240 FUNNY ANIMAL COMICS
white comics boom took inspiration from the huge success of Th e Teenage Mutant Ninja
Tu r t l e s in 1984, which also began as a funny animal parody.
Because they have been so fi rmly associated with the innocence of childhood,
cartoonists have repeatedly turned to funny animals to make adult material more shock-
ing. Wally Wood’s “Disneyland Memorial Orgy” fi rst appeared in Th e Realist in 1966
to mark the death of Walt Disney. Underground comix, such as Robert Armstrong’s
Mickey Rat (1971), used animal characters in sleazy situations, as did their descendants,
like “Creep Rat” in Kaz’s comic strip “Underworld.” In 1985, New York harbor offi cials
confi scated Massimo Mattioli’s biting comics-format parody of American popular
culture, Squeak the Mouse , at the border on the grounds that it was pornographic,
though a court later overturned that decision.
Th e graphic novel most responsible for legitimizing comics as a medium for serious
expression began in an underground funny animal comic. Art Spiegelman , casting
around in 1972 for an anthropomorphic animal story to contribute to the comic Funny
Aminals [ sic ], came to the idea of doing a story about Jewish mice oppressed by Nazi cats.
Beginning from the idea that the confl icts between cartoon cats and mice could be read
as racial confl icts, Spiegelman realized that he was not qualifi ed to make a convincing
story about oppression of African Americans. He then remembered his parents’ history
as holocaust survivors as something that could provide material for a story. He later
reworked this theme into his masterpiece, Maus (1986), using simpler and more angu-
lar drawings. Th e use of animal characters became one of the most discussed aspects of
his story. To some, this choice succeeded in making a horrible story readable, while oth-
ers condemned the story for making the oppression look as inevitable as cats preying on
mice. Using animals allowed Spiegelman to present the story visually without getting
continually bogged down in trying to avoid the small inaccuracies that would have ir-
ritated readers in a story drawn with human characters. Further, Spiegelman argues
that using animal characters made it easier for readers to identify themselves with the
characters in the story.
Th e power of Spiegelman’s Maus when it fi rst came out was due partly to the
shocking contrast between the kind of stories that readers (most of whom were
unfamiliar with the small but infl uential underground comix movement) expected from
talking animal comics and the uses that Spiegelman made of them. Th ose who followed
Spiegelman’s example of telling serious stories in book-length comics seemed to realize
that this shock could not be repeated, and have generally used human characters without
masking them as animals. Still, some of the most celebrated contributors to this move-
ment began their careers with works that did use animal characters. Th ese include Chris
Wa r e’s Quimby the Mouse (2003) and Craig Th ompson’s Good-bye Chunky Rice (2006).
In the 1980s, young cartoonists found a place for their work in alternative weekly
newspapers. Before creating Th e Simpsons and Futurama , Matt Groening began his
comic strip “Life in Hell” as a zine in 1977, and it has been published weekly since
- Groening told an interviewer that his strip’s main characters are bulgy-eyed
rabbits with overbites because when in high school, “somewhat inspired by Pogo ,” he had
