Fritz the Cat
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Fritz the Cat is an underground comic book fictional character created by Robert Crumb. The character first appeared in printed form during the height of the underground comix movement of the 1960s, and has since appeared in two films inspired by Crumb's comics.
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[edit] History
Fritz the Cat was one of the first characters Crumb created, and the first to see print in a professional publication. In the liner notes for the Fritz the Cat film soundtrack, Thomas Albright describes Fritz as "a kind of updated Felix with overtones of Charlie Chaplin, Candide and Don Quixote." Fritz was originally created as part of a series of comic books that R. Crumb and his brother Charles drew when they were children. In the earliest stages of the character's form, Fritz was just a normal house-cat named Fred.[1] "Fritz," as the character became, later developed into a more humanesque character as Crumb grew up, and finally into the character's final form during Crumb's teen-age years.
Crumb occasionally injected elements of his own biography and sexual misadventures into the strips, although the character increasingly became a parody of would-be poets and other middle-class bohemian types who profess to be seeking cosmic truths when they're actually more interested in chasing girls. In early strips, collected in The Complete Crumb Comics series, Fritz has adventures as a James Bond-like secret agent, has an incestuous tryst with one of his sisters and generally behaves in ways somewhat out of character with his persona in his later, published stories. The character's first published story appeared in Help! #22 (January 1965). The story was called Fritz Comes on Strong. In it, Fritz brings a young (cat) girl home, and strips all of her clothes off before getting on top of her to pick fleas off her. While Harvey Kurtzman agreed to publish the comic, he told Crumb that he did not know how he was going to "publish it without getting arrested."[2]
Fritz the Cat's adventures were published in magazines and comic books such as Cavalier, Fug, and The People's Comics throughout the years. He acquired his own title in 1969. These comics have been reprinted interspersedly in The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 1 through 8, published by Fantagraphics, as well as several "complete collections", currently out of print.
[edit] Films
The popularity of the character of Fritz the Cat led up-and-coming animation director Ralph Bakshi to make Fritz the star of his first animated feature film. The animated film is a satire on college life of the 1960s: while Fritz does not attend any classes during the movie, he participates in major social upheavals based around the popular college protest movement of the time. Released to theaters in 1972, Bakshi's film Fritz the Cat was the first animated feature film to be rated X, something that had been unheard of in American movies up until this film.
The idea for making a film based on Fritz's comics came when film producer Steve Krantz discovered a large paperback book containing three stories starring the character. Later that year, Krantz and Bakshi got in touch with Crumb and paid his way from his home north of San Francisco to New York, in order to talk with him about getting the film rights to the characters.[3]
After several meetings, Krantz received a contract, signed by Crumb, in the mail, and that in return Crumb received twelve thousand five hundred dollars, which was supplemented by a percentage of the film's gross proceeds. Crumb later claimed that he left New York without giving his approval to the film, and never signed a contract.[3]
During production, the film's original distributor, Warner Bros. pulled out of the project after viewing a presentation reel featuring a few minutes of finished animation, pencil tests, and shots of some of Bakshi's storyboards. Following this, Bakshi and Krantz left for San Francisco to raise funds from Fantasy Records, the label releasing the film's soundtrack. While there, they invited Crumb to a private screening of the presentation reel. Crumb said of it, "It wasn't bad [...] That fragment was better than Yogi Bear, but it wasn't Walt Disney."[3]
In 1970, Cinemation Industries agreed to release the film. When Crumb saw the final product, he was displeased. Crumb later stated in interviews that he never wanted the film made, and that "I wrote them a letter telling them not to use any more of my characters in their films."[3]
Despite Crumb's objections, Fritz the Cat was a box office smash hit, drawing in audiences as much for its shock value as for its appeal to the "love generation" of the 1960s, and was the first independent animated film to gross more than $100 million at the box office.[4]
The film's success also led to a brief fad within the adult film industry of producing pornographic animated short films, or inserting animated sequences into their live-action films, and releasing them to adult movie theaters with the slogan "X-rated and animated!"
A sequel was released by American International Pictures in 1974, entitled The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat, directed by Robert Taylor, and written by Taylor, Fred Halliday, and Eric Monte.
In both films, Fritz was voiced by Skip Hinnant.
[edit] Death
Crumb's displeasure with the film version of his character led him to kill off the feline in an attempt to stop the making of any future films.
The story, Fritz the Cat "Superstar", published in 1972, depicted Fritz as a pompous and arrogant famous Hollywood movie star, being exploited by a pair of film producers and his agent who cast him in endless sequels. The producers are caricatures of Ralph Bakshi (portrayed as a parrot) and Steve Krantz (portrayed as a hog with sunglasses). Fritz's agent is portrayed as a wolf.
While driving down Sunset Boulevard, Fritz picks up a young female rabbit fan of his and rapes her. After dropping her back off where he found her, Fritz tapes an episode of a television talk show hosted by a caricature of Johnny Carson. On his way home to watch himself on television, he is approached by Andrea Ostrich, a neurotic ex-girlfriend of his, who urges him to "take me home and fuck me!! Just once more for old times' sake!!"
Fritz at first refuses, but then goes with her when she tells him that he can "do anything you want to me!" At her apartment, he ignores her as he watches the television show. When the show is over, Fritz finds her hiding her head under the chair. He gives her a kick in the pants before leaving. As he walks out of the apartment commenting "ha ha ha ha ha! Foolish female!", She walks up behind him and stabs him in the back of the head with an icepick. A caption pointing to Fritz's dead body reads "violence in the media."
After having killed off Fritz, Crumb never drew another story featuring the character.[1]
[edit] Characters
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Fritz is a trouble-making, anti-establishment, college-age figure whose adventures consisted of having sex with as many anthropomorphic female animals as possible, while staying one step ahead of the law. In one of his stories, Crumb describes Fritz as "a sophisticated, up-to-the-minute young feline college student who lives in a modern 'supercity' of millions of animals...yes, not unlike people in their manners and morals....."
Recurring characters include Fritz's girlfriend: the ever-oppressive Winston the Fox, the city's piggish cops, negro crows, and Fritz's college buddies, Fuzzy the Bunny (also a former character from the comics Crumb drew as a child) and Heinz the Swine.
[edit] List of stories
- Fritz Comes on Strong—first published in Help! #22, January, 1965
- Fred, the Teen-Age Girl Pigeon—first published in Help! #24, May, 1965
- Fritz Bugs Out—first serialized in the February to October 1968 issues of Cavalier
- Fritz the Cat—first published in R. Crumb's Head Comix, 1968.
- Fritz the No-Good—first published in the September/October 1968 issue of Cavalier.
- Untitled—created in 1964; first published in R. Crumb's Comics & Stories, 1969
- Fritz the Cat, Special Agent for the C.I.A.—created March/May 1965; first published in R. Crumb's Fritz the Cat, 1969.
- Fritz the Cat, Magician—created summer 1965; first published in Promethean Enterprises#3, 1971.
- Fritz the Cat: "Superstar"—first published in The People's Comics, 1972.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Donald D. Markstein. Fritz the Cat history. Toonopedia. Retrieved on 2007-01-15.
- ^ The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book; (ISBN 0-316-16306-6, 1997).
- ^ a b c d Michael Barrier (1972/73). The Filming of Fritz the Cat. Funnyworld, Nos. 14 and 15. Retrieved on 2007-01-15.
- ^ Pat Saperstein (Jan. 9, 2007). Producer Krantz dies at 83. Variety. Retrieved on 2007-01-15.
