Mutts

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 black-and-white cat with a large nose who lives next door to Earl with his human companions Millie (who often calls him "Moochie," "Moo Moo Cakes," or "Shmoochums," and he calls her "Shmillie") 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 a lisp that causes him to insert an sh into words, such as yesh (yes), shmilk (milk) and shmousie (mousie). 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 strip Blondie. 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.

Humans

Animals

Recurring storylines

From time to time there are special sets of daily comic strips, such as Shelter Stories (which focus on animals in shelters) and Animal Idol (a parody of American 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 their 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 Jersey Animal 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 (usually using Shtinky) 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

Sunday strips 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.

Annual collections

Black-and-white reproductions of full year's strips (until 2005).

1. Mutts (July 1996) ISBN 978-0-8362-1025-5
2. Cats & Dogs (October 1997) ISBN 978-0-8362-3732-0
3. More Shtuff (September 1998) ISBN 978-0-8362-6823-2
4. Yesh! (April 1999) ISBN 978-0-8362-8286-3
5. Our Mutts (August 2000) ISBN 978-0-7407-0456-7
6. A Little Look-See (April 2001) ISBN 978-0-7407-1394-1
7. What Now (September 2002) ISBN 978-0-7407-2321-6
8. I Want to Be the Kitty! (April 2003) ISBN 978-0-7407-6197-3
9. Dog-Eared (September 2004) ISBN 978-0-7407-4740-3
10. Who Let the Cat Out? (April 2005) ISBN 978-0-7407-5006-9

Sundays collections

Large-format color reproductions of Sunday strips (until 2005).

1. Mutts Sundays (September 1999) ISBN 978-0-7407-0010-1
2. Sunday Mornings (August 2001) ISBN 978-0-7407-1853-3
3. Sunday Afternoons (April 2004) ISBN 978-0-7407-4141-8
4. Sunday Evenings (September 2005) ISBN 978-0-7407-5535-4

Treasury collections

Large-format, dailies in black-and-white, Sunday in color (after 2005).

1. Everyday Mutts: A Comic Strip Treasury (2006) ISBN 978-0-7407-6197-3
2. Animal Friendly: A Mutts Treasury (2007) ISBN 978-0-7407-6556-8
3. Call of the Wild: A Mutts Treasury (2008) ISBN 978-0-7407-7099-9
4. Stop and Smell the Roses (2009) ISBN 978-0-7407-8146-9
5. Earl and Mooch (2010) ISBN 978-0-7407-9768-2
6. Our Little Kat King (2011) ISBN 978-1-4494-0800-8
7. BONK!: A Mutts Treasury (2012) ISBN 978-1-4494-2308-7
8. Cat Crazy: A Mutts Treasury (2013) ISBN 978-1-4494-3725-1
9. Living the Dream: A Mutts Treasury (2014) ISBN 978-1-4494-5869-0

Miscellaneous

1. Mutts Little Big Book (1998) ISBN 978-0-8362-6980-2
2. Mutts: The Comic Art of Patrick McDonnell (2003) ISBN 978-0-8109-4616-3 (retrospective)
3. Mutts: The Gift of Nothing (2005) ISBN 978-0-316-11488-2
4. Mutts: Just Like Heaven (2005) ISBN 978-0-316-11493-6
5. Mutts: Hug Time (2007) ISBN 978-0-316-11494-3
6. The Best of Mutts (2007) ISBN 978-0-7407-6844-6
7. Shelter Stories: Love. Guaranteed. (2008)
8. South (2008)

Mutts in other languages

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.