FUNNY ANIMAL COMICS 241
attempted to draw a funny animal strip, but “my bears [.. .] looked sort of like big mice,
and my mice looked like dogs, and people couldn’t tell what the dogs were.” He stuck
with rabbits because they were the easiest species for his readers to recognize.
Th e funny animal genre did not seem to catch on in Japan, in spite of such precedents
as the 12th-century chōjūgiga scrolls, which humorously depict cartoon frogs, rabbits,
foxes, and monkeys engaged in human activities, and Suihō Tagawa’s funny animal strip
“Norakuro” (1931–41). However, a deeper look reveals that Walt Disney’s rounded
funny animal animation style was the largest single infl uence on the single most infl uen-
tial creator of manga and anime, Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka also absorbed the infl uence of
other American cartoons, and once wrote that the “father” of his most popular cartoon
character, the boy robot Tetsuwan Atomu (“Astro Boy,” 1951), was Mighty Mouse.
Another phenomenally popular Japanese robot character, Fujiko F. Fujio’s “Doraemon”
(which fi rst appeared in 1969) is a robot cat. Hello Kitty, originally designed as a coin
purse in 1974, reversed the usual path from animation to licensed merchandise. As part
of the huge boom in Japanese popular culture exports, licensed merchandise of Hello
Kitty and her friends have reached an estimated value of one billion dollars a year out-
side of Japan. Meanwhile, in 1983 Tokyo Disneyland opened, and now hosts almost
14 million guests per year, almost as many as the original Disneyland, but in third place
to Disney’s Florida theme park.
Many factors might explain the near disappearance of the American funny animal
comic book. One has been the takeover of the industry by a generation that arrived
determined to bury the idea that comics are a children’s medium, even at the cost of losing
their younger readers. Th at the most important reasons might be specifi c to the evolution
of the American comic book industry rather than a general loss of interest in cartoon
animals themselves can be seen by comparing the situation of funny animal comics in the
United States to that in Europe, and comparing the situation in comic books with that in
syndicated newspaper strips, video games, animated fi lms, and web-comics.
Beginning in the 1930s, Disney’s funny animal cartoons and comic books quickly
became a global success story, and their success in Europe has outdistanced and out-
lasted their popularity in their native land. Th us, Italy has become the world’s top
producer of Disney comic books. Disney comics are read in staggering numbers in
Sweden, Finland, and Norway. As further evidence of the popularity of funny animals
in Europe, Rolf Kauka’s comic Fix und Foxi (beginning in 1953), featured the most
successful comics characters created in Germany. Th e Norwegian cartoonist Jason
( John Arne Sæterøy) has attained worldwide fame (among fans of art-comics) for his
stories featuring characters with animal faces.
Funny animal traditions live on in animated fi lms with casts of funny animals (like
Kung Fu Panda ) or fi lms in which animated animals share the screen with animated
humans (as in Ratatouille ) or play supporting roles (as in Up. ) Similarly, on television,
animated shows feature funny animals (as in the educational show Arthur , featuring an
aardvark) or feature animated animals sharing the screen with animated humans (as in
Brian in Family Guy ). Sonic the Hedgehog has been one of the most popular videogame
