CSotD: Little Mutts
Skip to comments
I'm a huge fan of Patrick McDonnell's art but must confess that I'm not blown away by Mutts itself as often as I'd like to be. As he noted in the profile that ran here recently, Mutts is a quiet place in a noisy world and maybe I just like a little more noise in my morning routine.
However, his occasional homage strips are priceless, and this is the best I've seen. I remember as a small child being able to "get" the Little King with its wordless progression of events leading to a punchline, at a time when the flamboyant lettering of Pogo was too confusing and the continuity strips made no sense to me at all. And I don't recall having the same attraction to Henry which was also a simple strip without words. Perhaps there was a difference to my young mind between having never met an actual king and never having actually seen anybody put a pie out to cool on a windowsill, but I much preferred the Little King.
In this case, McDonnell has not only captured the art of the Little King precisely but has also got the pacing and the humor level exactly right. I guess it's the perfect intersection of McDonnell's study of George Herriman and his years of doing the little iconic cartoons in Sports Illustrated's Scorecard feature.
For a better view, try clicking on the image.
Comments 2
Comments are closed.