One of the great gems of the syndicated comic strip realm is Patrick McDonnell's delightful "Mutts", now in its 10th year of publication. The daily adventures of playful pets Mooch (a cat) and Earl (a dog), their four-legged pals, and two-legged companions ("Ozzies") tickle the funny bone and warm the heart without every resorting to easy saccharine sentiment (says O'Donnell: "Animals have a unique love of life, and they’re very much about living in the here and now. That’s something you don’t always see in people"). O'Donnell's very well-versed in the fine arts and pop culture, too, evidenced by his always clever (and sometimes maddeningly obscure) splash panels in his Sunday strips (everything from Captain Beefheart to Basquiat!). In an age where seemingly everything is merchandised to the ridiculous extreme, O'Donnell has managed to keep"Mutts" pretty much to himself, allowing for the limited release of exclusive merchandise through his official site (although there is/was a magazine and entire store devoted to the strip in Japan, and apparently, they don't export). This summer, Dark Horse is releasing a series of four figurines embodying the strip's key characters in living 3D plastic: headliners Mooch and Earl, obviously, as well as the heartbreaking Guard Dog and always melancholy Jules aka "Shtinky Puddin'". While you wait, you can play with the cool Quicktime turnaround movies here...
