The many lives of cats will be put to the test in Feral, a new horror comic book from Tony Fleecs and Trish Forstner.

The duo are the creators of the Stray Dogs, a surprise hit that took a cute and cuddly approach to subvert the serial killer genre, like a Lady and the Tramp meets Silence of the Lambs. That mini-series, released in 2021, has sold nearly one million copies across all formats, according to Image Comics, the publisher behind the titles, and Paramount picked up the movie rights for an animated adaptation to be produced by It screenwriter Gary Dauberman.

Feral also takes the cute and cuddly approach to flip a genre, in this case the zombie outbreak trope. Think The Aristocats meet The Walking Dead.

“We didn’t want to repeat ourselves with this follow up book so it really was, at first, thinking about: Ok, Stray Dogs is dogs trapped in a house. So, let’s have this one be about what’s really frightening in wide open spaces,” explains Fleecs in a statement. “ The antagonist in Stray Dogs is someone who’s evil from the inside out. So, let’s have these cats face something that’s like an infection. An external threat.

He adds, “But the thing we did the same way was, we tried to build the story on characters, and how they fit together and how they clash and then just go, ‘What’s the worst possible situation we can put them in?’”

The story centers on Elsie, Lord Fluffy Britches, and Patch, three indoor cats lost in the not-so-great outdoors during a nightmarish rabies outbreak. Without their humans to protect them, the cats rush to find their way home before they’re eaten by the forest full of rabid beasts on their tails. Their survival mantra: Don’t get bit, don’t get scratched, don’t become…feral.

“We are really trying to give the readers a story to remember,” said Forstner. “We’re pushing the boundaries of what we already established in our little niche of storytelling.”

The first issue hits stores March 27, 2024. And like the creators did for Stray Dogs, they plan on having variant covers modeled on classic horror movie posters of yore.

Check out a preview of the first issue, as well as a couple of those covers, below.

Feral

Courtesy of Image Comics

Feral

Courtesy of Image Comics

Feral

Courtesy of Image Comics

Feral

Courtesy of Image Comics

Feral Chapter 1

Courtesy of Image Comics

Feral Issue 1

Courtesy of Image Comics

The Cats Are Feral

Courtesy of Image Comics