Patrick McDonnell is the comic artist of Mutts and this is generally an enjoyable read in the newspapers and Sunday funnies. The comic strip consists of a dog and cat and their adventures in the world and mainly consist of other animals. The Biggest problem I have along with many others is the complete lack of diversity of the human characters and the fact that few if no black figures ever pop up in the worlds of Mr McDonnell.
The problem with a comic strip such as this that goes for the old retro look in never displaying a real view of this country is pretty shameful and the looks of this strip is that it was created in upper rural Canada and not the United States. Surely in real life Earl and mooch wold encounter some minorities in their daily wandering but the lack of them reflects the apparent lack of contact that their author evidently has with people of color. Many other great comic artists do not seem to have this problem including comic artist Darby Conley of "Get Fuzzy". Lacks and other ethnic groups do not seem to have such a hard time appearing in his comic strips and interacting with his pets as the mutts in mutts comics seem to never come across. I have looked at thousands and thousands of Mutts strips and have seen there are more barracudas than black folks in his strips and this is pretty pathetic. This may seem like a trivial matter whose imperative value may be questionable, but I just think that a comic artist with such a successful and popular comic strip should try their best to have their strip reflect 2014 and not 1954. Patrick McDonnell and his strip should be rewarded and celebrated for the great work it is but his lack of diversity at all in his Lilly white strips is pretty undeniable and makes people wonder exactly why.i
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