An interesting trend going on right now is comics focusing on animals as their main characters!
ANIMALS ARE GETTING THEIR TIME IN THE SPOTLIGHT
It wasn’t all that long ago that, if a comic focused on animals or pets, they would get laughed off the stands! Legion of Super-Pets? Ha! Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers? You’re kidding, right?
Each of “The Big Two” has its own “animal planet” for example. In Marvel, it’s Earth-8311, a universe of anthropomorphic animal superheroes, most of whom are counterparts of heroes from Earth-616. Spider-Ham and other animal heroes live there, for example.
In DC, it’s Earth-C, the one where the Zoo Crew, the “Justice League” of that universe where anthropomorphic animals including Captain Carrot fight animal baddies.
I remember fans literally going through these comics and laughing hysterically at the various plot points involving the animals. “Nobody is EVER going to buy this!” I heard one person I know say.
Of course, superheroes have long had super-pets! Superman’s dog from Krypton survived to become Krypto, the Superdog. Batman turned his pet canine into Ace, the Bat-Hound. Many of these animals behaved much like Bandit on the Jonny Quest cartoon, a little too human for my taste.
Well, fast forward to today, and things seem pretty different now. Granted, some animal books have always been in vogue. I always point to David Petersen’s Mouse Guard as a great example. Yes, the mice there stand up on their back feet like humans do and have pubs and such, but pretty much everything else resembles the “real” world in that animals that threaten them are very much the snakes and owls and creatures we see outside in nature today. And there have always been Scooby-Doo-esque shows including the one featuring the “big dog” himself. Dogs and cats converse as if they could speak like humans in a great many comic strips, but humans don’t understand them.
The first comic I noticed that focused on a dog as the lead character was the Dog Man series in which the man behind Captain Underpants “created a new breed of justice—one that is part dog, part man, and all hero” as the series describes itself. Here’s more on what the series is about: “When Greg the police dog and his cop companion are injured on the job, a life-saving surgery changes the course of history, and Dog Man is born. With the head of a dog and the body of a human, this heroic hound has a real nose for justice. But can he resist the call of the wild to answer the call of duty?”
This book is clearly aimed at a younger audience, but I think the door to “pet leads,” as I call them, had been broken down.
Next, I saw Garrett Gunn at a previous MegaCon in Orlando talking about his book Good Boy, which is described this way: “Set in a world where humans and dogs are equals, Good Boy is a thrill-packed treat for anyone who loves action, dogs, and good stories.” He said this was like the John Wick series of films starring Keanu Reeves, but with the dog in the lead role instead of dying in the initial movie. I even see action figures of that dog around these days!
Recently, one of the best comics along these lines is called Scrapper by Cliff Bleszinski, Alex De Campi, and Sandy Jarrell. It’s described this way: “Blade Runner-style action mixes with big emotions as stray dog Scrapper and his buddy Tank fight for justice against the totalitarian forces of a post-apocalyptic domed city.”
I’m reading a LOT of positive reviews of that book! Could an animated series be coming for it?
CATS AND DOGS
Of course, it’s not only dogs in the spotlight! Cats are getting their time in the sun as well!
My favorite of these comics is Captain Ginger from Ahoy Comics. Here’s what this book is about: “When the human race died out, the cats inherited the Earth! Or at least one starship. Now the intrepid Captain Ginger struggles to keep his fellow felines united against a hostile universe. But there’s a rival for Ginger’s authority: his second-in-command, the savage Sergeant Mittens!”
There are two collected editions of this title available, and what particularly intrigues me is how there are “evolved” cats as well as “regular” cats running around their ship, including the Bridge.
As we approached the end of the second storyline, let’s just say that dogs make an appearance as well! THAT was a nice development! (That book is having an anniversary celebration, as reported here at MajorSpoilers!)
THE TURTLES AND OTHERS CONTINUE ON
Of course, the best-known anthropomorphic characters in comics are the Turtles, better known as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT). How many decades have they been popular in comics, anyway!?
Also, there are plenty of other “animal” characters in comics that I haven’t mentioned yet, but there are wayyyyy more than I can possibly mention here! Let me just list a few that stand out to me!
- Fuzzy Baseball: Balloween #1 by John Steven Gurney. Check out more about this book at this link here.
- Wild’s End (#3 is available now). Here’s more about the latest issue!
- All Eight Eyes (#4 is available now). Here’s more on that issue!
There are many more comics that feature animal/anthropomorphic characters, so feel free to mention them in the space below!
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