Ozy and Millie
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| Ozy and Millie | |
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| Author(s) | D. C. Simpson |
| Website | http://www.ozyandmillie.org/ |
| Current status | Updating every week day |
| Launch date | January 1998 |
Ozy and Millie is a webcomic, created by D. C. Simpson, which debuted in January 1998. It follows the adventures of assorted anthropomorphized animals. New strips are released on most weekdays. The comic centers on Ozy and Millie, two young foxes from a town called North Harbordale contending with everyday elementary school issues such as tests and bullies, as well as more surreal situations.
The strip usually concentrates on character interaction, but occasionally veers into political commentary. Simpson airs his political views more directly in his other comic, I Drew This. Most of the strips have been reprinted in book form. Five collections were released through Plan 9 Publishing, but they have all gone out of print; currently an incomplete set of the strip's archives is available through Lulu.com. Its animal characters focus on grade-school matters, use of ink and brush as drawing implements, cynical-yet-hopeful tone, and generally bizarre situations remind some readers of Calvin and Hobbes (in fact, Simpson's index page for 2000 depicts Ozy and Millie dressed as Calvin and Hobbes), though readers have also seen connections to Berkeley Breathed's and Walt Kelly's work.
The comic was part of Keenspot from 2001 to 2003, went independent for several years and returned in November 2006.
In 2002, the strip won the Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards for Best Anthropomorphic Comic.
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[edit] Characters
Ozymandias Justin "Ozy" Llewellyn, an arctic fox, usually plays the "straight person," serenely accepting his place "in the eye of the storm." And he has a lot of storm to contend with. His friend Millicent Mehitabel "Millie" Mudd, a red fox, spends most of her time making life difficult for others and loves finding new ways of making a mess of things. Ozy's adoptive dragon father Llewellyn is perhaps the oddest of the bunch, being involved in everything from running for President - first under the "People With Nothing Better To Do" Party, then under the Zen Party (he "campaigns by not campaigning") - to playing the incomprehensible "House Rules Parcheesi" (whose resemblance to Calvinball has not gone unnoted). Ms. Mudd, Millie's lawyer mother and Llewellyn's romantic interest, is usually in charge of keeping Millie under control (which is no easy task).
Ozy and Millie's raccoon friend Avery has devoted his life to trying to be "cool," even though that sometimes means ditching his "uncool" friends (if only for a while). Ironically, he often hangs out with Stephan the aardvark, the nerdiest character by far, whose lifetime goal seems to involve the ultimate destruction of Microsoft. Also hindering Avery's quest for coolness is his kid brother Timulty, whose innocence is greatly welcomed in a world where adults seem to be no smarter than kids.
The two major antagonists are Felicia the sheep, the "popular girl" who's always teasing Millie for being too individualistic (or in some cases just plain weird), and Jeremy the rabbit, whose favorite pastime is stuffing Ozy into trash cans.
Other characters include Ms. Sorkowitz, Ozy's kangaroo teacher; Principal Beau Vine, the bull principal of the school (who apparently believes that "repeated exposure to unprovoked assault squelches unhealthy nonconformist tendencies" - the author freely admits to having issues [1]) and Dr. I. Wahnsinnig (German for insane or mad), the ring-tailed lemur psychiatrist of the school. Also included are Ozy's dragon cousin Isolde, who is in charge of various conspiracies from time to time (the most notable is the time she hijacked a truckload of thermometers as a roundabout way of getting hired as a reporter for a cable news network), and Captain Locke, a kid pirate from an alternate dimension on the other side of the couch, in which people age backwards. This is how Locke, currently the age of the children, is also Millie's father.
[edit] Collected Editions
- Ozy and Millie. ISBN 1-929462-11-5*
- Ozy and Millie, volume 2: Never Mind Pants. ISBN 1-929462-20-4*
- Ozy and Millie, volume 3: Ink and White Space. ISBN 1-929462-43-3*
- Ozy and Millie, volume 4: Authentic Banana Dye. ISBN 1-929462-56-5*
- Ozy and Millie, volume 5: Om. ISBN 1-929462-69-7*
- Tofu Knights: Ozy and Millie, 2004-2005. 128 pages, 2006 ISBN 1-84728-772-7
- Prehistrionics: Ozy and Millie, 1997-2000. 176 pages, 2006 ISBN 1-84728-773-5
- The Big Book of Ancient, Semi-Coherent Wisdom: Ozy and Millie, 2000-2001. 132 pages, 2006 ISBN 978-1-4303-1505-6
- Zen Again: Ozy and Millie, 2001-2002. 128 pages, 2007 ISBN 978-1-4303-1508-7
- Material from Ozy and Millie appears in Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists.
* These books are permanently out of print.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official site of Ozy and Millie
- Define "Cynical" - Fan site and discussion board
- House Rules - Ozy and Millie colored by fans
- Comixpedia Interview with D. C. Simpson
