Who Created Pete the Cat?

The beloved children's book character Pete the Cat has a storied history (for a deep dive on Pete and an answer to the age-old question, was he really blue? check out our previous blog post here).

But who's the man behind the legend? Pete the Cat was based on a real cat, adopted by illustrator James Dean.

Dean grew up in Fort Payne, Alabama, and received a degree for electrical engineering from Auburn university. His early career was not in art at all, but his lifelong passion for drawing eventually called him to pursue it. 

His career as an artist took off once he met Pete. Pete was a shelter cat who Dean adopted way back in the late 90's. Originally a black kitten, his antics inspired Dean to pick up a blue pen and sketch the original illustrations of Pete.

Seized by inspiration, he would go on to create countless works of art inspired by Pete, who became a blue-furred and yellow-eyed cartoon version of his namesake. 

It wasn't until 2008 that musician Eric Litwin approached Dean with an idea and they partnered on the children's book Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes. The book and character were a smash hit, and they went on to create three other extremely popular Pete books together before parting ways in 2012. 

Dean's wife Kimberly, also a writer, picked up the mantle of creative partner and they have been creating Pete the Cat books as a husband and wife duo ever since.

Since the first sketches of Pete the Cat, Dean has created over 2,500 works of art featuring the character. Though Dean originally believed that a career in the arts wouldn't be sustainable, he followed his passion and every unexpected opportunities that arose from it.

As far as Pete's concerned, that's pretty groovy.