The cat’s out of the bag—and she’s wearing a spiffy blue dress, a petrified expression, and running for one of her nine lives, sprinting across the cover of the inaugural book in Australian author Aaron Blabey’s forthcoming illustrated chapter book series, Cat on the Run—seen here for the first time. Scheduled for release by Scholastic in September, Cat on the Run in Cat of Death! introduces the fabulously fluffy Princess Beautiful, a world-famous star of cat videos who’s frantically trying to clear her name after being falsely accused of a crime.
Princess’s story unfolds in the same world as the author’s wildly popular Bad Guys books, which has more than 19 million copies in print in the U.S. since the series made its debut here in 2017, and which were adapted for the 2022 DreamWorks animated featureThe Bad Guys. “I have always wanted to create a series with a complex, funny female lead,” Blabey said, recalling the creative spark behind Cat on the Run. “As a vehicle for that, it occurred to me it might be interesting, and really fun, to have a flawed feline superstar finding herself on the extreme end of cancel culture by being accused of a crime she didn’t commit.” Additional inspiration may have been found very close to home. “Ohhh, yes I am,” Blabey replied when asked if he was a cat person. “I live with Lady Maude Fluffington, a glorious ragdoll who does not suffer fools. I love my Maudie very much.”
As the series idea took shape, Blabey noted, “It evolved very naturally, gave me the same thrill that the Bad Guys gave me during its inception, and fell very organically into their same universe. The Cat on the Run titles will additionally feature the same format—trade paperback—and trim size as the Bad Guys volumes.
Blabey noted that, as the series name suggests, Cat on the Run readers can expect some excitement. “As the world’s number one cat video star Princess Beautiful fights to prove her innocence against terrible odds and hidden, malevolent forces, she encounters an array of Indiana Jones-level obstacles. Hopefully the series will be a thrill ride from start to finish,” he teased. “Princess also becomes a better, more enlightened cat in the process,” he added. “It really has been a blast to create.”
In the cover image, Princess appears just below the large, hot-pink series title, and Blabey accessorizes her dress with a black leather jacket, pink hi-tops, and pink polka-dotted hair bow. But most memorably, the panicked kitty is fleeing cat-seeking missiles. “Cat on the Run is a great big action comedy,” he said. “I wanted the cover to unapologetically own that.”
The initial plan for the series is to create three installments, but Blabey hinted that the number of titles could increase. In the meantime, he’s definitely not twiddling his thumbs. “Right now, I am finishing up the artwork for Bad Guys 18 and Cat on the Run 2,” he said. “After that, in the coming months, I will create my final three books for the time being—Cat on the Run 3, Bad Guys 19 and, yep, the very final episode, Bad Guys 20. After that, who knows?”
And, in and around these book projects, Blabey’s work continues to expand on the big and small screen. Cat on the Run is in development at an as-yet-unnamed film studio, his picture book Thelma the Unicorn is in production as an animated musical at Netflix, and the picture book Pig the Pug is also set to be adapted for TV.
