Steampunk comic panel of a woman, grinning top-hat Cheshire cat, and golden phoenix at a surreal starry tea party
This whimsical steampunk fantasy webcomic follows a goggled Victorian woman, grinning top-hat wearing Cheshire cat, and metallic golden phoenix sharing a playful tea party under a dark starry desert sky. The rich painterly art uses warm glowing gold accents against deep midnight blue tones, with dry comedic dialogue about eating gold and inflation. The final panel delivers a heartfelt silly pun about valuing friends over glittering treasure.

Steampunk comic panel of a woman, grinning top-hat Cheshire cat — AI art by @CaylaCatz

@CaylaCatz · 10/2/2026

Entry in the The Love of Felines! theme on BudgetPixel.

Tea with Alice and the Cheshire Cat Special guest: Alicanto In Chilean folklore, the Alicanto is a nocturnal bird of the Atacama Desert. It eats gold and silver ore, and its wings glow with metallic light. If it has been feeding on gold, its plumage shines golden; if it has been feeding on silver, it gleams silver. The bird is often flightless because eats so much precious metal that it becomes too heavy to fly. Instead, it runs across the desert at night with its glowing wings spread. If you secretly follow an Alicanto without being detected, it may lead you to a rich vein of gold or silver. But if the bird notices it is being followed, it may extinguish its glow and vanish into the darkness. Be careful! In some legends, greedy seekers are deliberately lured toward cliffs or dangerous places.

Steampunk comic panel of a woman, grinning top-hat Cheshire cat, and golden phoenix at a surreal starry tea party
This whimsical steampunk fantasy webcomic follows a goggled Victorian woman, grinning top-hat wearing Cheshire cat, and metallic golden phoenix sharing a playful tea party under a dark starry desert sky. The rich painterly art uses warm glowing gold accents against deep midnight blue tones, with dry comedic dialogue about eating gold and inflation. The final panel delivers a heartfelt silly pun about valuing friends over glittering treasure.

Tags: steampunk comic, fantasy tea party, Cheshire cat, golden phoenix, webcomic, surreal humor, Freaky Fridays, Cayla Catz, fantasy illustration, pun comic, whimsical art, funny comic, treasure humor, steampunk character art, desert night scene

12 likes · 15 comments

Comments

CaylaCatz

First time I've heard of it too. I ask copilot to help me dig for interesting mythological or folkloric animal characters and this was one of them. I found this guy fascinating.

antares

I think this is one of your best comic strips (even though, in this format, I prefer the ones with just two rows). And the speech bubbles are excellent! 😎

panos

Now THIS is certainly one heck of a RICH tea-party! (Love the Alicanto - hadn;r heard of it)

JMN

hahaha this is gold lol~

CaylaCatz

laughing, glad you like it

CaylaCatz

Yeah, I'm happy with the speech bubbles on this one. Last one I had to fix a couple. Since I have given up Photoshop, I'm trying gimp. I am not as good at it as I was at PS but good enough for online, not print.

panos

Cayla, I sent you an important message just now, in my post with the autumnal images