Bar none, MUTTS is my favorite comic strip. It is funny and poignient at the same time. Whenever I see Mooch arch his eyebrow, I think that McDonnell has been influenced by Geo. MacManus' Maggie; more than that, it's the way he draws all the faces a-la Bringing Up Father (also, coincidentally?, a King Features syndicated strip.)
Were I on a desert island and could only have one comic strip, and one adventure strip, they'd be Mutts and The Phantom (speak of a guilty pleasure!).
John
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Posted by: Don Markstein
Posted on: 2008-09-22 at 07:39:43 AM
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You're in good company. As I believe I mentioned in my article on Mutts, among its celebrity fans is Charles M. Schulz, creator of Peanuts, and he ought to know a top-notch comic when he sees one.
I can see the McManus influence in his work. But judging from McDonnell's picture, I'm guessing he didn't directly experience McManus (who's been dead for 54 years) as a child. His successors imitated his style, tho, and there's certainly been no shortage of McManus reprints he could have seen as an adult. His bio lists George Herriman (Krazy Kat) and Elzie Segar (Popeye) as influences, and they've been dead even longer.
Anyway, great strip! You've got good taste (except possibly for that guilty pleasure, which I think is, shall we say, long past its prime).
Quack, Don
I can see the McManus influence in his work. But judging from McDonnell's picture, I'm guessing he didn't directly experience McManus (who's been dead for 54 years) as a child. His successors imitated his style, tho, and there's certainly been no shortage of McManus reprints he could have seen as an adult. His bio lists George Herriman (Krazy Kat) and Elzie Segar (Popeye) as influences, and they've been dead even longer.
Anyway, great strip! You've got good taste (except possibly for that guilty pleasure, which I think is, shall we say, long past its prime).
Quack, Don
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Posted by: Don Markstein
Posted on: 2008-09-22 at 07:41:51 AM
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P.S.
Oh year. Krazy and Popeye are also (coincidentally?) King Features comics.
Quack, Don
Oh year. Krazy and Popeye are also (coincidentally?) King Features comics.
Quack, Don
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Posted by: ignatz
Posted on: 2008-10-03 at 12:49:41 PM
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McDonnell actually helped right the book on George Herriman. I appreciated Mutts a lot better after I learned more about old comics. It's nice to know that comic creators still care about craft sometimes instead of spewing one liners to the mass market.
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Posted by: Don Markstein
Posted on: 2008-10-04 at 04:13:51 AM
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You got that right! It was the fact that he obviously appreciates the classics that first called his strip to my attention.
Quack, Don
Quack, Don
