A note on the GCD listing for this comic tells us that much of the content was actually created in 1977-78, and was for some reason not published until 4 years later. At one point, one of the characters is told that he's in an underground comic, and there is the feel of an underground to this book, more so than some of the other anthropomorphic comics I've read. But I can see the anthro (we're just gonna shorten that word for the next little while ;D) genre growing from the undergrounds, of course. I think what happens not too long after this transitional era is the influence of manga and anime enters anthro, and forever changes it.
I know I've probably said it before on this blog, but Grant Morrison's Animal Man #5 changed the way I looked at comics in a pretty fundamental way. One of the things it really did was make me view the animal avatars in our entertainment in different ways. Frye suggests that comic strip characters in the Fifties are frozen, unable to evolve, and so too are cartoon animal characters. In some ways it's a more tragic frozenness, as the characters themselves are so often animated.
(Having just typed that, I realize I'm actually describing superheroes too. *sigh* It's one of those points one which Frye and I disagree!)
All this aside, this comic was really pretty great. There's some stuff by Larry Gonnick, Scott Shaw!, Sergio Aragones, just a fantastic array of really, really talented artists. The stories are funny and witty, and I think there was only one questionable ethnic representation, which is actually pretty good given the time period it comes from. Sadly, there are no other issues in the series. Though perhaps that's a good thing. Nothing to add to the collecting list!
More to come...
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