Forbes Features Top Dog Earl (Mutts)
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The comic strip MUTTS started with the dog Earl and his owner Ozzie based on cartoonist Patrick O’Donnell and his pet Jack Terrier also named Earl.
As Jen Reeder for Forbes was told by McDonnell (or here via Yahoo):
“The art director told me I was drawing a Jack Russell terrier,” he said. “And that was before ‘Frasier’ and Jack Russells got really popular. So I had to go to the library and look up a Jack Russell and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, it is the dog I’m drawing.’ So I went out and got Earl.”
“Earl proved to be the inspiration for the lovable main character in “Mutts.”
Soon the cat Mooch joined the cast. Others eventually entered the scene.
“My wife rescued a little kitten from a parking garage in Jersey City, and she came home and he was so filthy. We thought he had a black nose, but it was really a pink nose,” he recalled. “She asked me, ‘What should we name him?’ I said, ‘We should name him Shtinky,’ because he stunk. She said, ‘We can’t name him Shtink. We have to name him something sweet like Pudding.’ And then I said, ‘Well, let’s name him Shtinky Pudding.’ So that’s how Shtinky Puddin’ got his name.”
And, of course, there was Guard Dog who is now known as Sparky.
MUTTS became the funny pages home of adopt-a-pet comics and “shelter stories” weeks and the care and feeding of animals – which is what the Forbes article is about.
Also about the new MUTTS Sunday strip “definitive collections.”
Patrick McDonnell is also the creator of my favorite exclamation:
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