Week 3: Comics Strips

I can probably credit the Sunday comics in the Chicago tribune as my first introduction to art.  I was obsessed with them.  Every Sunday when I went to my grandparents' house, my grandma would hand me the comic pages that she saved from the week and I would read through them, cutting out my favorites.  By the age of 10, I had libraries of scrapbooks and folders with my favorite comic strips.  These included:  Zits, Peanuts, Sherman's Lagoon, Mutts, For Better or for Worse, Baby Blues, and Calvin and Hobbes, amongst many others.

When I was reading Krazy Kat, I realized how similar it was to the Mutts comic that I had grown up loving.  

Krazy Kat

Mutts

The simplistic character designs were what originally tipped me off, as I have always loved Patrick McDonnell's designs for Mooch and Earl, but I never realized how similar it was to Krazy Kat.  Both comics feature a pair of unlikely friends (Cat & Mouse vs Cat & Dog) and just simple little gimmics that happen between them.  I think that is what draws me to comic strips.  They're generally very simple and a very quick read, and I love the very simplistic ones where it's just a small, funny action happening.  As I was reading through the Krazy Kat comics, I read one that reminded me of a comic I've seen before; sure enough, I think Patrick McDonnell was doing a shout out!

The Krazy Kat comic

The Mutt's Shoutout

The eomic strips I tend to enjoy most are the ones that deal with everyday situations.  Even Nemo in Slumberland is a great example, because the audience can completely relate to having a crazy dream and falling out of bed as of a result of something happening in the dream.  Or, at least, I totally can.  I believe the success of a lot of these comics are relateability; we love comics like Krazy Kat and Mutts for their simplicity, the same way we love the characters of Peanuts.  With Peanuts, Schulz generally takes a common situation and puts a crazy personality one of one the kids within it, paired with funny visual gags. I enjoy that comic strips are just snippets of conversation that we get to see, when really there is so much more going on that the author hasn't let up on.  For example, it wasn't until this class that I realized McDonnell was doing a shout out to a previous comic strip; I always just thought it was a cute little remark.  

Because comic strips work on a shorter panel basis, they are more simplified, succinct stories and are often just a snippet of what could really be happening in the comic world.