By David Folkman
How Mutts creator Patrick McDonnell tips his hat to classic comic strips, comic books, and fine art in his Sunday strips
To the reader, Patrick McDonnell's love of drawing Mutts is infectious. Clearly, he has fun with it. His daily strip, meditative and funny, is a quiet reminder of why we turn to the comics section. His Sunday page is reminiscent of an era when cartoonists such as Winsor McCay and George Herriman mixed their palettes to strikingly unique effect. Whereas many contemporary cartoonists seem content to add a few panels linking together a Sunday strip, McDonnell continually redefines his space and achieves a colorful panorama to the delight of his growing legion of fans.
Some readers have been content with part of the magic of the Sunday Mutts; they don't know what they've been missing. Readers fortunate enough to have a Sunday newspaper carrying Mutts intact are treated to his inventive opening logo panel. Subscribing newspapers have the option of deciding whether a syndicated Sunday strip will run full-size or trimmed. (Most syndicates instruct their cartoonists to draw on a template to allow some panels, including the logo, to be dropped without affecting the context of the strip.) McDonnell's logo panel gives him the opportunity to pay homage to nearly every artist (within and without comics) he admires.
We hope McDonnell's insights on the following pages will give readers a renewed appreciation of the craft he brings to Mutts and another reason why his work is a modern treasure.
"This strip was about how pets perceive their owners as being able to do anything for them. I did the strip first, and then I wanted to do an opening panel with a powerful character, and Superman is the ultimate powerful character. Drawing Ozzie as Superman was a natural."
"I had written a gag that had Earl dreaming about Mooch, so using Little Nemo falling out of bed was the image I wanted to use as the opener." (left)
(right) "Another strip had Earl in bed, so I used the walking-bed image from Little Nemo. It's a well-known image, and a great image. Little Nemo in Slumberland is one of my favorite comics, and I enjoyed the chance to pay homage to it."
(left) "This one got me a lot of mail. I got one from a guy who said he screamed to his wife that he knew what this was, and he ran down to a pile of magazines in his basement. I don't know if he had the original cover, but he had a reproduction of it, and he proved to her that he knew what it was."
"This is another that got a lot of mail. One guy wrote me that he had his Zap #1 framed with my Mutts logo-that was nice. But I don't know if a lot of people reading the Sunday comics knew that I was borrowing this image from an underground comic book. They probably just thought the cat was jumping into the air."
"This image by the late Saul Steinberg has been around. I think a lot of people knew this, but it was fun adapting it to my strip. I also enjoyed working in the reference to 'Coconino River' instead of Hudson River and the Herriman rock formations."
"This was another instance in which I produced the cartoon first. The gag was about Frank's frustration -- he was getting crazy, really mad. Munch's painting is a pretty well-known portrayal of that feeling of madness."
This is an excerpt of a longer feature in HOGAN'S ALLEY #7
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