Fritz the Cat

Fritz the Cat was created in 1959 by Robert Crumb in a homemade comic book story called "Cat Life", based on the experiences of Fred, the family cat. The character's next appearance was in a 1960 story entitled "Robin Hood". By this point, the cat had become anthropomorphic and had been renamed Fritz, a name derived from a minor unrelated character who appeared briefly in "Cat Life". Stories begin simply and become increasingly chaotic and complex as the narrative responds to uncontrollable forces. Crumb states that much of the comic books he enjoyed as a child were talking animal comics, particularly those of Carl Barks. Crumb was later influenced by Walt Kelly's daily anthropomorphic 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 [to be] plotless and casually done. The characters talked to each other and nothing much happened. Just a lot of foolishness takes place". Crumb said of his anthropomorphic work: I can express something [with animals] 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. 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. ==Characters==

Marty Pahls, Crumb's childhood friend, describes Fritz as "a poseur", whose posturing was taken seriously by everyone around him. Thomas Albright describes Fritz as "a kind of updated Felix with overtones of Charlie Chaplin, Candide, and Don Quixote." Fritz had a "glib, smooth and self-assured" personality, characteristics Crumb felt he himself lacked. According to Pahls, "To a great extent, Fritz was his wish-fulfillment ... [the character allowed Robert to] do great deeds, have wild adventures, and undergo a variety of sex experiences, which he himself felt he couldn't. Fritz was bold, poised, had a way with the ladies—all attributes which Robert coveted, but felt he lacked." In "Fred, the Teen-Age Girl Pigeon," Fritz is portrayed as a pop music star. The strips "Fritz the Cat" and "Fritz Bugs Out" portray him as a hip poet and college dropout in the hippie scene. Later in the story, she attempts to convince him not to "bug out", but eventually agrees to go on a road trip with him. When her car overheats and stalls in the desert, Fritz abandons her. Winston is also a character featured in the 1972 film, as is this storyline—Fritz's Volkswagen Beetle dodging big rig trucks on the highway in the middle of the night and later running out of gas in the middle of nowhere. and in "Fritz the No-Good", where they reunite after Fritz is thrown out of his wife's apartment. Fuzzy the Bunny, who appeared in the early Animal Town strips, reappears as a college student in "Fritz Bugs Out" and as a revolutionary in "Fritz the No-Good". ==Publication history==

Help!, a magazine published by former Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman, published two stories featuring Fritz, including the character's first public appearance in January 1965, "Fritz Comes on Strong". In this debut story, Fritz brings a young female cat home and strips all her clothes off before getting on top of her to pick fleas off of her. Preceding the publication of the story, Kurtzman sent Crumb a letter which read, "Dear R. Crumb, we think the little pussycat drawings you sent us were just great. Question is, how do we print them without going to jail?" Although Kurtzman agreed to publish the story, he requested that Crumb alter the final two panels; the published version depicted Fritz standing next to her. John Canaday's New York magazine review of Head Comix describes this punch line as "outrageous brilliance [that] is rivaled only by Evelyn Waugh's last lines in The Loved One." Crumb abandoned the character the same year as the Ballantine collection, "Fritz the Cat 'Superstar'" — featuring the death of the character — was the last new story released; it was published in ''The People's Comics'' (Golden Gate) in 1972. In 1978, Bélier Press published The Complete Fritz the Cat, which brought together all the published stories featuring Fritz, as well as previously unpublished drawings and unfinished comics. At the artist's request, a 10-page story drawn in 1964 and previously published in ''R. Crumb's Comics and Stories (Rip Off Press) in 1969 was excluded from this collection. In April 1993, Fantagraphics Books published The Life & Death of Fritz the Cat, compiling nine major strips, including the 1964 story previously excluded from The Complete Fritz the Cat. Fritz the Cat strips also appear in The Complete Crumb Comics series. An unpublished page featuring Fritz that had been intended for Help!, as well as comics featuring other characters related to the anthropomorphic universe of Fritz the Cat, appeared in The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book'' in 1998. • March 22–April 3, 1960: untitled Animal Town story ["Darn! That last town I got chased out of didn't have a train to New York"], The Complete Crumb Comics #1 — The Early Years of Bitter Struggle (Fantagraphics, Oct. 1987) — signed • 1965: untitled ["Oh Fritz! This is marvelous! I'm in love with your car! I really am!"], The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book (Little, Brown, 1997) — unpublished page from Help • summer 1965: "Fritz the Cat, Magician," Promethean Enterprises No. 3 (1971) • c. 1967: "Fritz the Cat Becomes a Drug Addict," The Complete Fritz the Cat (Bélier Press, 1978) Creation dates unknown: • Promethean Enterprises No. 4 (fall 1971) • Artistic Comics (Golden Gate Publishing, 1973) • "Fritz the Cat Doubts His Masculinity,"The Complete Fritz the Cat (Bélier Press, 1978) ==Cultural impact==

Following the publication of the compilations Head Comix and ''R. Crumb's Fritz the Cat, Crumb received increased attention and Fritz the Cat'' became one of the most familiar features on the underground comix scene and Crumb's most famous creation. Like many other of Crumb's creations, Fritz the Cat has remained not without detractors. In Graphic Novels: A Bibliographic Guide to Book-Length Comics, D. Aviva Rothschild criticized the stories printed in the collection The Life & Death of Fritz the Cat as being misogynist, racist, and violent. He felt that, "They also tend to ramble, as if Crumb were making them up as he went along." Rothschild concluded that, "Even though Fritz the Cat is a classic, there are better, more coherent Crumb books around." and The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974), directed by Robert Taylor. The first film adaptation of Fritz the Cat was ranked 51st on the Online Film Critics Society's list of the top 100 greatest animated films of all time and 56th on Channel 4's list of the 100 Greatest Cartoons. Animated adaptations In 1969, New York animator Ralph Bakshi came across a copy of ''R. Crumb's Fritz the Cat'' and suggested to producer Steve Krantz that it would work as a film. After meeting with Bakshi, Crumb loaned him one of his sketchbooks as a reference, The film's distributor capitalized on the rating in the film's advertising material, which touted the film as being "X rated and animated!" Nonetheless, the film is credited with extending Crumb's reputation beyond the underground comix scene. in which he satirized Bakshi and Krantz. Crumb portrayed Fritz in a script conference for Fritz Goes to India, a fictional sequel to the film. The four-page piece portrayed the Fritz character as a jaded and complacent Hollywood star going through the motions of celebrities of the day: appearing on talk shows, commercials, and telethons mouthing vaguely liberal platitudes, before cynically guiding the conversation over to promoting his next movie. Other comics cats make appearances, including Felix the Cat, Krazy Kat, and underground comix cats Pat (from Jay Lynch's Nard n' Pat) and Kim Deitch's Waldo. The strip ends with a nightmarish full-page vista of "Crumbland", where all of Crumb's countercultural icons have been turned into commercial commodities. In 1974, Krantz produced a sequel, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat, without participation from either Bakshi or Crumb. ==See also==