The following is an interview with New York Times bestselling cartoonist Patrick McDonnell on the release of collection, Breaking the Chain: The Guard Dog Story, through Abrams ComicsArts on the 30th anniversary of the Mutts series. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with McDonnell about his experience in revisiting his body of work with the Mutts series, how his own pets have impacted his storytelling over the years, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Patrick, first and foremost, congratulations on the 30th anniversary of Mutts! Breaking the Chain collects the October 2023 storyline, focused on character Guard Dog’s freedom from tethering. With the release, what is your experience in revisiting your body of comic strip work from the past 30 years?
Patrick McDonnell: It’s crazy. Sometimes, it seems like it lasted forever, and, sometimes, I feel like I just started. I wanted to be a cartoonist ever since I was five years old because I was so in love with Peanuts. But I never thought about the actuality of doing a strip every day. And it’s a unique way to make art, but I’ve really enjoyed it and so glad I did Mutts, and so glad I finally freed Guard Dog. I’ve been promising to free him for about 29, 28 years.
BD: As you mentioned, prior to your work on Mutts, you worked extensively in magazine illustrations where longtime fans of Mutts may have even seen early versions of your beloved characters. What do you feel is the inherent value of cartoon or comic strip storytelling in comparison to other narrative art forms that you’ve done?
PM: Well, in particular for this Guard Dog story, Mutts is usually a gag a day, but on occasion I’ve done some stories. The continuity strips were really popular, especially like in the ’30s and ’40s with Little Orphan Annie and Dick Tracy. So, this Guard Dog story lasted seven weeks, and I think in this day and age, it’s a unique way to tell a story. People nowadays have instant gratification and very short attention spans, but this story was, you had to wait 24 hours for the next installment, and the next installment was just three panels. And I think it really got the readers involved and really made it even more emotional because you had to wait to see if the poor dog was going to get freed or not. So, the response from the readers was… I was really taken with how attached they were to the character and how attached they were to the story.
BD: In revisiting the storyline, was there anything new or intriguing that you took away from the work that you hadn’t anticipated when originally creating it?
PM Well, I’ll go back to that way of telling the story where people had to wait every day. And when I drew it, I knew, especially, Guard Dog is left chained in his backyard by his owner and just leaves him there. And I think it was about two, two and a half weeks that he just stayed in his backyard chain, hoping to be saved. And I wasn’t sure how that was going to play and was a little worried that it might’ve been too tough. And for some readers it was too tough.
It’s funny, we got responses where people really thought that Guard Dog might pass away…one reader even said, don’t Farley him. And I don’t know if you’re aware, but there was a comic strip called For Better or for Worse, where they had a dog named Farley and Lynn Johnston, the cartoonist, actually [did so], which I guess added to the drama of the piece.
BD: A recent comic book series by Pornsak Pichetshote and Jesse Lonergan called Man’s Best included the following quote, “You know why we feel better around our pets? Because we see our best in them, sincerity, loyalty, perfect innocence, and they prove you can survive on just that.” How have your own pets positively impacted you, whether your own well-being or in serving as inspiration for your work?
PM: Oh my God. Well, there wouldn’t have been any Mutts without my first dog, Earl, who was the inspiration for the strip. And man, I was just trying to capture all the joy of life he had in my strip. There’s nothing like our pets. I did a book with the spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle, who wrote The Power of Now, and he calls them, and the name of the book is Guardians of Being, and he sees our pets as gateways to the present moment and how our blood pressure goes down with pets and how they take us out of our heads. We’re so in our heads with that constant chatter and pets bring us back to nature like guardians of being. So, I truly believe in that, and, hopefully, I portray that in Mutts. I think that’s one of the things I want to do in Mutts is for people to be reminded of their own pets and how much we love them and how much joy they give us.
BD: And finally, Patrick, in a recent interview, you noted that you have at least 20 more years of cartooning to follow in the footsteps of creators like Charles Schultz. What do you look forward to creatively about the next 20 years?
PM: Oh boy, that’s a scary thought. But art is a meditation. I just love making art, it’s what I’ve been doing since I was a little kid. And every day is new. I mean, that’s what’s exciting about making art. You never know what you’re going to come up with and each day is a new challenge. And for me, I’m working right now, I’m working on another children’s book. My first children’s book was called The Gift of Nothing. So, this book’s called The Gift of Everything, and it does star Earl and Mooch from Mutts. And I’ve been doing a lot of paintings recently. So, I’m always exploring new ways to express feelings I have. And between the children books, the strip, and paintings, I keep pretty busy.
