Artist Jean Jullien Designed a Cat-Themed Card Game

You’ve stocked up on buckets of laser-pointers and feathers-on-a-stick for your cat’s entertainment; now it’s time to treat yourself. Kooky Cats, the newest product from Yolky Games, is a tabletop card game that promises hours of family-friendly fun — and with over 50 cartoony felines illustrated by French artist Jean Jullien, it’s perfect for the cat-obsessed player. 

Each amusing character falls into one of 12 categories which play off common feline colloquialisms and stereotypes — there are Scaredy Cats, Fat Cats, Cool Cats, Curious Cats, Alley Cats…you get the idea. Within their categorizations, each is delightfully individual: Ziggy, the Copy Cat, sports a zebra-print onesie; Cindy, the Curious Cat, peers penitently from the window of a mid-cycle washing machine; Claude, the Cool Cat, is nearly invisible beneath a long mane and Lennon-esque sunglasses.

Jullien (who also illustrated Dodgy Dogs, Kooky Cats’ canine counterpart), is renowned for his tongue-in-cheek style. His instantly recognizable work — which runs the gamut from paintings and illustrations to installations and graphic objects (like pet-themed surfboards and table lamps) — has appeared in shows around the world, most recently at Art Basel 2022. His Kooky Cats are crafted with his typical attention to the humorous details of everyday life.

The goal of the game is to collect complete categories, keeping all four members of each group together so they can get back to whatever cats do when their card-playing humans leave the room. We won’t give everything away, but there are plenty of twists that’ll throw an exciting wrench in the Go Fish-level simplicity of the game — try drawing a “Cat’s got my tongue” or “Cat nap” special card and see what happens. The game will be available in February 2022. In the meantime, practice keeping your cards close to your chest — with designs this cute, you’re gonna want to show them all off.

Kooky Cats by Jean Jullien

$33

$33 at Yolky Games