Thought it would be fun to examine the long, rich history of comic strip animals, starting with Pogo and the gang and continuing on through Snoopy, Grimm, Heathcliff, Marmaduke, the inhabitants of Sherman's Lagoon and of course the gang over at 'Get Fuzzy', easily the funniest new comic strip in years, IMHO.

(Everybody does remember 'Pogo', right? Walt Kelly? A cigar-smoking alligator and a turtle in a pirate hat (among others)? 'We have seen the enemy and he is us?')

"We have met the enemy...."

And approprriate to the Season soon to be upon us "Deck us all with Boston, Charlie,
Walla Walla Wash. and Kalamazoo"

The Turtle's name was Churchy LeFemme. I think the Alligator was Albert (but I'm not sure). Pogo himself (the Bob Newhart [with a slight touch of Jeff Foxworthy] of the strip) was a possum.

Thanks, Tom...guess I got slightly ahead of myself there. Yeah, the alligator's name was Albert.

I've got a Pogo retrospective at home that gives all the words to Deck Us All With Boston Charlie. Gonna have to dig it out. (But for now, the next few lines: "Nora's freezin' on the trolley/Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-ga-roo!")

And then there's what they did to poor Good King Wenceslas. Every Christmas there'd be a strip with Churchy & co. starting out, "Good King Sauerkraut looked out/On his feets uneven..."
One year, Pogo lost it and started yelling to the effect of "No, NO! King Wenceslas! WENCESLAS!"
Whereupon the 'choir' started murmuring, "Did you hear that? Wenceslas is King! Good King Sauerkraut must be dead!" "I never even knew he was sick!"

Man, I love this strip.

Oh, and hey: Pogo himself (the Bob Newhart [with a slight touch of Jeff Foxworthy] of the strip). Perfect description, just perfect!

I LOVE Get Fuzzy!

Me too. Especially after I bought the collection and discovered the very first strip dealt with Bucky the cat 'beating the stuffing out of [a] Tickle Me Elmo doll.'
"You got in a fight with a toy?" his disbelieving owner asks.
"It was LAUGHING at me!!" Bucky retorts.

(Off topic: My small nephew just got the newest Elmo doll - has anyone else seen this thing? You lift it up, it says, "Wanna play with Elmo?" You decide not to, and put it down...and as you're walking away you suddenly hear this plaintive "So, do you wanna play or not?" coming from the little red creepazoid. Talk about messing with preschoolers' minds...)

Anyway. Get Fuzzy is wonderfully well-observed - take it from someone who owns two cats! I like Rob the owner's permanent grudge at the universe for convincing him to house fuzzy critters in the first place: "'Get a cat', they said. 'Zero maintenance' they said..."

(Rob's feelings become understandable when you realize that this particular cat asks him to critique a feline autobiography - "I mean, Chapter 5: In Which I Shift My Butt...I don't wanna read that" - paticipates in rallies for Cat's Rights - "Wait, I thought catnip was legal!?" and where actual labour is concerned veers between "I guess I'll be a rock star when I grow up' and 'Work? What do I look like, a Border Collie!?")

Also fun is the concept of the dog Satchel's owning a watch without knowing how to tell time (and doing all the housework), Persian cats as the supermodels of the cat world, and Rob's buddy Joe being African-American without a big For Better or for Worse-esque deal being made of it.

comic strip animals, starting with Pogo and the gang Kerriem

Actually Krazy Kat (1910-1944) predates Pogo (1948-1975, 1989-1993). (But don't tell Miss Hepzibah or she might get jealous.;-)

Pogo actually begain as a comic book character. (Animal Comics #1 Dec. 1941/Jan. 1942)

I don't know what the first animal comic strip was, however, looking through 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics shows a strip called The Latest News From Bugville started in 1901, and something called The Journal Tigers starting in 1898 (although the book's author doesn't consider it to be a true comic strip.)

As I understand it, the comic-book Pogo actually had a little African-American kid as the main character. Walt Kelly decided that animals were more interesting than people and dropped him.

Good point about Krazy Kat. I have to admit I've never really understood the appeal of Harriman's stuff, but apparently I'm in the really, really teeny minority.

One last wonderful Pogo moment:

After spending a month's worth of strips being caught and (almost) cooked by Wiley Katt, Pogo has finally come home. Porkypine decides to call. After debating how best to 'cheer Pogo up', he goes with the following:

Porky (after a long pause): We never know who's next.

Pogo (wide-eyed): Nossir.

Longer pause.

Porky: Well, hope you is cheered...Want you to know that iffen I had been there and they had cooked you, I would not have eaten any. Good day.

The kid was named Bumbazine.

I never really understood Krazy Kat either. Usually when people go on about it it has to do with the art, which apparently inspired surrealist artists like Joan Miró. Although the main reason Krazy Kat stayed around was that newspaper owner W.R. Hearst was a fan and even put in his will that it be published.

Course I'm not really a fan of Pogo either. My dad is, though & he doesn't understand why I don't think it's as funny as he does. I find it generally amusing, with some nice quotes, but it only makes me laugh about once every hundred strips or so.

One thing I found interesting is that Kelly would produce "bunny-rabbit strips" when the regular Pogo was dealing with a political issue, so if an editor didn't like the regular strip they had an alternate to run instead.

I find Get Fuzzy to be okay, but if my paper dropped it it wouldn't bother me.

Heathcliff & Marmaduke also okay, but nothing special.

Snoopy, Mother Goose & Grimm, and Sherman's Lagoon I like.
As well as Shoe (which hasn't been mentioned yet.)

I did like Fred Basset, but I haven't seen it in years and don't know if it's still around or not.

I also had a book of Eek & Meek strips (anthropomorphic mice) which I enjoyed.

Eek & Meek are mice? Well, that clears that up! I always figured they were human...with reallyreally big noses for some reason.

I agree that Marmaduke isn't overly inspired. I get the distinct impression that it's meant less to make the majority laugh than to make dog lovers go 'awwwwwww...' Family Circus syndrome.

Pogo's 'bunny rabbit strips' came about as a result of Kelly's relentless satirizing of Sen. Joseph McCarthy as 'Simple J. Malarkey'. Basically, at the height of the Army-McCarthy hearings, Malarkey showed up in Okefenokee and started arresting various critters for increasingly silly reasons.
As you can imagine, a lot of newspapers objected. So Kelly - tongue firmly in cheek - drew up an alternate series that revolved around an Easter Bunny convention instead. These are very simple and conventionally 'cute' as opposed to Kelly's usual richly detailed style.

Eek & Meek started out as mice. Over the years, the artist (Frank Thaves, wasn't it?) gradually made them more human. I once saw an article (probably in Comics Scene) that shown the evolution of the characters.

Eek & Meek's author/artist is (or was) Howie Schneider. You might be thinking of Bob Thaves who does Frank And Ernest.

According to 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics Eek & Meek started in 1965 and in 1977 Howie decided to make them human and started slowly changing them until 1982 when they became human.

Also flipping through the book spotted an entry on Belvedere (name of the starring dog) which I loved as a kid, but haven't seen in years.

Ugh, Keith, you're right. In my defense,The Dallas Morning News does not carry either "Eek & Meek" or "Frank and Ernest", so it's been years since I've read either strips. I just remembered that the characters (Eek & Meek) began as mice and were later turned into humans. Plus, I could only think of the name Thaves. (Not only did I get the first name wrong, but I attributed to him the wrong strip.) (Boy, I'm doin' real good. Eeyep.)

Anyway, with any luck, this'll make up for my stupidity. Here's where you can find the lyrics to "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie":

http://www.igopogo.com/deck_us_all.htm

Well, I'm not great with names either, Frank... er... Benn. ;-)

The online comic Exploitation Now had a strip last year where they sang Boston Charlie.

It's working.

"Also flipping through the book spotted an entry on Belvedere (name of the starring dog) which I loved as a kid, but haven't seen in years." - KAM

Is this by any chance the strip you're talking about? http://www.belvedere-cartoons.com/

Yep.

Thanks for the link.

You're welcome, sir.

Recently came acrooss a book of Gus Dirk cartoon illustrations.
So far discovered that he illustrated a strip called “The Latest News from Bugville.” from 1901 to1903can anyone shed a little light on this artist and are his drawings collectable.
Thanks in advance for any help.
My email is albion3@msn.com

Don't know about his collectibility.

According to 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics Gus was the younger brother of Rudolf Dirks (creator of The Katzenjammer Kids & The Captain & The Kids). He contributed to the major humor mags of the day. He speciallized in bug cartoons. In the late 1890s a book of cartoons he did in Judge magazine was released called Bugville Life. It was this book that lead the Hearst organization to hire him to do a comic, originally called Bugville Life, but was later changed to The Latest News From Bugville for copyright reasons. He committed suicide in 1903 at the age of 24.

Another cartoonist was hired to continue Bugville which ran till 1912.

Oh dear Lord.... They are scraping the bottom of the barrel...

I just saw a billboard for a ... MARMADUKE movie, starring Owen Wilson and George Lopez.

Just shoot me now, please.

Which one's playing Marmaduke? ;-)

Actually given that I can only remember one adult male who regularly appeared in Marmaduke (at least, back when I actually read it) the fact that they have cast two men makes me worried they're going to give Marm a voice.

Errrrrrrrrrrgggg...

*shoots ScottN*

My guess is that Owen Wilson is going to do the voice of the dumb dog.

And, alas... IMDB confirms that.

Something tells me this movie is going to bomb.

Remember "Brenda Starr" with Brooke Shields?

Well, I had successfully forgotten it until you went & reminded me! The pain! The agony! Where's the brain bleach?!

;-)

Why on Earth are they giving Marm a voice? If they wanted a talking dog why not buy the rights to Fred Bassett or some other talking dog comic?

What's next Henry The Musical? ("He sings! He dances! He has hair!")

*shakes head at Hollywood's infinite stupidity*

C'mon. Marmaduke talking makes him Scooby Doo without Shaggy and Mystery Machine.

And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you meddling nitpickers!

Oh, wait, I'm still getting away with it! Muhahahahaha! *laughs way to the bank while making plans for Henry The Musical*

Based on the billboard, Marm is talking to other dogs.

And you, Evil Movie Executive, will never do lunch in this town again!