20 Years of Cat-Tales kicks off today on the anniversary of A Girl’s Gotta Protect Her Reputation #CatTalesIs20

20 years ago I posted A Girl’s Gotta Protect Her Reputation on a nascent fan fiction site, never dreaming it would become the first installment of a metafiction series that would still be finding enthusiastic new readers 20 years later. Last year, of course, I did know, and just after the 19th anniversary passed, I was thinking about ways to make this year an event. After all, I had 12 months to plan, a family of websites and domains to act as staging areas, a virtual Gotham. This would be epic!

Yeah. Then the world went sideways. Since the first weeks of lockdown, family and other responsibilities made it all but impossible to continue writing let alone planning extras. Pretty soon March was in sight and all I had been able to produce was one chapter for Mrs. Wayne and a stand-alone set in Bruce’s years of travel, Motor Valley (which, by the way, if you’re enjoying Stanley Tucci’s Searching for Italy, you may enjoy reading anew.) There wasn’t the time to plan an epic multi-platform event like our viral alternate reality game that played into The Dark Knight, no reopening the virtual visitor center, no fan contests like those that marked our 5th, Cat-Tales cocktails dreamed up by a rock star mixologist, or new audiobooks read by a magnificently talented actress. (Boy, it has been an eventful 20 years!)

But what could I do? I considered releasing a few pages from the next chapter of Mrs. Wayne, but this chapter is very special as is the character through whose eyes it will unfold. That person and the events of the chapter deserve my best, not something rushed for the sake of a treat. Instead, I am going to declare today the kick off only, the 20th of Cat-Tales 1: Reputation rather than the series as a whole. We will celebrate Reputation today with something special, but have a number of events celebrating other Book 1 stories and spinoffs over the next 12 months.
As the first tale, A Girl’s Gotta Protect Her Reputation has enjoyed more reinterpretations than most of the stories. Its first chapter was turned into a graphic novel-style prologue by Dorothy Rose, it was read as an audio book by Caroline Sharp, and it was given the “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” treatment by most of the spinoffs, revisiting the story from the POVs of peripheral characters in the Justice League and Gotham rogues.
To that end, here is the beginning retold in a style that was popular around our 10th anniversary: aka What if Cat-Tales was on Facebook…

Cute, right?

But a little lacking as a treat. One lucky reader from each of our social media platforms will therefore get a unique virtual experience unlike any of the zoom meet-ups that have been offered over the last year. Your virtual self* will sit down with me on the Cat-Tales set for a private AMA about the series past, present and future.

Follow Cat-Tales Twitter or Facebook and watch for the announcement to participate. One experience will be offered on each platform. Future events may also offer an experience for members of the Cat-Tales forum.

*free Second Life account required, tutorial provided.

Motor Valley, a #BatmanDay Special from Cat-Tales

As promised in yesterday’s teaser How the Batmobile Begins, today Cat-Tales launches a new tale, separate from the main series, as a Batman Day special.

Motor Valley, a Batman Day Special by Chris Dee

How the Batmobile Begins… A character piece set during Bruce Wayne’s years of travel. First stop after the dojos and kwoons of Asia is Italy’s Motor Valley. Available on the main Cat-Tales website and mobile-friendly Cat-Tales.mobi.

Cat-Tales 76: Mrs Wayne will continue, but writing was halted by the COVID-19 lockdown and extended quarantine and subsequent related events. Chris hopes to resume production on the main series early in 2021 and in the meantime, to offer out-of-continuity one-shots and specials.

How the Batmobile Begins… A Tease

I have a pre-Batman Day treat for those of you looking forward to tomorrow’s Batmobile origin story, Motor Valley.  Before it took shape as a character piece, I was concerned about a lack of conflict and so went with a well-worn shtick opening in the present day and telling the story in flashback, with regular cutaways back to the present and a racing-the-clock Batmobile pursuit.

I came to my senses, but rather than killing the darlings, I offer them up as an automotive aperitif. 

Batmobile: Pursuit

The Batmobile sped wildly down Broadway, swerving perfectly to avoid a taxi but coming perilously close to—DAMNIT! Forced to swerve again AND a third time before the second was completed, the jammer pointed at his criminal prey was out of range. A shrill beep sounded and 0.8 seconds later a pair of digital displays began counting up in thousandths of a second. That 0.8 was all the crooks’ Luthor-tech would need to find its signal again, and every nano-second the jammer was out of range after that, they were transmitting data. The top display read 2.140 by the time the Batmobile closed the distance. That brought the total below to 34.493. 34 seconds. They needed 1 minute 20 to transmit the data stolen from Wayne Tech, 1 minute and 20 seconds and they could—or rather their employer could—Lex Luthor could unlock the unimaginable.

***

The Batmobile’s tires howled through their turn without reducing speed as the crooks’ SUV completed its turn and stretched its lead. The digital counter was again climbing 56 seconds, 58, 59.031 before Batman closed the distance so the jammer could finally reengage.

New Songdo, Korea; Coast City, Star City, Atlantis’s capital Poseidonis, and even Gorilla City employed software supporting the technical fabric of their city centers: communications between the buildings, urban infrastructure and portable devices. Though the software varied, all were backed up by a Wayne Tech process onto a simple USB that was legally required to be held in a safe-deposit box or the Atlantis or Gorilla City equivalent.  With it, a city could be rebooted. The digital engine behind every electronic—or in Atlantis’s case magnetic—door lock, any elevator, street light, fire alarm, or subway tunnel, any bank vault or any surveillance camera would be under the user’s control. Under Luthor’s control, if the crooks completed their transmission.

59.031

In each case, the backup was locked with that same Wayne Tech process, so a crew of enterprising thieves breaking into a single safe deposit box could not come away with the backup of an entire city’s digital innards. And in each case, the lock could be bypassed by Wayne Tech’s back door. It only made sense: an act of God capable of wiping out the city’s technical fabric might very well kill the mayor, governor or other biometric key-holders. It only made sense to leave the back door intact as a skeleton key of last resort.

59.031

The thieves needed 1 minute and 20 seconds to transmit the entire code. This was going to be close.

***

… Yikes! Hope that Superman and Flash find and dismantle whatever they’re going after on Luthor’s end of that signal. We’ll never know, of course, because the real story, set entirely in the past during Bruce’s years of travel, will drop tomorrow at catwoman-cattales.com.

___

UPDATE: Motor Valley by Chris Dee, Part 1 is now live on the Cat-Tales website and mobile-friendly Cat-Tales.mobi

Cat-Tales: Mrs. Wayne Will Conclude at a Later Date

Cat-Tales readers are aware the current chapter of Mrs. Wayne began with a flash forward to Gotham burning and hints of civil unrest. The astute may have connected these glimpses to the Joker plot teased in the tale’s opening, the chapter on the GCPD, or to the upcoming trial of Gus Payne captured in a slow-speed chase that evoked O.J. Simpsons and the racial tension of Los Angeles in the ‘90s.

The events of the past week in so many American cities make it monstrously inappropriate to continue where this story is going, not at this time. Better days will come and it will conclude at some point.

In the meantime, we’ll have something new. Perhaps something set before A Girl’s Gotta Protect Her Reputation, perhaps more Untold Tales from Book 2 or 3, maybe an alternate universe.

In the meantime, we have 75 stories that I hope can provide a respite from the challenges we’re all living through.

In the meantime, stay safe, stay sane, and remember, times like these are why we tell stories of heroes.

– Chris Dee

The Thing to Remember about Bruce Is He’s Trompe L’oeil…

“The thing to remember about Bruce,” said one of Bruce Wayne’s oldest friends at a Park Avenue dinner party, “is that he’s trompe l’oeil, his life is crafted to deceive the eye. He created a character that he plays, and the press laps it up.” – Bradford Dormont, Mayfair Magazine

To the world, Bruce and Selina Wayne have been on their honeymoon and now bringing them home requires a protocol.  The kind of protocol Bruce has engineered a thousand times in protecting his identity… but it’s been a while since he did it while Bradford Dormont was in town, eagerly chronicling the lifestyle of Gotham’s elite.  The eerily insightful society scribe has already noticed things about Bruce that Bruce would rather he didn’t.   Will the Dark Knight roll the dice one time too many?  Only time will tell.

A happy by-product of the great Bat-scheme is its showing off Bruce’s killer beach bod.  This aspect of the story returns Cat-Tale to its roots incorporating and commenting upon aspects of the official comic, which appear as tabloid media in the Cat-Tales world, most often the Gotham Post.

Tom King’s Batman run–which centered on Bruce and Selina’s relationship as much as Cat-Tales–catered to the female gaze more than once, but issues 78 and 79 drawn by Clay Mann (with colors by Tomeu Morey) went above and beyond, leading to a full out media blitz in non-comics publications like Screenrant, Entertainment Weekly and elsewhere.

“It seemed rude not to mention it,” says Cat-Tales author Chris Dee, and then amends: “No, not quite true.  The fact is, if you’re someone like me with a fairly animated Selina in your head, and after 18 odd years, DC actually has someone writing some a batcat romance, and those stories cater to the female gaze to the point where outside media are writing articles about Bruce’s spectacular beach bod, a scene with her reaction has to be written.  Has to.  The Selina in your head will be going friggin’ nuts and that has to be shared with the world.  Also it’s the only way to shut her up.”

Mrs. Wayne Part 4: Trompe L’oeil is available on the main Cat-Tales website at catwoman-cattales.com and the mobile-friendly mirror Cat-Tales.mobi.

Halloween Reading List #TrickorTreat

There’s a lot of Halloween in Gotham, all Gothams, and Cat-Tales is no exception.   We have a lot of doors to knock on, so let’s get started…

The first, Trick or Treat, is an early tale, short and lighthearted as the early stories are–but like the early stories, what often passed unnoticed as a bit of fluff became exponentially significant later on.  Bruce and Selina have not been dating that long in Trick or Treat, and discoveries are still being made–such as Bruce’s devotion to Sherlock Holmes.  The Folklore Museum is having a costume party on Halloween night, but of course so is Jonathan Crane.

The Gorey-inspired cover by Lady Dien is said to be Chris Dee’s favorite.

Far more macabre, from guest writer Wanders Nowhere is the Batman v. Dracula like no other – and with a significantly higher body count – Capes and Bats.

Is it over?  Whew!  Less blood in this one.  The New Black is not set over Halloween, contains no monsters or deaths by excessive blood loss.  It did drop on October 31, 2006 however, and since it keeps getting passed over for On this day tweets, we wanted to include it.  Bruce Wayne is dating Selina Kyle, Claudia Muffington is with Harvey Dent, beware debutantes at the Iceberg, rogues are becoming the new black.

Finally, Spontaneous Generation, the suspense tale that may cross into horror when Poison Ivy, “going through changes” that seemed like a character arc, stumbled into magic gone sideways in the previous tale and suddenly, inexplicably, found herself transformed.

Interesting Times

A serial killer is terrorizing Gotham, and when Mrs. Wayne left off, Gordon thought there was finally a break in the case, thanks to Oracle.   As the FBI, GCPD and Batman close in on their prey…

Oswald Cobblepot has things to do.  The focus shifts from the manhunt to a simple nightclub owner trying to manage his business while the city is scared stiff.

Mrs. Wayne Part 3: Interesting Times is now available on the main Cat-Tales website and mobile-friendly mirror Cat-Tales.mobi

The View from One Police Plaza

“We got our wedding bells. Now we have to pay for them…
the universe bites back.”

“The Wedding happened. Everyone rejoice. But this is the Bat+Cat wedding.
All hell has to break loose somewhere…”

“Turning a Chaos God sane for the duration was going to have consequences.”

Bruce and Selina began their married life together in chapter 1 of Mrs. Wayne in a uniquely Bat-honeymoon contrived to protect Batman’s identity.  Remaining in Gotham undercover as the jetsetting thieves Tommy Pearl and Colette while Bruce and Selina are off the grid in some remote Scottish castle, Batman is still able to patrol–which is lucky, for in the last moments of the chapter, a dead body appeared and the killings are only beginning.

In Chapter 2, the focus shifts to the 14th Floor of One Police Plaza–i.e. Commissioner Gordon’s office–as we begin a day in the life of Gotham’s Finest which is about to become a lot more.

Mrs. Wayne Chapter 2: One-PP is now available on the Cat-Tales website and mobile-friendly mirror Cat-Tales.mobi.

Sorry, Gotham Times, It Was Very Much Meant to Be

Cat-Tales readers were rightly confident that when the advertised wedding tale Ever Fixed echoed the ominous New York Times headline that spoiled Tom King’s headfake on a batcat wedding, history would not repeat itself.  The day the Times story broke, Chris Dee tweeted a message that she’d never broken faith with her readers

A message for the #Batcat Community from Chris Dee regarding #Batman50, the spoilers in the New York Times, and Cat-Tales. pic.twitter.com/xP0sasr3D5

— Cat-Tales by Chris Dee (@cattales0) July 1, 2018

and that 17 years buys some leeway.  The wedding did come off without too many hitches, but the mystery of that headline was not explained.

The first chapter of the new tale finds the World’s Greatest Detective delving into the case, but he’ll only get so far before a deadlier mystery presents itself.

The murders are only beginning, and Chapter 2 is coming soon.

Bruce and Selina begin their married life together, but a killer stalks Gotham in the first post-wedding tale: Cat-Tale 76: Mrs. Wayne

It’s International Women’s Day and the Series that Fought Back for Catwoman Turns 18

March 8, 2001, Selina Kyle “put her true self on a public stage and let the contrast speak for itself.”

That’s how it’s stated in the most recent story Ever Fixed, just weeks before the series reached the age of majority as the men of DC Comics recapitulated their commitment to an origin that roots the character in poverty and exploitation.

It also happens to be International Women’s Day, a fitting marker for the series that fought back when Catwoman was stripped of her dignity and the privileged background and education that made her Bruce Wayne’s equal.

As is our practice at Cat-Tales, we’re celebrating a milestone with gifts for our readers: the ebook and pdf release of Gifts and Ever Fixed, that’s Cat-Tales 74 and 75 or parts 2 and 3 of the long-awaited Batcat wedding arc at catwoman-cattales.com

Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle marry in Cat-Tales 74: Gifts and Cat-Tales 75: Ever Fixed by Chris Dee, available as ebooks and print-quality pdfs at catwoman-cattales.com

But more importantly, we’re reminding readers and would-be readers there is a better Catwoman origin out there that rejects DC’s nostalgie de la boue and gives Selina a worthy motivation for being a thief, a motivation grounded in the same basic human needs as set Bruce on his path.

Cattitude by Chris Dee is available for download as an ebook, print-quality pdf and audio book read by the incomparable Caroline Sharp.