The story of Otto Messmer, Pat Sullivan and Felix the Cat, the wonderful wonderful cat. Publisher's promotional material laid in.

From the dustjacket:

Handsomely illustrated - with more than 150 black-and-white photos and color inserts - Felix is a stylishly written account of the scandal and intrigue behind the creation and marketing of the most popular, best animated, and financially most successful cartoon of the silent era, as well as an illuminating study of film animation in the years before Walt Disney.

From 1919 to 1933 Felix was internationally celebrated, as popular throughout the world as Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

The producer of his films, Pat Sullivan - a journeyman artist, chronic alcoholic, and convicted rapist - claimed credit for creating and developing Felix, yet in truth it was Otto Messmer, Sullivan's brilliant, self-effacing production manager, who conceived, animated and directed more than two hundred Felix films during the height of the cat's popularity. Messmer never saw any of the enormous profits from his creation, and until the mid-seventies, his importance to the art of animation was unknown to all but a few.