Fritz The Cat - Overview

Overview

Fritz the Cat was created in 1959 by Robert Crumb in a homemade comic book story called "Cat Life", based on his experiences of Fred, the family cat. The character's next appearance was in a 1960 story titled "Robin Hood". By this point, the cat had become anthropomorphic and been renamed Fritz, a name derived from a minor unrelated character who appeared briefly in "Cat Life". Fritz appeared in the early 1960s Animal Town strips drawn by Charles and Robert Crumb. Sometimes Fritz was accompanied by Fuzzy the Bunny, who served as an alter ego for Charles, his creator.

Fritz the Cat is set in a "modern 'supercity' of millions of animals." Stories begin simply and become increasingly chaotic and complex as the narrative responds to uncontrollable forces. The look of Fritz the Cat comics was characterized by the use of the Rapidiograph technical pen and a simple drawing style Robert Crumb used to facilitate his story telling. Crumb states that much of the comic books he enjoyed as a child were funny animal comics, particularly those of Carl Barks. Crumb was later influenced by Walt Kelly's daily anthropomorphic funny animal comic strip Pogo; Crumb did not copy Kelly's comics directly, but states that he imitated his drawing style closely; Crumb admired Kelly's storytelling style, which "seemed plotless and casually done. The characters talked to each other and nothing much happened. Just a lot of foolishness takes place". Robert Crumb stated of his anthropomorphic work:

I can express something that is different from what I put into my work about humans... I can put more nonsense, more satire and fantasy into the animals...they're also easier to do than people... With people I try more for realism, which is probably why I'm generally better with animals.

In 1964, when he was not working at American Greetings, Crumb drew many Fritz the Cat strips for his own amusement. Some of these strips would later be published in Help! and Cavalier magazines and in the underground comix. Fritz also appears briefly in Crumb's graphic novel Big Yum Yum Book: The Story of Oggie and the Beanstalk, drawn in 1964, but not published until 1975. Several characters from the anthropomorphic universe of Fritz the Cat appeared in another Crumb comic strip, The Silly Pigeons, drawn in 1965 and intended for Help! In 1970, Crumb redrew an early Fuzzy the Bunny story written by Charles Crumb in 1952; it was published in Zap Comix #5.