Still a highly enjoyable series. This volume has a long series of strips about a cat soap opera that the cats are watching, which is not my favorite. The rest of the book, however, has the strips from when this comic began being printed in newspapers. These strips are a mix of previous strips that have been re-drawn and re-colored and new strips. The day-to-day strips are my favorite, so I enjoyed the new material and revisiting the material I've previously read. ( )

Behind the Scenes with Burt is the fifth book in the Breaking Cat News comic strip reprints. Burt, the audio visual and tech support cat has the cover with Beatrix, the social media expert kitten helping him. Alice, the black mouse leader of the robber mice and Natasha, the white mouse member who wields a nasty needle in combat are waving at the readers.

The station is taking a break for upgrades. Burt will be running footage from the archives and the delightful cat soap opera, 'Our IX Lives' Christmas special during the upgrades. Crusty old Elvis the Siamese is against this -- no surprise there. Puck, who was charcoal colored in the first book, Breaking Cat News, asks Burt to make him as black as he really is in the archival footage. Burt obliges. Puck is thrilled.

The 'Our IX Lives Christmas Special' starts on page 6 and continues through p. 35. What a special it is! Stray cat hero Kit Chase is holding an invitation to his beloved Angora's wedding to that cad, Brad. (The invitation calls Brad something else.) Kit is with his younger brother, police officer Bandit Chase.

The scene switches to Angora Taggert in her wedding dress, while her older sister, Princess, (in her widow's weeds/black dress and veil) is trying to talk her out of marrying Brad. Princess' kitten, Sweetheart, makes an observation about her mother and her aunt that amused me. Paisley, the psychic twin sister of Princess' missing husband, Captain Nimble, shows up. She makes predictions while we readers get a panel of Natasha, Puck, and Burt talking about Paisley to an unappreciative Elvis. (So that's how Bandit went from bad boy to cop.)

Paisley talks about the star of second chances, a talk that is echoed on the next page. We can figure out that Bandit and crooked Dr. Mittens learned it from the same cat. Dr. Mittens and Brad have a cruel plot that Kit overhears. Can Kit save his beloved's father, Snowball Taggert, from that plot? Stay tuned for an exciting car chase! (Meanwhile, guess which viewers want to marry Kit Chase.)

The action shifts to the Church of Our Cat's Sake. The priest, Father O'Kittery, turns out to have connections with the Chase brothers and the Taggerts. Wow! Snowball Taggert is even worse than I thought! Brad and Dr. Mittens come into the church, armed! Who will save the day? (I did NOT see that last revelation coming.)

Burt shows the cats the original video and the remastered version for a couple of panels. (Love the fish skeleton logo on Burt's laptop.) The cats are happy to learn that their broadcasts are going to appear in newspapers.

Page 41 has an intriguing question from Puck: who DID father Paisley's psychic telekinetic kittens?

Pages 44-45 are a spread of the BCN cats and their supporting cast: cats, dog, and the robber mice (Puck is holding Buzzy Mouse), are gathered to watch the remastered broadcasts.

P. 47 is a note from the author.

The remastered stories start with the woman being pregnant with her first child. We also get to see Tommy as the nameless cat in the window again. The cats don't understand what's going on with the pregnancy, let alone why the couple are leaving in a hurry. More important to the cats is the treasure trove of lost cat toys found because the couch got moved, among them Buzzy Mouse.

Other reports from the cats are on birds, moths, a new lampshade, cat food, the moon, June bugs (the first appearance of the July bug), the vacuum cleaner, and the baby.

Page 82 is the one where the woman sings a little song while she gives Puck a ride in the laundry basket.

The visit to the vet is a big story. The cats' opinions of other animals waiting to be seen made me smile. The veterinarian, Dr. Man, has no difficulty checking out Puck and Lupin, but Elvis is another story.

After that are other adventures such as the nail hole in the wall and Lupin's exploration of some kitchen cupboards. Puck has difficulty in getting Elvis to believe that mailmen exist.

Page 117 gives us Lupin imagining himself as a space age mouser versus what is really happening.

The cats' reaction to the man cutting off his ponytail to donate the hair was dramatic. The bi-monthly 2 a.m. running of the cats should be familiar to cat owners. I suggest the human couple invest in heavy metal lamps that are hard to break.

The family is watching a vampire movie. I enjoyed the woman and Puck's reaction to Lord Battington. The title of the scary book the woman is reading on p.144 made me laugh aloud. Page 145 has a parody of Poe's 'The Raven'.

Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I loved the Halloween storyline. The baby and cats' costumes were very cute. A woman who brings her child to the door looks like the Ceiling Woman, but she has only cats that I know about. I also enjoyed the fast food dinner storyline, although I would be upset with any of our cats who did what Puck did.

Thanksgiving is reduced to the day after and the leftovers to be eaten.
The last bit in this book is Elvis comparing mailmen to mythical creatures (one of which is real) and Puck arguing for the reality of mailmen.

This book's 'More to Explore' section is from page 169 to 185, The first two pages are about the strip being digitally colored before the author went back to using watercolors. We get the standard tips for paper dolls before the pages I hope buyers are copying to cut out instead of cutting out the pages. The cast from 'Our IX Lives' are the paper dolls this time,. Angora and Kit get a page to themselves. Princess' page includes her daughter. The kitten's name is 'Sweetheart'. Bandit and Paisley have a page apiece. Snowball, Brad, and Dr. Mittens appear on the 'Villains and Foes' page. The 'Heroes and Helpers' page gives us not just Captain Nimble, Father O'Kittery, and Sister Snowbelle, we now have the names of Sweetheart's three brothers: Rascal, Rowdy, and Rogue. The crab's name is 'Lord Crabbington'.

I hope I've given enough of an idea of the contents to help fans figure out if a favorite storyline is included. Yes, there are reprints in this book, but it's nice to see the remastered versions. Besides, the soap opera special is worth the price of the book! ( )

This was different from the rest in the series. In this book, the majority of it was older comics from newspapers. I loved it! The majority of the old comics I have not read yet so to me it was the lost comics of Breaking Cat News. Excellent graphics as usual and love all the cats! ( )

I make no attempt to objectively “review” Georgia Dunn’s brilliant Breaking Cat News comic, I simply adore each and every panel she creates. “Behind the Scenes with Burt” is no exception to that rule, and in fact I love it even more than all of her other books - because this one includes strips I’ve not previously seen, yay! There’s some information here about the process of coloring comic strips for print newspapers and digitally, there are costumes for the characters for children to cut out and use, and there are priceless descriptions of important events like the 2 AM Running of the Cats (lamps, beware!), a Trip to the Vet and the Attack of the Vacuum Cleaner, among many other important matters. This is a book for everyone who loves cats, and the people who love the people who love cats; highly recommended! ( )

When I look at this cover I thought it was going to be a kids or a middle grade graphic novel. But within the pages it seems more of an adult novel with adult scenarios played out by a cat. There’s nothing that really makes it adult compared to middle grade except it’s a type of comedy I don’t think kids will get. It very much reminds me of the Office. There’s even a part where the cats are paying attention to a TV show called the Days of Our Nine Lives. This book was not for me I DNF it halfway through and I’m not sure I’d add it to my library either I just don’t get it. ( )