The well-recognized Kliban Cat has adorned
Crazy Shirts T-shirts for years in a variety of incarnations,
but the relationship is coming to an end.

Cat cartoonist
Kliban’s widow sues
Crazy Shirts for
back royalties

Judith Kliban Bixby has
terminated her 22-year relationship
with the firm, claiming
breach of contract

By Peter Wagner
Star-Bulletin

The widow of cartoonist B. Kliban, creator of cartoon character Kliban Cat, has ended a 22-year relationship with Crazy Shirts Inc. and sued the company for breach of contract.

The suit, filed yesterday in California Superior Court in San Francisco by Judith Kliban Bixby, claims Crazy Shirts has de-emphasized its use of the cat images in recent years and failed to pay $500,000 in royalties to her.

San Francisco attorney Rob Bunzel, representing Bixby, said sales involving the Kliban image represented about 50 percent of the company's revenues in 1995. The figure since has dropped to about 25 percent, he said.

Bunzel said his client was shortchanged $500,000 in exclusive distribution contracts with a Japanese company, DM International, in 1995 and 1998. The contracts allegedly provided for advance payments of royalties, which never materialized.

Bixby yesterday terminated her relationship with Crazy Shirts, which dated back to 1977, Bunzel said.

Crazy Shirts chief financial officer John Loevenguth said he was surprised by the action and had no immediate comment.

He noted the company has had a long and successful relationship with Kliban, manufacturing many thousands of T-shirts and other products featuring the cat.

"It's been a significant part of our business," Loevenguth said.

Crazy Shirts, headquartered in Honolulu with production in Tustin, Calif., has 43 stores in Hawaii, Guam and in Western states. Some 15 of the stores are on the mainland.

Yesterday's suit says Crazy Shirts may liquidate existing inventories of Kliban products but is barred from future production of products incorporating the cat.

Bixby, a resident of Marin County, Calif., owns all copyright, trademark and other rights to Kliban Cat.

B. Kliban, who died in 1990, made a hit with his satirical cat character with the 1995 publication "Cat," his first book. The best seller was followed by "Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head" and nine other books.