Mutts is a daily comic strip created by Patrick McDonnell on September 5, 1994. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, it follows the adventures of Earl, a dog, and Mooch, a cat. Earl and Mooch interact with each other, their human owners, and also the animals around their neighborhood. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz praised Mutts, calling it "one of the best comic strips of all time."
Characters and story
The friendship of Mooch and Earl focuses on the differences between cats and dogs as human companions and as friends with each other: Earl is friendly, loves the company of his human companion and likes to play outside; Mooch is often indifferent to his human companions, except for being fed, and prefers to stay inside or is often seen with Earl, his best friend. Both animals frequently express themselves through thought balloons when their owners are present.
Earl
Earl is an innocent Jack Russell terrier who lives with his human companion Ozzie, a bachelor. They love spending time together and taking frequent walks. Earl often howls in loneliness when Ozzie is away from home. Earl spends much of his free time with Mooch, either inside or wandering around town visiting other domesticated and wild animals. He loves to eat both human food and his own dog food. It is revealed in a 2011 Valentine's Day strip that Earl was adopted by Ozzie from a shelter.
Mooch
Mooch is a curious tuxedo cat with a large nose who lives next door to Earl with his human companions Millie and Frank, a goldfish named Sid, and a snail named Little Earl. Mooch is somewhat reclusive, sometimes preferring to stay inside and nap, or play with his little pink sock, rather than go outside with Earl. He has an impediment that causes him to insert an sh into words, such as yesh, shmilk and shmousie. He frequently snubs his cat food, much to Millie's chagrin, dislikes car rides, and, like Earl, he eats human food at every opportunity. He frequently uses a little girl's Bobbie Doll toy car. For years, Mooch thought that Earl was a "weird-looking cat" and didn't realize he was a dog. In 2005, Earl and Mooch appeared as guests in Blondie and Dagwood's 75th anniversary in the comic stripBlondie. In 2004, Pearls Before Swine crossed over with Mutts. In that strip, Rat goes to Comics Re-education Camp, where Earl and Mooch try to teach Rat to be a Lovable comic strip character. In another strip, Frank and Mooch are hanging out with many old comic strip characters, including but not limited to: Dick Tracy, Peanuts, and Little Nemo''.
Other characters
Humans
Ozzie – Earl's owner, a 30-something bachelor
Millie – Mooch's owner, a middle-aged housewife, married to Frank
Frank – Retired, married to Millie
Butchie – Owner of Fatty Snax Deli, who tries to stop Mooch and Earl from eating his food. Formerly a butcher, the character became a vegan in June 2020.
Doozy – A little girl who loves animals, she gives Guard Dog food
Bushy – Doozy's best friend and a hero to Tom-Tom
Ms. Lulu – Pet psychic
Sourpuss's Owner – Sourpuss's owner, also a friend of Millie
Animals
Bip and Bop – Two squirrels who like bonking ground-dwellers with nuts
Crabby – An unhappy crab who speaks with frequent expletives ; he claims to have gone on many adventures, such as on a pirate ship, inside a whale, and even meeting the Popeye cast.
Guard Dog – A fierce-looking bulldog, perpetually chained in his yard
King Crab – The crabbiest of them all, ruler of all he sees
Lollipop – Crabby's soft-shell wife
McGarry – A bird who lives at the shore and tries to get Crabby not to swear
Mussels Marinara – A mussel that's always talking about its muscles; Crabby's buddy
Noodles – An alley cat friend of Shtinky's
Philippe – A bird always wooing his love, Phoebe
Shnelly – The house cat for whose love Mooch and Noodles fight; only the tip of her ears are seen through her owner's window
Shtinky Puddin – A little kitten with a short memory and a very wealthy human companion, he wants to save the world and often speaks out about animal rights, especially saving the Tigers
Sid – A fish who lives in a goldfish bowl in Mooch's house, and wishes to be free
Little Earl – Mooch's pet snail obsessed with "walking" Mooch
Sourpuss – An unhappy kitty who hates Mondays and usually hides under his owner's sofa
Woofie – The big, energetic dog that "wuvs" everything and everyone, especially Mooch, who does not appreciate the "wuv"
Chippy and Monk – Two chipmunks, also sarcastic and spunky members of the Mutts book club.
Lamont – A groundhog, featured in Groundhog Day strips
Moe – A mole, stand in for Lamont; not working Sundays.
Robert – A bird, friend of Earl and Mooch
Wuzzy – A bear who Mooch tries to hibernate with in the winter
Loretta – A squirrel who is the "wife" of Bip and Bop
Shmousie – A mouse who Mooch try to get out of his hole so they can catch him
Recurring storylines
From time to time there are special sets of daily comic strips, such as Shelter Stories and Animal Idol. More recently, some strips have served as an homage of sorts for The Big Lebowski, featuring Mooch as the Dude, with different characters quoting lines from other characters from the film. Every summer, Earl and Mooch and their families visit the Jersey Shore, where they are joined by Crabby, Mussels Marinara, and McGarry. From time to time, Mooch drapes a towel over his head and delivers oracles or answers to chipmunk's questions as The Shphinx. In the fall, Bip and Bop embark on their campaign of bonking ground-dwellers' heads with nuts. Occasionally Mooch can be seen playing with his little pink sock. Mooch also does the Mutts Book Club, where he sits on a rock and reads books to Chippy and Monk. In the winter, Earl and Mooch try to hibernate for the winter. At Thanksgiving, the characters talk about what they're thankful for. On Groundhog Day Lamont talks to Earl and Mooch about seeing his shadow or not. For Valentines Day, the Spring, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, they have quotes from people on occasion, and sometimes Guard Dog sings to the Man on the Moon who comments on his song. Sometimes Shtinky Puddin' will hold a sign, then a group of people walk by and the sign will be different. During Farm Animal Awareness Week, Earl and Mooch visit a farm animal sanctuary. Every so often, the characters will encounter lifelike drawings of animals. Often, Mooch can be seen riding Doozy's electric car.
Animal welfare and animal rights
On occasion, McDonnell devotes the strip for a week or so to animal welfare issues, especially the adoption of pets from animal shelters. Themes include Farm Animal Awareness Week and Shelter Stories, where pet adoption as well as pet shelter life is focused on. McDonnell also created artwork for the second generation New JerseyAnimal Friendly specialty license plate first issued in 2001. A portion of the revenue from the plates goes to the New Jersey State Department of Health's Animal Population Control Program. Also, he speaks out about numerous animal rights causes, including seal clubbing, whale hunting, and most of all, saving the tigers. He has also produced several short animated public service announcements advocating animal adoption from shelters. One week there was a reference to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Sunday title panels
s are in color and their title panels are sometimes a tribute to a famous comic strip, a work of art, or another subject, including Flash #1, Dalí's The Persistence of Memory, Elvis Presley, Trout Mask Replica, and Magritte's Golconda.
Setting
Mutts is set in New Jersey.
Mutts books
Annual collections
Black-and-white reproductions of full year's strips.
Darling, I Love You: Poems from the Hearts of Our Glorious Mutts and All Our Animal Friends by Daniel Ladinsky, illustrated by Patrick McDonnell
Wag! by Patrick McDonnell
Mutts in other languages
Iceland: Kjölturakkar
Denmark: Mis Og Fister
Sweden: Morrgan & Klös
Norway: Pels og poter
Finland: Kamut
Austria: Milou & Filou
Brazil: Os Vira-Latas
Estonian: Krantsid
France: Earl & Mooch
German: Mutts - Tiere sind auch nur Menschen
Film
In July 2011, it was reported that 20th Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios are developing a feature-length animated film based on the comic. Patrick McDonnell and his brother Robert McDonnell have been hired to write the script, while Patrick will also executive produce. In late 2014, Patrick delivered the final draft of the film script, which was then, according to him, on a drawing board. It is scheduled to be released on April 30, 2022.
