Kokopelli & Company

Kokopelli & Company

Kokopelli & Company is a comic strip drawn by science historian and cartoonist Larry Gonick, aimed generally at ten- to fifteen-year-olds. Appearing monthly in Muse magazine, the strip relates the adventures of the nine New Muses, talented but definitely eccentric personalities tasked with helping humanity. Unlike the Muses of Greek mythology, the new lot includes Muses of Plants, Animals, Hardware, Software, Getting Along with People, Bad Poetry, Tunes and Tricks, and Factoids. The ninth New Muse, Urania, the muse of astronomy, is a holdover from the original group. The Muses appear to be somewhat clueless about their predecessor muses: Feather has been able to state only 5 or 6 offhand. When asked if there was one about pottery because the ancient Greeks were good at pottery, his reply was "Beats me. They were good at spinach pie, too, but I don't think they had a Muse for it." Gonick began drawing the strip in 1996. In April 2005, he published Attack of the Smart Pies, an illustrated novel featuring the New Muses and an orphan girl named Emma .