Mutts
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Mutts is a daily comic strip started by Patrick McDonnell in 1994, based on the day-to-day adventures of two house pets: a dog named Earl and a cat named Mooch. Earl and Mooch interact with each other, their human owners, and a large cast of neighborhood animals.
Supposedly, McDonnell's initial idea was for a strip featuring the humans who became the "Mutts'" owners, but the animals took over[citation needed].
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[edit] Main characters
The strip centers on the relationship between Mooch, a cat, and his best friend and neighbor Earl, a dog. Their friendship focuses on the differences between cats and dogs as pets: Earl is friendly, loves the company of his human companion and loves to play outside; Mooch is often indifferent to his human companions, except for being fed, and prefers to stay inside and play by himself.
[edit] Earl
Earl lives with his human companion Ozzie, a bachelor. They love spending time together, taking frequent walks, and Earl often howls in loneliness when Ozzie is away from home. Earl spends much of his free time with Mooch, either inside or wandering around town visiting other domesticated and wild animals. He loves to eat, both human food and his own dog food.
[edit] Mooch
Mooch lives next door to Earl, with his human companions Millie and Frank, and a pet fish named Sid. Mooch is somewhat reclusive, sometimes preferring to stay inside and nap, or play with his little pink sock, rather than go outside with Earl. He has a lisp that causes him to insert an sh into inappropriate words, such as yesh or shmousie. He frequently shnubs his food, much to Millie's chagrin, dislikes car rides, and like Earl, eats human food at every opportunity.
[edit] Other characters
Animals
- Bip and Bop - Two squirrels who like "bonking" ground-dwellers with nuts
- Chickpea and Chickpea's brother - Two former "shelter stories" kitties
- Crabby - An unhappy crab who always talks in expletives
- Guard Dog - A fierce-looking canine perpetually chained up in his yard
- King Crab - The "crabbiest" of them all
- Lollipop- Crabby's "soft-shell" wife.
- McGarry - A bird who lives at the shore and tries to get Crabby not to swear
- Mussels Marinara - A mussel that's always talking about its "mussels" (muscles). Crabby's buddy.
- Noodles - An alley cat friend of Shtinky
- Philippe - A bird always wooing his love, Phoebe
- Shnelly - The house cat for whose love Mooch and Noodles fight
- Shphinx - Mooch's alter ego, obsessed with prophesizing
- Shtinky Puddin (aka "Jules") - A little kitty, who wants to save the world, his owners are very wealthy, and he speaks out about animal rights, especially saving the Tigers
- Sid - An unhappy fish who wishes to be free
- Speed-o (aka "Little Earl") - Mooch's pet snail obsessed with walking Mooch, "his pet"
- Sourpuss - An unhappy kitty who hates Mondays
- Tom-Tom - A former "shelter stories" cat
- Woofie - A dog that "wuvs" everything and everyone
Humans
- Bushy - Doozy's best friend and a hero to Tom-Tom
- Butchie - The owner of "Fatty Snax Deli," who tries to stop Mooch and Earl from eating his food
- Doozy - A little girl who loves animals
- Frank - Millie's husband
- Millie - Mooch's owner
- Ozzie - Earl's owner - named for Savoy co-founder and personal friend Ozzie Cadena
- Dr. Woo - A veterinarian
[edit] Recurring Storylines
From time-to-time there are special sets of daily comic strips, such as "Shelter Stories" (which focuses on animals in shelters) and "Animal Idol" (a parody of American Idol).
[edit] Animal welfare and animal rights
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On occasion, McDonnell devotes the strip for a week or so to animal welfare issues, especially the adoption of pets from animal shelters. Themes include "Farm Animal Awareness Week" and "Shelter Stories", where pet adoption as well as pet shelter life is focussed on. McDonnell also created artwork for the second generation New Jersey Animal Friendly optional license plate first issued in 2001. A portion of the revenue from the plates goes to the New Jersey State Department of Health's Animal Population Control Program. Also, he speaks out (usually using Shtinky) about numerous animal rights causes, including seal clubbing, whale hunting and most of all, saving the tigers. [1]
[edit] Sunday title panels
Sunday strips are coloured and their title panels are usually a tribute to a famous comic strip, a work of art or another subject, among which one can find tributes to Flash #1, Dalí's The Persistence of Memory, Elvis Presley and Magritte's Golconda, to name but a few. Title Panel Tributes.
[edit] Mutts books
[edit] Annual collections
Black-and-white reproductions of full year's strips.
- Mutts (1996)
- Cats & Dogs (1997)
- More Shtuff (1998)
- Yesh! (1999)
- Our Mutts (2000)
- A Little Look-See (2001)
- What Now (2002)
- I Want To Be The Kitty! (2003)
- Dog-Eared (2004)
- Who Let The Cat Out? (2005)
- Everyday Mutts: A Comic Strip Treasury (2006)
[edit] Sundays collections
Large-format color reproductions of Sunday strips.
[edit] Miscellaneous
- Mutts Little Big Book (1998)
- Mutts: The Comic Art of Patrick McDonnell (2003) (retrospective)
- Mutts: The gift of nothing (2005)
[edit] Mutts in other languages
- Denmark: "Mis Og Fister"
- Sweden: "Morrgan & Klös"
- Norway: "Pels og poter" ("Fur and paws")
- Finland: "Kamut" ("Pals")
- Austria: "Milou & Filou"
