Lionheart

Lionheart is a journalist cat, created by Tom Stazer.

Lionheart's stories in the Critters comic book series, published by Fantagraphics Books, began with a murder mystery involving pastiches of classic Looney Tunes characters. His career came to resemble that of Carl Kolchak's in the TV series The Night Stalker -- poor Lionheart would follow a lead on some strange story that would ultimately be no good for publication, because it was too unbelievable. His adventures took him to the haunted town of Wako, an encounter with a rabbit-version of Frankenstein's monster (a huge, scarred rabbit who makes a good living as a cable TV installer), a stint as bodyguard for paranoid movie director Freddie Lucre (whom someone is indeed trying to kill), political intrigue at a parody of Disneyland, a sinister-looking alien living in the same apartment building as Lionheart, among other things. Fortunately, Lionheart is on good terms with police Sergeant Nyarg (a rhino) and Mike Barrier, a bulldog who runs Scrutiny Security Service. His stories regularly appeared in Critters (often cover-featured) throughout its publication.

Tom Stazer has also collaborated on stories with Stan Sakai and J.P. Morgan. Among his other creations are Crazy Bob (a fellow who is always being spoken to by inanimate objects), Ed the Grocer (a middle-aged supermarket manager -- with strong Batman-like obsessions), and Spaced, a series concerning the off-center adventures of the crew of the U.S.S. Pragmatic.