Animal Instinct: A Graphic Evolution

Last year, after reviewing MetaMaus, Art Spiegelman's companion to his Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus, I decided to trace the influence of his original 1986 graphic novel. Specifically, I wanted to explore the use of "funny animals," a comics trope in which non-human creatures wear clothing and show other people-like behaviors. In Maus and Maus II, Spiegelman's substituting these fantastical creatures for humans made the Holocaust into a more universal tragedy. After all the critical acclaim that it received, I wanted to see which other artists were inspired to use funny animals in a similar way-as a means of making difficult subject matter more accessible.

But the more research went into trying to answer this question, the less it seemed that Maus was as inspirational as I had thought-at least for some of the more well-known funny animal cartoonists. Spiegelman's penchant for highly-personal and confessional narratives likely influenced comics artists ranging from Daniel Clowes to Craig Thompson, but not so much those responsible for some of the more innovative comics featuring anthropomorphic creatures. The more likely wellspring appeared to be underground cartoonist Robert Crumb, who grew up reading and mimicking the drawing style of funny animal masters from the 1930s and 1940s.

Crumb's influence has been cited by many, including Kim Deitch, one of his counterculture contemporaries from the 1960s. He would follow in the footsteps of Crumb, who subverted the family-friendly reputation of funny animal books with his notorious Fritz the Cat, through his own creation, Waldo the Cat. Despite a relatively wholesome appearance reminiscent of the more mainstream Felix the Cat, Waldo has evolved into an antagonist who bedevils many of Deitch's protagonists. Meanwhile, Crumb also influenced Jim Woodring, who has been chronicling the surreal and grotesque adventures of Frank, a mammal of unspecified species, since the early 1990s.

Yet Crumb's predominance is less clear with cartoonists such as Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim, authors of 2009's The Eternal Smile: Three Stories. Both their character Gran'pa Greenbax and his supporting cast seem more like respectful homages to Carl Barks, a major illustrator of Donald Duck comics during the 1940s, and Walt Kelly, who created the classic serial Pogo. Then there is the Norwegian cartoonist Jason, known for his deadpan graphic novels featuring anthropomorphic animals whose mannerisms are not like animals at all. In an interview, he has stated that his use of such creatures came after reading comics by Woodring and Italian artists, not Crumb or Spiegelman.

In the end, what all this indicates is that the use of funny animal motif is rife throughout the careers of many of the most significant graphic novelists, with each cartoonist using animals as metaphors for their most personal and creative themes. Crumb used animal comics as an outlet for his own sexual frustrations, while Spiegelman was trying to make sense of his family's experiences during the Holocaust. In the hands of these great artists, a talking duck is more than just a talking duck.