Ferry riders might have had a throwback moment to family game nights in 2015 in these last couple of weeks riding the Washington State Ferries. They might remember their heartbeat quickening, drawing cards from a shortening deck full of silly feline illustrations hoping they wouldn’t be the next to pull an Exploding Kitten.
An advertisement plastered on the deck of the Chimacum ferry depicts a white, bearded and plump cartoon cat sitting on top of a Washington State Ferry traversing the sound calling out an annoyingly familiar question to passengers in a cartoon speech bubble: “Would the owner of a white BMW please turn off your car alarm? I’m trying to nap.”
The cat, named Godcat, hails from the widely successful Exploding Kittens card game created in 2015 by Bainbridge Islander, Matthew Inman and his business partner Elan Lee, a former Xbox designer. Godcat appears on several static ads across the Washington State Ferry terminals and boats, advertising for the Exploding Kittens television show on Netflix for which he is the main character. In the nine-episode series, God and the devil duke it out on Earth in the form of chubby house cats.
Inman moved to Bainbridge Island in 2019 with his now-wife and pitched the show that same year, following the success of the identically named card game. Many of the ads brandish the tagline “conceived on Bainbridge Island.” When Inman “conceived” of the show on the Island he’d come to call home, however, he was nursing a broken wrist that he suffered while breaking his fall on a one-wheel scooter. While sketching his pitch, Inman stuck his black stylus pen in a hole through his cast and scribbled his signature cartoons with broken bones.
After landing the deal with Netflix, Inman wasn’t whisked away from Bainbridge like he first thought he’d be. “I had this idea in my head that I was going to Hollywood because I got my own TV show greenlit, celebrities and casting and that did happen, but it all happened from my living room or in my office,” Inman said. He directed voice actor performances from actors like Tom Ellis, Sasheer Zamata, Suzy Nakamura and Mark Proksch over his computer screen.
But, Inman has stayed grateful to drive past Frog Rock on the way to work, loving the communal feel of Bainbridge Island as compared to the loud, bustling cities of Seattle and Los Angeles where he had spent time living and working. When Inman did make his way to Beverly Hills to promote the show, doing shoots with the cast and crew in person, it was a lot to take in. “ I wanted to come home and feel like I was on vacation,” he said.
Home has always been a part of the process for Inman. He even considered making Bainbridge Island the setting for the Exploding Kittens show, before deciding that the uniqueness of the community may be an issue narratively and resolved instead to model the setting off of the Pacific Northwest. Washingtonian viewers may recognize the trees, skyline and even Mount Rainier in the background of several shots, Inman said.
It was that same love for Washington that inspired Inman’s funny, localized ferry ads, he said. “It’s more meaningful to see things locally because I live here and it feels personal.”
Amanda DiMarco, of Inman’s The Oatmeal comic publishing business, was waiting in line to drive onto the ferry when she saw that Ballyhoo Media offers advertisement opportunities on the Washington State Ferries, said Ballyhoo spokesperson Helen Roldan. DiMarco reached out to the advertisement company with interest in a series of static ads to go for an “old school feel.”
Inman wanted to make the ads relatable and funny, pondering sketches of Devilcat hounding passengers for missed or late ferries or Godcat attacking one of the vessels in a catlike manner, before landing on Godcat calling out a car alarm.
“The billboards were so fun and easy to make. I mean, I drew them and then sent an email and then suddenly Godcat and my show is like 20 feet high,” Inman said. “Creatively, it was just super satisfying to be able to do that.”
Exploding Kittens premiered on Netflix Friday, July 12, but Inman won’t be hosting a watch party, having already seen every episode about a hundred times. He’ll put the show on for his one-year-old child for the novelty, but plans to soak up the sun and do “a little bit of a Godcat/Netflix detox here and just go play with my kid outside over the weekend.”
Inman will take some time over the next week to distribute some of the 40 some-odd free board games and toys from his company, leaving them in public places like bookstores and coffee shops for local passersby to find and bring home.
Inman won’t be diving into another big project right away, but he’s still got a date with the drawing board. On the day of his show’s premier, Inman plans to sketch a comic of “Godcat smiting frog rock or defiling it in some way, because I love trolling people about that thing. The latest controversy is they repainted the rock a neon green and some people are upset, other people love it. I just love watching the drama surrounding that.”
“It's like catnip for me,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Ferry ads for Netflix series show artist Matt Inman's love for Bainbridge community
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