September 1960: The Cat Who Looked Like a Bat

Almost all funny animal superheroes from the 1940s through the 1960s were inspired by the most popular hero of the day, Superman. 

But not this one. He was clearly Batcat.

Comics historian Joseph Lenius quipped, “Bob Kane retrofits Batman and Robin into a cat and a mouse (and knowing him, maybe it’s really Bill Finger who does that), and then gives himself a big pat on the back.”

Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse debuted Sept. 14, 1960, as a cartoon on The Tommy Seven Show on NYC’s WABC Channel 7.

“Titled Disguise the Limit, (the first episode) opened with Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse roaring out of the Cat Cave — its mouth is shaped like a cat’s head — in their fire engine-red Catmobile, which is equipped with supercharger coils 30 years out-of-date at the time the show aired,” popular culture historian Will Murray noted.

“Like the Batmobile, the Catmobile has a huge stylized head mounted in front. Instead of a bat’s black head, it’s a black cat-head with green feline eyes. The difference is hard to distinguish. They forgot to draw whiskers.”

Unlike the hyper-competent Robin, Minute Mouse was designed to be inept. “Minute Mouse was his clumsy little helper who always bungled the case just when Courageous Cat was about to solve it,” Kane wrote.

“Whenever fighting bad guys, Courageous Cat would use his all-purpose Cat Gun or a vast variety of different deus ex machina ‘trick guns’ he pulls out of his cape that (like the Green Arrow's trick arrows) fire whatever the situation requires like a rope, some water, a parachute, cages, boxing gloves, lightning-like magnetic rays or even more bizarre ammunition, and even the occasional actual bullet,” Wikipedia observed. 

“In case of emergency, Courageous also has extra pre-James Bond secret gadgets hidden in his belt buckle and the star emblem on his chest.”

“In many ways, Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse presages the camp aspects of the later Batman live action series.”