Erma Felna – Cartoon Cat

Erma Felna is a comic book, space-cat and soldier. The creator of this comic book cat character is Steven A. Gallaci (born 1955). He seems to be a very intelligent and thoughtful writer because he wrote a complex and politically intriguing tale with this space-cat as the central character.

This cartoon cat character made her debut in Albedo no.0 (for some reason they decided to start numbering before “1”). It was published in 1985 by Thoughts and Images. The saga lasted for 15 issues of the title. It was reprinted in the subsequent, short lived Command Review (1987). This writer was also responsible for the Birthright series, which ran in Critters.

The name, “Erma Felna”, has a tinge of science about it, I believe. Felna seems to be derived from the scientific name for the family of cats, “felidae”.

Erma is a humanoid cat and a flight commander. She is also the leader of a unit in the space-spanning Extra Planetary Defence Force (EDF). The EDF is a military arm of ConFed, the government that has intentions of colonising other planets.

A world called “Derzon” is invaded and the space-cat commander leads her troops into battle. Beforehand, she had rejected the suggestion of her lover, Tavas Ikalik, to transfer-off the active duty roster. Erma is wounded and sent to a place called Ekosiak to recover.

There appeared to be a hint of a local rebellion and she was therefore back on duty soon afterwards. Her superior commander is a fox whose name is Colonel Hitzok. They suppress an uprising of animals who resent the military presence at Derzon. Hitzok is wounded during an assault whereupon Erma is placed in charge of the Home Guard Troops. The revolution continues.

The continuing battle allows Erma to show her true colors and her star rises to ultimately achieve an interplanetary command.

There are other soldier animals in this cartoon strip, such as an otter Dael Valderzha and a duck whose name is Colonel Jones.

Note: This is one of many pages on cartoon cats, on this website. The cartoon cat page was, and still is, one of the most popular on the site and therefore I feel the need to support it and add some detail to the characters that are listed on the main page. It is a specialist area but there are many fans on the Internet of cartoon characters and particularly cats!