Fritz the Cat

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Fritz the Cat is a comic strip by Robert Crumb published between 1965 and 1972 and one of his most famous comic characters. The focus is on the work-shy, sex- and drug-loving tomcat Fritz, who fights his way through various types of excited episodes. For example, he is plagued by the inconvenience of being famous and evicted by his wife for being lazy. Finally, an extremist terrorist group hires him as a bomber.

Origin and publication history

Robert Crumb created the character in 1959 in the self-made comic Cat Life based on the model of his family's cat. In 1960 he appeared in Crumb's Robin Hood and finally in the 1960s in the Animal Town strips of the Crumb brothers. The first publication of a Fritz comic strip was in Help! , another followed in the same year. 1968 saw more strips in Cavalier and Head Comix , 1972 in The People's Comics . Since Robert Crumb was very dissatisfied with the film version that came out in the same year, he ended the series by having a frustrated starlet slay Fritz , who has meanwhile become a film producer . In 1978 the anthology The Complete Fritz the Cat was finally published by Bélier Press . In 1993, Fantagraphics Books published The Life & Death of Fritz the Cat, another, even more extensive collection of all Fritz the Cat comics. The figure Fritz or other figures from Crumb's stories also appear in other works by Crumb.

filming

The comic was implemented in 1972 by Ralph Bakshi and Steve Krantz in the animated film Fritz the Cat . Bakshi also wrote the script. It was the first animated film that was only approved for ages 18 and over in the USA. Robert Crumb has distanced himself from this implementation. To prevent further exploitation against his will, he let Fritz become the victim of an assassination attempt in a comic, in which he is murdered by an ostrich with an ice ax.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Andreas C. Knigge: Comics - From mass paper to multimedia adventure , p. 162 f. Rowohlt, 1996.
  2. ^ A b Marty Pahls: Introduction: Right Up To The Edge. The Early Years of Bitter Struggle. The Complete Crumb Comics Volume 1, pp. Vii; x – xi. Fantagraphics Books, 1996. ISBN 0-930193-42-3 .
  3. ^ Steve Duin, Mike Richardson: Comics, Between the Panels , p. 186. Dark Horse Comics, 1998. ISBN 1-56971-344-8 .
  4. ↑ Thomas Maremaa: Who Is This Crumb? in DK Holm: R. Crumb: Conversations , pp. 28-31. University Press of Mississippi, 1972. ISBN 1-57806-637-9 .
  5. ↑ Mark James Estren: Cycling and Recycling. A History of Underground Comics , p. 283. Ronin Publishing, 1993. ISBN 0-914171-64-X .

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