101 Uses for a Dead Cat, by Simon Bond, was a bestselling collection of macabre

Macabre

In works of art, macabre is the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere. Macabre works emphasize the details and symbols of death....

 cartoons. The book was promoted with the tag line, "Since time immemorial mankind has been plagued by the question, 'What do you do with a dead cat?'" It consisted of cartoons depicting the bodies of dead cats being used for various purposes, including anchoring boats, sharpening pencils and holding bottles of wine.

Release

First published in 1981, the collection was eventually republished in 20 countries and sold over 2 million copies. It spawned two sequels, 101 More Uses of a Dead Cat and Uses of a Dead Cat in History, as well as calendars featuring the cartoons and even a book in response called The Cat's Revenge - More Than 101 Uses for Dead People. In 2006, a 25th anniversary edition of A Hundred and One Uses of a Dead Cat was published with a new foreword.

Reception

By December 7, 1981, it had spent 27 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list

New York Times Best Seller list

The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...

. Its success was considered part of a larger "cat

Cat

The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...

 craze" in popular culture, which included the Jim Davis

Jim Davis (cartoonist)

James Robert Davis is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the comic strip Garfield, which he signs as Jim Davis. He has also worked on other strips: Tumbleweeds, Gnorm Gnat, U.S. Acres and a strip about Mr...

 comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

 Garfield

Garfield

Garfield is a comic strip created by Jim Davis. Published since June 19, 1978, it chronicles the life of the title character, the cat Garfield ; his owner, Jon Arbuckle; and Arbuckle's dog, Odie...

, and the Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...

 musical Cats

Cats (musical)

Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot...

.

Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

called the author and illustrator, Simon Bond, "the Charles Addams

Charles Addams

Charles "Chas" Samuel Addams was an American cartoonist known for his particularly black humor and macabre characters...

 of ailurophobia

Ailurophobia

Ailurophobia is a type of specific phobia: the persistent, irrational fear of cats. It comes from the Greek , "cat" and , "fear".Synonyms include felinophobia, elurophobia, and gatophobia.-Causes:...

." He received hate mail

Hate mail

Hate mail is a form of harassment, usually consisting of invective and potentially intimidating or threatening comments towards the recipient...

 accusing him of obscenity

Obscenity

An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...

 and sadism.

American opinion stated that those who read the book should be "prepared to be disgusted or appalled from time to time". It has also been noted that the depiction of a dead cat being used as a pencil sharpener was a "pretty obvious depiction of rape".