Kitten changing keys

Floof the kitten's personality has developed since the strip started.

I have been dealing with illnesses in actual cats (one of whom needed an operation) and so this blog hasn’t been updated as often as I’d like. Hopefully this post is worth the wait.

The main characters in a comic strip are like the ingredients of a good recipe. In FurBabies, the Dog Family and Kate are the meat and potatoes. (If you are a vegan, they are the King Mushrooms and bok choy). Some characters, like Optima Populare, Iris, and Ishkweninj (Little Finger) the raccoon are occasional seasoning. If this sounds like an odd way to describe characters, my grandfather once ran small restaurants and my Dad was a great cook. I am considered a good cook. I used to tell people that they could say anything they wanted about my animation but if they did not like my cooking, they were dead. When speaking I use a lot of food terms and sometimes mix my metaphors. (For example, I will describe a successful recipe as Painting with Food. But enough about me.)

Animals love to eat so naturally many early story lines in FurBabies revolved around food, where to get it, and how to eat it. That is starting to change.

Floof the Kitten is turning out to be the most popular character. I originally thought that this happened because cats run the Internet.

There is another reason. Floof is the character who has developed the most in the past four months (nine months if I count the actual drawing, and not just the publication which started in June).

There are two families in FurBabies. The Human family consists of Kate, her parents Selmer and Loray, and her extended human family whom we will meet, more or less, during the holiday season. None of the other family members are interesting enough to appear in the strip, at least so far. FurBabies is seen from the perspective of the animals unless Kate is at school without them. Kate sometimes acts like a member of the Dog Family when at school since she interacts with and talks to the Dog Family, and all other animals. There is also a larger Dog Community, which we will meet in the Dog Park.

Floof is an adopted member of the Dog Family and is very tiny, even if she is older than Sirius the puppy. Floof is proud of being a Cat, but she is vulnerable. Floof first developed allergies to her own cat food; this mirrors the real life situation of my younger cat Louie Bear, who is large, powerful, allergic to most cat foods, and was in delicate health for most of his early life.

Floof was originally just ‘four feet of mischief’ —her June biography on the GoComics page states that. At the time, she was just a naughty kitten who was supposed to get Sirius into trouble. He’d follow the big sister and do what she did.

This story trope wasn’t really going to last very long, and Floof started to change. She is still mischievous, but she’s developed some depth of character.

She is very tiny and is never quite sure if she belongs in the Dog Family since she is not included in all of their activities.

The September 19-24 story line has the Dog Family going to the Dog Park without Floof; Kate makes sure that Floof has not stowed away in her backpack. Our local dog parks ban anything and everyone but dogs and their owners (bicycles, though inanimate, would frighten the dogs and a cat might be killed). Floof cannot understand that this is for her own safety and feels neglected; she attempts to hide so ‘they will never find her again’. Her choice of hiding place guarantees that she will be found.

I worked very hard on the composition of the September 23 strip which ends the story line in the dailies (there is one more Sunday strip that shows ‘what happens next’. I like to know what happens next.)

I’m proud of this comic and I think it’s my favorite one to date. It is staged like a motion picture, with reverse angles, downshots, and a variety of character attitudes. Some of the readers are starting to notice the staging, along with the animation effects in earlier strips: ‘multiples’ as Sirius or Shawm shake their heads; five Floofs in different animated poses as she runs away in the first Sunday strip or leaps around in the background as Kate watches a Spider person movie in a later one. Some other strips use speed lines and a variety of animated poses and expressions.

I am by no means the only comic strip artist to use animation. Disney Studios Animator and Story Man Walt Kelly was possibly the first, with POGO. Kelly would never have two characters merely standing around talking; their body language would change. Sometimes they would even play leapfrog when talking just to avoid static staging. If some of the characters were panicking, they would appear in several areas of the panel at once. The early DENNIS THE MENACE by Hank Ketcham, another Disney veteran, had tremendous animation in it and even a few special effects where Mr. Mitchell spouted fire from his mouth after one of Dennis’ stunts. Bill Watterson’s CALVIN AND HOBBES was extremely cinematic, especially on Sundays, with great animated poses and filmic staging.

I’m an animator, so I think in animation terms even though a comic strip is, you should excuse the expression, a very different breed of cat.

I originally ended the September 23 strip with a tight closeup of Floof saying “I love my baby brother.” This ‘smash cut’ made her look imposing and lionlike, and was a mistake. I redrew the strip with the current last pose, which I liked, and kept the original dialogue. My niece suggested the change to the dialogue that is there now. My niece’s suggestion was brilliant, and so it was done.

So it’s out there, and the strip continues. I am now into the November strips and writing some for American Thanksgiving. Although I live in Canada, the FurBabies live in a sort of limbo land somewhere between the two countries, and tend to celebrate the larger holidays. Exceptions were the Indigenous People’s Day strip on June 21, which is Canadian only, and Remembrance Day, which is upcoming. That is going to be a tough one and I think I know what to show, and what not to show.

I ran into the same problem that Charles M. Schulz did with PEANUTS; he could not have other dogs in the strip, since Snoopy would have to act like one. He had a similar problem with a cat. The brilliant solution was to add a bird (Woodstock) as Snoopy’s close friend.

I’m not brilliant, but I’m living in a different time from Mr. Schulz, and there will be other cats in the strip—online. Cat videos are a thing. There will be a Cat Influencer on the computer, named Kittypants. The Kittypants foundation, named after a friend’s cat, provides money to older people in Toronto who cannot afford healthcare for their pets. I am going to a memorial service for the friend, and her last cat, today. The friend gave me permission to use the Kittypants name in FurBabies.

It’s an education, for sure. I see no reason to stop learning at any time of life. You can even learn from a comic strip.