| Mother Goose and Grimm | |
|---|---|
October 5, 2011 strip |
|
| Author(s) | Mike Peters |
| Website | http://www.grimmy.com/ |
| Current status / schedule | Running |
| Launch date | October 1, 1984 |
| Syndicate(s) | Tribune Media Services (former) King Features Syndicate (current) |
| Genre(s) | Humor |
Mother Goose and Grimm (aka Mother Goose & Grimm) is an internationally syndicated comic strip by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Mike Peters. It was first syndicated in 1984 and is distributed by King Features Syndicate to more than 800 newspapers. Peters has received recognition for the strip with the National Cartoonists Society's 1991 Reuben Award and a nomination for their Newspaper Comic Strip Award for 2000.
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The strip's main character is a bull terrier[1] named Grimm, known as Grimmy. Although he is a pet, he is currently depicted as being able to speak with both human and animal characters in the strip. Grimmy's communication was previously depicted in thought balloons. Grimmy's fellow pet is a cat named Attila, with whom he has a sometimes acrimonious but sometimes friendly relationship. Both Grimmy and Attila are owned by Mother Goose (whom the two refer to as "Mom"), an anthropomorphic goose living in human society. The supporting characters include Ralph, a not too bright Boston Terrier. The strip originally had an additional regular, a pig named Ham who shared the house with Mother Goose, until that character was dropped during the 1990s.
The strip's subject matter features both one-a-day gags and week-long storylines. The central characters sometimes encounter real-life personalities such as Fidel Castro and Trouble Helmsley. Occasional strips feature gags in which none of the main characters appear; many of these involve animals acting anthropomorphically or are based on characters from literature, popular culture, folklore and mythology, such as Dracula, Superman, Robin Hood and Zeus.
The November 7th, 2011, strip mentions two restaurants, Le Barnardin and Per Se, located in New York City, suggesting that the characters may live there.
CBS aired a Saturday morning cartoon in 1991, Mother Goose and Grimm, also promoted as Grimmy, based on the strip. The voice performers included Charlie Brill as Grimmy, Mitzi McCall as Mother Goose, and Greg Burson as Attila. The show is often shown in syndication. It featured early animation work by Stephen Hillenburg, who went on to work on the Nickelodeon hit cartoon Rocko's Modern Life and later created SpongeBob SquarePants.
Grimmy made a couple of appearances on the CGI animated film, Garfield Gets Real. His first appearance was in the cafeteria scene, when Odie jumps on the table that Grimmy's sitting at. His second one was when he was drinking out of the water fountain near the auditorium, in which he sees a poodle and immediately falls in love, drops the water on his head, and follows the poodle. He later appeared again in another cafeteria scene in which everyone is thinking of an idea in which to bring Garfield and Odie to come back to Cartoonworld. He appeared again in the men's bathroom drinking out of the toilet, and is immediataly embarrassed. This was similar to Dagwood's scene in which he is taking a bath. His final appearance was when everybody is cheering that they had brought back Garfield from the real world, in which he is in a crowd cheering. He did not appear in the sequels, "Garfield's Fun Fest", and "Garfield's Pet Force".
In a comic strip published on January 2, 2009, one character wonders if the Colombian crime syndicate puts parts of the body of Juan Valdez in each can of coffee.[2][3] The comic strip refers to an advertising slogan of Colombian coffee that there's a little bit of Juan Valdez in every can of Colombian coffee.[3] In response to the comic strip, the Colombian Coffee-growers Federation made plans to sue artist Mike Peters for linking Colombian coffee to human rights abuse.[4] The Colombian Coffee-growers Federation announced it would seek at least $20,000,000 "for damage and harm, detriment to intellectual property and defamation" as well as a retraction from all newspapers that published the comic strip that day.[3] Federation President Gabriel Silva called the comic strip "a denigrating and disrespectful piece of black humor".[4] Peters responded saying that he loves Colombia, drinks Colombian coffee every day, and meant no offense or insult.[3] Peters said the comic strip is meant to be read along with the other comic strips that week, including one that refers to a can of Pringles potato chips containing the ashes of the inventor of Pringles.[3]
