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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, May 18, 2003

Feline fondness inspires artistic turn

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Books Editor

Artist/writer Kristin Zambucka uses a primitive cartoon style in her celebration of cats, created under the pen name K.S. Zee.

Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Artist and writer Kristin Zambucka, who travels a great deal but maintains a pied a terre at the Ilikai Renaissance Waikiki, is best known for her art-driven explorations of Hawaiian history, culture and mythology in books such as "Princess Ka'iulani: The Last Hope of Hawai'i's Monarchy" and "Ano Ano: The Seed," as well as productions for TV.

Zambucka has another side you'd never suspect: She's a cat lover with a punny sense of humor, as a new project illustrates.

"Cat City" (Critterati Co., paper, $13.95) is a sort of comic book for grownups, a tale about a gritty city kitty (sorry — spend a little time with Zambucka's work and you'll be doing it, too) who suffers a tragedy, calms a riot, finds out his dad isn't really his dad and eventually saves the day with the help of a feline femme fatale (oops, there we go again).

Zambucka is finishing up "Ani Ani, The Stone Mirror." a novel-size inspirational book with paintings full of symbolism and allegory, meant as a gift book.

But she found herself emotionally drained by writing and researching Hawai'i history. "It became extremely sad and heartbreaking for me, until I felt I couldn't do it any more," she said. "I did all the ones that were in my heart: I was in love with Kalakaua; Ka'iulani, with her amazing life cut short at 23, her work not finished. I decided I'll just have fun now with my cats."

Zambucka has created a publishing arm, Critterati Co., to bring out "Cat City" under a pen name, K. S. Zee, and is at work on a sequel. She employs a brightly colored, primitive cartoon style for the magazine-size book, with mildly adult themes (born out of wedlock) and somewhat scary action (buildings collapsing on people) that make it inappropriate for small children.

ZAMBUCKA


'Cat City' book signing

• When: Noon today

• Where: Borders, Waikele

Asked if she's run out of cat puns, Zambucka gushes, "Apparently not. I'll probably go to live on Catalina, or, well, Katmandu is a bit far — never see any of the friends then — what a catastrophe! You see? They just roll off the tongue. People must think I've flipped my lid, talking in this cat-ese."

So is there a cat in her life? Well, yes, but not your average Tiger or Snowball; she travels too much for that. Zambucka is the hanai mom of a wildcat; she pays a wildlife shelter to keep it. She also created a 7-minute short that premiered at the Hawai'i International Film Festival.

She'll go to Los Angeles soon for meetings on creating T-shirts, bags, makeup kits and other products based on glamour-puss Ginger Tibbs ("the Haute Catture line"), as well as on potential animated TV or film features and music featuring the rap-cat she invented, name "Scratch 22."

"But of course I have to finish the work of launching the first book here first," she said. "I've got a claws in my contract.

"Oh, dear. I have to stop this."