat! Hardcover, 8-in. x 10 1/2-in., 152 pages, full color. Cover price $22.95.