 | Mother Goose and GrimmOriginal Medium: Newspaper comics Distributed by: Tribune Media Services First Appeared: 1984 Creator: Mike Peters image: © Grimmy, Inc. |
A little old lady whose connection with reality is just a tiny bit on the tenuous side, teamed up with a dog that could easily pass for a horrifying hallucination — that's the formula that's made Mother Goose & Grimm a huge success on both the comics page and the TV screen.
The cast is rounded out by Attila, Mother Goose's cat, whose
major role is to be harassed, terrified and otherwise antagonized
by Grimmy. But if a gag that doesn't involve these characters
should happen to suggest itself to Mike Peters, the cartoonist who created them, he won't
hesitate to do it without them. In fact, he's not above the
occasional use of characters from other strips, such as Popeye or Nancy, should
a good way to make fun of them occur to him.
Peters won awards — including the Pulitzer Prize — for his editorial cartoons before launching Mother Goose & Grimm, which first appeared in papers on October 1, 1984. He then proceeded to win awards for the strip — including the National Cartoonists' Society's prestigious Reuben Award, which he received in 1991. Both the strip and his editorial cartoons started out being distributed by Tribune Media Services, but has switched to King Features.
By 1991, Grimmy was appearing in over 500 newspapers, and several reprint books were out. There were also more than 100 products, such as T-shirts and coffee mugs, bearing his licensed image. That's when he took to the air. The animated version, containing the three major characters plus a few more created for television, debuted as part of CBS's Saturday morning lineup on September 14 of that year. The series was produced by Lee Mendelsohn, who was involved with the early Charlie Brown specials. Mother Goose's voice was done by Mitzi McCall (also heard in TaleSpin) did Mother Goose's voice, Charlie Brill (I Yabba Dabba Do!) did Grimmy's and Greg Burson (Wacky Races 2000 video game) did Attila's.
Today, those reprint volumes are still in print, and the TV show is still seen in syndicated reruns. The strip now appears in more papers than ever. And no end is in sight.
