(by Cameron Woo)
The Bark's Winter 2003 issue features an interview with Mutts creator Patrick McDonnell. In his conversation with Bark publisher Cameron Woo, the artist talks about the comic arts comparing it to jazz (it's about timing and improvising, being in the moment), the quality of "warmth" that his friend Charles Schulz inspired him to strive for, and his fondness for dogs. McDonnell also names his nominees for cartoon dogs hall of fame. In his introduction, Mutts fan Woo describes McDonnell's new book thus: Think of this book as the liner notes of an artistic career spanning 25 years (nearly 10 as the creator of "Mutts"). Liner notes, you may remember, were the repository of "the process", where musicians would detail the creation of a piece of music on LPs (long playing albums). That's exactly what McDonnell has done with this comprehensive volume, Mutts: The Comic Art of Patrick McDonnell (Abrams). A collection of the cartoonist's best-loved strips, this beautiful hardcover book also contains an engaging array of creative artifacts that allow the reader a peek behind McDonnell's special genius.
"the genius of Mutts is fundamentally about finding art in the everyday." -John Carlin
Think of this book as the liner notes of an artistic career spanning 25 years (nearly 10 as the creator of "Mutts"). It is part autobiography, part sketchbook, part tribute (to "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz, and Popeye's E.C. Segar) and character study (Guard Dog is the tragic voice); plus, a brilliant essay by art critic John Carlin places McDonnell's works among the classics of cartoon history. This masterful collection is like the perfect jazz set something familiar,something revelatory, with just too many notes of pure joy to convey in words.The Bark: The new book looks beautiful, with over 300 illustrations. I was wondering what your thoughts were on seeing a coffee-table book of your work.
Patrick McDonnell: I think it's every artist's wish to have a coffee-table-sized book of their work. I couldn't be happier about it, and not just happy that it's made, but that any living cartoonist could get a book like that. I worked on it for over a year.
BK: There seems to be a renewed interest in the comic arts and a renaissance in contemporary cartoons.
PM: Yes, I think there is. John Carlin,the man who wrote the afterward for my book, is putting together a major comic art show for the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art in 2005. I know there's a new museum of cartoon comic art that will hopefully find a space in New York City soon. A complete collection of Gary Larson's work has just been published. I just heard that they're, going to print every 'Peanuts" comic strip. I believe a 25-volume set encompassing all 50 years. People have always enjoyed comics, but there seems to be a little resurgence. It's being treated much like jazz, one of the true American art forms, it takes us a while to respect what we've grown in our own country. People are taking the comic arts a little more seriously.
BK: Do you think it's too highfalutin to compare comic arts with an art form like jazz?
PM: I'm a drummer, so I'll always see connections with art and music. It is about timing and improvising, being in the moment. It's like jazz in the sense that in the comic strips, you have a theme sort of how jazz musicians have a theme or a structure, and every day, like a saxophone soloist, you do a variation on that theme and a little solo.
BK: You had the good fortune of meeting one of your childhood heroes, Charles Schulz you write about his influence in your book and talk about his drawings having a certain warmth. I find this quality in your work.
PM: Oh, thanks. Charles Schulz is biblical for me. Growing up in the early '60s, "Peanuts" was so big I was just mesmerized by it. I was truly taken by the life of those characters. They were just so alive on the page for me. I think his line quality and the look of his characters, they definitely came from the heart. The magic of capturing that on the page has been the single most important thing to me. As a kid, I wasn't even really concerned with drawing anatomy, I was always really concerned with getting that spark that 'Peanuts' had where you saw the characters and just loved them. It's nice that you see it in "Mutts", because that's the most important thing to me with cartooning or any art that magic feeling, that somehow you get the best of yourself on the page.
BK: You say in your book that "Mutts" celebrates the simple and the familiar, a very dog-like view of the world.
PM: I think you're absolutely right. That's really important, maybe it is like "Peanuts" or "Krazy Kat" (George Herriman). I like the peace and wonder you can find in a comic strip, and that's important to me. I based it on my own dog, and while the characters talk, I try to keep my strip very animal-like and strive for simplicity. It is sort of seeing the world through my dog's eyes, so if I can get any of his kindheartedness on the page I think I've done a successful strip.
BK: How did you begin your series of Shelter Strips?
PM: Doing the strip, my love of animals definitely came out. When you do the strip from their eyes, you realize how tough animals have it on this planet. It's funny, in my notebooks I had already worked out a story line with shelter animals. After doing a strip about pooches with homes and great owners who love them, I thought it would be nice to remind readers of all the great pooches that are waiting for great homes at their local shelter. So when the Humane Society wrote to me about National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week I thought that this would be a nice opportunity to do these stories. Then it became a yearly tradition, and I've been doing it now for about seven years.
BK: Do you have a cartoon dog character hall of fame?
PM: For me? (laughs) I think Snoopy would have to be number one. It's funny, my family grew up with cats and not dogs, so Snoopy was my dog in my head for about 20 years. Actually, I used to buy books on taking care of your dog even though I didn't have one. Number two would have to be Officer Pup from "Krazy Kat" because I'm a George Herriman fan, although Pup is not very dog-like. I would add Tige from the Buster Brown strip created by Richard Outcault and Napoleon by Clifford McBride. He's not a cartoonist, but Cecil Alden, the children's book illustrator, is another. I love all his dogs.
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