The character was created in 2009 by the husband-and-wife team of John and Raena Merritt, who have run a series of increasingly successful Kickstarter campaigns to fund a line of plushies featuring the title feline, an alien with a cat’s head and ten tentacles, and a number of sidekicks. They have also created a narrative along the way: Tentacle Kitty was trapped on earth after a catastrophe on her home planet, and she’s looking for a way home, but in the meantime she has made some friends, including a clumsy ninja and a wannabe pirate. The Merritts built up the character’s popularity with appearances at comics conventions and a webcomic on the Tapas platform; Dark Horse also published a Tentacle Kitty coloring book in 2018.
Tentacle Kitty: Tales Around the Teacup is a collection of the title character’s adventures, written by the Meritts with art by Jean-Claudio Vinci and a cover by Mirka Andolfo. The 104-page paperback will go on sale in comic shops on April 27, 2022, with an MSRP of $12.99.