If you look at the early strips, you'll see a rather grumpy-looking dog with a constantly dour expression on his face. This would be gradually softened up over the years as he would become extremely popular among the neighbor children and less so among the adults, which would include his owners (who do the actual work of taking care of the dog) and his next-door neighbor who'd share remarkable similarities to Mr. Wilson from Dennis the Menace.
No imitation dogs were harmed in the creation of this comic. Injury to imitation humans are fair game, though. |
William Randolph Hearst was indirectly responsible for Krazy Kat and Citizen Kane. Howard Hugh inspired The Aviator and... Howard Huge. |
- Reasons for destroying the house.
- Having power of property over a chair.
- Mistaking an Alien for Santa.
- Attempting to cheat at poker with his intellectual equals.
- Eating so fast he gets hiccups.
- Owning a frog, jumping with said frog, along with the owner, who's also jumping in turn.
So what baffling rationale could there be for Marmaduke's long-standing tenure? Could it be the varied expressions and poses that the surprisingly ambidexerious dog could get himself into?
What medium will Robert Murdoch inspire, other than Simpsons levels of self-loathing? |
Marmaduke had the same template and setup of Heathcliff (right down to their Sunday strips with the last panel taken up by "amusing" cat/dog anecdotes) where households and neighbors are held under sway by a jerkass pet who rules total dominion by sheer force and intimidation alone. (A trait best exemplified by Garfield) Another common factor is that both Heathcliff and Marmaduke never say or think a word - everybody else does the talking for them, providing chorus background commentary. These silent protagonists probably helped influence children's books such as Stephen Kellogg's Pinkerton and Clifford the Big Red Dog.
That large oval black thing on the dog's face isn't a mouth - that's a Nose. |
You can never see this movie in another light again. |
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