April 10, 2005

TODAY'S OPUS

opus1.jpg

I don't know if anyone else noticed today's OPUS strip by Berkeley Breathed - but it certainly caught my eye. (If anyone can lead me to an online link for it, I'd appreciate it). Breathed has his characters pondering the male dominance of cartoon characters. Spongebob, Mighty Mouse, Mickey, Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Yogi, Huck and Felix (nice to see Felix back in the Sunday pages, but I digress) - 22 in all - appear without copyright notice in the color section today. (Outside of Snoopy, Garfield, Pogo and Hobbes all the rest pictured are of animated origin)

Of course the question posed - has there been a single female animal character? (not counting adjunct girlfriends) - is an interesting one. I think Breathed forgets Krazy Kat and Molly Moo-Cow (not to mention the fact that Betty Boop started out as a dog). And, as Brew reader Wayne Daigrepont points out, "the grandmammy of all toondom was female: Gertie the Dinosaur!"

And there are plenty of star "human" female cartoon characters - from Tex Avery's Red and Little Lulu to Angelica - but we won't go there... for now.



Posted by at April 10, 2005 07:56 PM