What do you think?
Rate this book
A Cat Named Tim and Other Stories
In Tim's world, a cat can paint on the ceiling and a happy pig couple can wait months for the bus. A duck and a mouse love to go flying, in a plane, of course. Every page is an adventure and each character is colorful in this collection of comics.John Martz is a cartoonist and illustrator who lives in Toronto, Ontario. He is the creator of the wordless online comic strip Machine Gum, and the illustrator of several picture books including Abbott & Costello's Who's On First? (Quirk Books, 2013). His comics and illustrations have appeared in the Globe and Mail, MAD magazine, Maisonneuve, Canadian Notes & Queries, and kuš! He was a founding editor of the illustration blog Drawn.ca, and makes up one quarter of the jam comics collective Team Society League. He won the 2013 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Story for his comic book Gold Star (Retrofit Comics, 2012).
52 pages, Hardcover
First published September 9, 2014
74 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
October 1, 2022
A series of cool silent comics that take advantage of fun visuals. A great read, I'll have to run it by my niece to see if it's good for kids. For adults, it's just way too short of a read to be worth a recommendation.
November 11, 2015
Koyama Press production by Toronto-based Martz, who does a variety of things. This is sort of children's/all ages illustrated stories of various animals, not a continuous narrative. Not as engaging as I had hoped, but quirky in the Koyama Press way, with an odd sense of humor you don't associate with picture books, usually.
May 29, 2015
Children's graphic novel. It took me about 5 minutes to read, and no real story to any of the chapters.
No words - just the odd comment. The order the pictures went in was not always clear.
Who would like this? I really don't know.
Overall - weird, could be in the running for worst book of the year. Or more like dumbest.
No words - just the odd comment. The order the pictures went in was not always clear.
Who would like this? I really don't know.
Overall - weird, could be in the running for worst book of the year. Or more like dumbest.
September 27, 2014
I giggled the whole time.
August 13, 2025
This was hilarious and yet simple. Very few word but four perfect stories were told. I liked that characters crossed over from one story to another. It was cute and short and perfect.
March 3, 2017
What a great book!!!
Charming stories without words. Yes. Full-colour illustrations move the characters and stories happily forward.
In the first story we go with Doug, who's a duck, kind of, and Mouse, who is a mouse, on a trip in a two seater old timey plane that takes them on adventures through many seasons, activities, countries, some peril, solutions to peril, fun, a shipwreck that leads them to meet up with Tim. Clever pages jam packed full of stuff for kids to verbalize a story about. Just ask them, "What's going on here?" Instant story opportunity. They'll totally make up keen stuff about Doug and Mouse.
So, Tim the cat. He's orange. And likeable. On two white pages stands 32 Tims. He's a doctor, a gardener, a postman, a hockey player. Brilliant! Message: you can be whatever you want to be. Anything is possible. Tim tries his paw at basketball. Doesn't work out. A scientist? Well, from 'poof' to zop! to tink! Tim finds himself back to normal after some interesting experiments. Painting himself into a corner is no problemo for Tim :) An artist, all good! Some golf moves, uh-oh!
Tim introduces us to Connie. She's maybe a geeky nerdy bunny with big eyes/glasses. Her world is a bit techy but she likes lots of hobbies and stuff, regular kid things and she does the dishes and goes to the dentist, ugh! Some text shows up on a two page detailed spread of a huge computer like contraption. Fun!!
Connie floats into a party as a balloon (inhaled too much air) and we meet up with Tim and Doug and Mouse and two new characters.
Mr. and Mrs. Hamhock are a lovely porcine couple. They sit together on a bench beside a bus stop through all the seasons. Clever robin above them in a tree rakes, makes a snowman among other things :) Mrs. suddenly speaks to Mr. and then there is a flurry of trouble but they are soon back on the bench a bit worse for wear, but together.
Very engaging, heck, I was completely smitten from the get-go, so a child will love this book. It is such a perfect gold mine for a bunch of stories. Illustrations are terrific and the characters just right. Get it, read it, love it!
Charming stories without words. Yes. Full-colour illustrations move the characters and stories happily forward.
In the first story we go with Doug, who's a duck, kind of, and Mouse, who is a mouse, on a trip in a two seater old timey plane that takes them on adventures through many seasons, activities, countries, some peril, solutions to peril, fun, a shipwreck that leads them to meet up with Tim. Clever pages jam packed full of stuff for kids to verbalize a story about. Just ask them, "What's going on here?" Instant story opportunity. They'll totally make up keen stuff about Doug and Mouse.
So, Tim the cat. He's orange. And likeable. On two white pages stands 32 Tims. He's a doctor, a gardener, a postman, a hockey player. Brilliant! Message: you can be whatever you want to be. Anything is possible. Tim tries his paw at basketball. Doesn't work out. A scientist? Well, from 'poof' to zop! to tink! Tim finds himself back to normal after some interesting experiments. Painting himself into a corner is no problemo for Tim :) An artist, all good! Some golf moves, uh-oh!
Tim introduces us to Connie. She's maybe a geeky nerdy bunny with big eyes/glasses. Her world is a bit techy but she likes lots of hobbies and stuff, regular kid things and she does the dishes and goes to the dentist, ugh! Some text shows up on a two page detailed spread of a huge computer like contraption. Fun!!
Connie floats into a party as a balloon (inhaled too much air) and we meet up with Tim and Doug and Mouse and two new characters.
Mr. and Mrs. Hamhock are a lovely porcine couple. They sit together on a bench beside a bus stop through all the seasons. Clever robin above them in a tree rakes, makes a snowman among other things :) Mrs. suddenly speaks to Mr. and then there is a flurry of trouble but they are soon back on the bench a bit worse for wear, but together.
Very engaging, heck, I was completely smitten from the get-go, so a child will love this book. It is such a perfect gold mine for a bunch of stories. Illustrations are terrific and the characters just right. Get it, read it, love it!
May 19, 2021
This enjoyable book is set out in amusing cartoon strip stories.
Doug & Mouse - in which they go on many adventures together;
Tim - in which he does surprising things;
Connie - in which the unexpected happens;
Mr. & Mrs. Hamhock - in which the couple wait and wait and wait ...
Funny almost completely wordless stories, comically illustrated.
Doug & Mouse - in which they go on many adventures together;
Tim - in which he does surprising things;
Connie - in which the unexpected happens;
Mr. & Mrs. Hamhock - in which the couple wait and wait and wait ...
Funny almost completely wordless stories, comically illustrated.
March 14, 2017
Super quirky, but after reading A Cat Named Tim and Other Stories, I really enjoyed it. I had to smile a few times at the absurdity or the sad things happening to the characters. This is a wordless series of humorous comics.
May 29, 2021
This is what I get for ultimate trust in Koyama? A children's book? With no words?
This is my fourth Martz and I'll just say it's passable. The rest were fun stories while this is REALLY boring art class stuff tossed together into a book.
This is my fourth Martz and I'll just say it's passable. The rest were fun stories while this is REALLY boring art class stuff tossed together into a book.
October 23, 2017
J'ai trouvé l'album trop hasardeux et peu intuitif à lire... Bien que les personnages soient attachants...
June 18, 2018
This book was funny and cute!
October 21, 2020
Cute illustrations and short stories
great for young readers looking to deciper story and sequence of scenes
quick and short, esp good for those with short attention span
great for young readers looking to deciper story and sequence of scenes
quick and short, esp good for those with short attention span
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 23, 2021
ARC Copy...highly recommended for early reader minimal level and feels like "all-ages" can enjoy the gags-to the point humor and the stylized/line less illustrations are beautiful to see.
November 22, 2023
Great book with very little words, great for dual language learners, allowing each child to add their own imagination.
Reading together with your child is creating memories for a life time
Reading together with your child is creating memories for a life time
February 19, 2016
This wordless graphic novel is wonderful! It's closes in an four different stories. There's the duck and mouse who love to fly around and do crazy things together. Then you meet Tim who is very athletic and artsy. Connie has a busy day and throws a party but ends up floating like a balloon. Then my favorite of the four, Mr. and Mrs. Hamhock, who seem like they could wait months at the bus stop, randomly remember they may have left the oven on and end up back at the bus stop. The illustrations in most of the stories are double spread full page pictures. Lots of color, and easy to follow, but you have to be able to understand the pictures to get the story.. Cute simple book!
July 4, 2015
Practically all of the books I've read with no (or very few) words are excellent, and this book follows the trend. It's effectively a book of short stories that are clever and occasionally ironic.
The book is excellent for pre-readers because it has so few words. For the most part they follow along perfectly well by themselves. My three year old and six year old love the stories and think they're hilarious.
The book is excellent for pre-readers because it has so few words. For the most part they follow along perfectly well by themselves. My three year old and six year old love the stories and think they're hilarious.
June 9, 2016
A mostly wordless collection of stories which feel a little more like comic strips featuring various characters on various adventures, whether they be day-to-day routines or canoe trips or birthday parties. A real variety show of a book, with beginning reader, picture book, and comic book elements. I'm not sure how to get it to its audience, though.
March 19, 2015
A playful bouncy fun book of animal stories, set in a fun little animal world. Very kid-friendly without being stupid -- mostly wordless, not too cutesy, and nice and energetic. Didn't bowl me over, but an enjoyable time to spend with a happy cat and his friends. Can't complain
May 13, 2016
pretty cute, definitely for older kids if you want them to follow what's going on - not that there's really a story in any of these stories. The illustrations are super adorable though, I could see my kid self poring over each page to get all the little details.
January 15, 2015
Made me laugh out loud. Loved the spare, graphic style of the illustrations. Very clever. Loved how the characters came in and out of each others' stories.
March 4, 2015
this wordless book would be great for my turning pages program...the kids could write a story to go with the illustrations.
March 10, 2015
Really great comics. Mostly wordless, and really fun to read.
October 7, 2015
Ha! Very cute. I especially loved Connie's section. Wouldn't we all love to occasionally just be carried through all the tasks of our day on a sort of conveyor belt?
October 12, 2015
A fantastic collection of wordless comics with a 'look and find' feel to them. Artwork is fantastic, with appealing characters and tons of silly details on each page for kids to pore over.
December 20, 2015
Funny, delightful, not a single wasted shape.
February 11, 2016
Wordless graphic novel/picture book. Love this kind of format mixing.
May 17, 2015
Library copy
April 27, 2017
This book is split into four, different short stories. It is colorful and similar to the style of a cartoon. Fun book to read. Lots to see and enjoy. Great for school age children.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews