Ozy and Millie

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Ozy and Millie is a comic strip written by DC Simpson (former name David Simpson ). It first appeared in 1997 in the college newspaper Copper Point Journal. From April 29, 1998 until it was discontinued on December 23, 2008, it was published as a webcomic and updated several times a week.

An essential element of the comic strip's action are the difficulties of young students who do not correspond to the social norm . The two ten-year-old foxes Ozy and Millie are the eponymous main characters of the comic strip, in which only anthropomorphic animals appear. His comedy is based above all on the contrast between the absurd behavior of the comic characters and the serious moral and philosophical issues that are addressed at the same time .

Characters

Ozy

Ozy lives with his 10-year-old girlfriend Millie in the fictional American town of North Harbordale. Ozy is an arctic fox , but according to the draftsman it was originally intended to represent a wolf . However, after David Simpson was shown some photos of young arctic foxes in November 1999, he changed his initial classification due to the great similarity.

Ozy's full name, Ozymandias J. Llewellyn, goes back to the poem Ozymandias about the Egyptian King Ramses II (1304–1237 BC) by Percy Bysshe Shelley :

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! "
(“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings!
See my works, you mighty ones, and despair! ")

Simpson chose Ozymandias as a name mainly because the central message of the poem, the transience of being, is also one of the leitmotifs of Zen Buddhism practiced by Ozy . Other central motifs of the poem such as the arrogance of power and the often ambivalent relationship between the artist and his creation are occasionally taken up in Ozy and Millie .

Ozys hallmark is its large cylinder , which he received from his father Llewellyn than him this at the age of one year adopted . Ozy wears no pants, which despite the fact that this also applies to some other characters such as Avery, is often the trigger for a pointed remark on the part of Millies.

Ozy is a thoughtful, calm guy and is therefore a grateful sacrifice for the other students. While he lets Millie's pranks on himself, he suffers a lot from the stalkings of the school thug Jeremy. Now and then he at least manages to take Millie the wind out of her sails with a pointed remark about the madness of her behavior. Under the guidance of his father Llewellyn, Ozy practices the art of Zen, or rather a funny variant of it, the principles of which are almost always formulated as an antithesis : “It has been said that, while knowledge is acquired by learning… Wisdom is acquired by unlearning . "(" Knowledge is gained through learning, wisdom through unlearning! ")

Millie

"I act weird because I figure, hey, I'm gonna be an outcast anyway, so I might as well do it with style." ("I act so weird because ... well, no matter what I do, I will." Treated like a leper anyway; at least that's how I do it with style. ”) - Millie

Ozy spends a lot of time with his best friend Millie, a red fox . Millicent Mehitabel Mudd, as her full name is, is just as intelligent as Ozy, but unlike him, he is never at a loss for excuses when it comes to avoiding work.

She also rebels against any form of authority , which of course cannot be tolerated either by her teachers or by her otherwise understanding mother Ms. Mudd. Her anarchist- destructive attitude is also evident on many other occasions, with which she not only gets herself into trouble, but also Ozy again and again. Millie speaks out what others think and does what others would never dare to do for fear of the reactions of others. She is not ready to simply resign herself to living in an unjust world where only superficialities count. However, because she is only ten years old, her rebellion against the establishment is mostly limited to annoying her mother, playing pranks on Ozy and breaking school rules. Despite her naughty behavior, she not only serves Ozy as a funny sidekick , but is also occasionally melancholy or, like Ozy, goes into herself to think about moral or philosophical issues.

Llewellyn and Ms. Mudd

"Whatever does not kill me makes me stranger." ("What doesn't kill me makes me stranger.") - Llewellyn

Ozy's adoptive father Llewellyn is a red dragon whose behavior, true to the above quote, can only be described as strange. When he's not as chairman of the Zen-party for the American presidential candidate by not running for the American presidency, he gives his son as he takes a bath in banana pudding, more or less wise advice for life.

Llewellyn has a platonic relationship with Millie's single mother, Ms. Mudd, whose first name is known only to begin with the letter M. Llewellyn and Ms. Mudd are portrayed as loving parents who always encourage their children to create their own thoughts. Ms. Mudd in particular, who works as a lawyer, has to keep showing her crazy daughter her limits.

Avery, Timulty and Stephan

“Look, if dignity were cool, Jimmy Carter would have groupies.” (“If dignity were cool, Jimmy Carter would have had groupies.”) - Avery

Avery is a raccoon who goes out of his way to be " cool ". In his striving to convince other “cool” students of his own “coolness”, he overlooks the fact that this is doomed to failure from the start because it is simply not “cool” to try to be “cool” with all your might. What is surprising is that Avery is still often with the computer geek Stephan, undoubtedly the "uncool" character of the whole comic strip. Avery is deeply materialistic and sent his wish list in a strip to Tommy Hilfiger instead of Santa Claus . Avery constantly rebukes his younger brother Timulty for his naivete and he sometimes even turns against Ozy and Millie when it seems opportune to him . As a loser type who at least occasionally shows the insight that friendship with Ozy, Millie and Stephan is more important than being recognized as "cool" by an anonymous crowd, he still offers certain opportunities for identification .

"Who better than a little naked raccoon child to announce that the emperor has no clothes?" - DC Simpson via Timulty. "Who better to say that the emperor wears no clothes than a naked raccoon pup?"

Avery's younger brother Timulty, in contrast, embodies the purest form of childlike innocence as described by William Blake . In some of the best strips, it is Timulty who, with his childlike naivete, takes his brother's senseless pursuit of recognition ad absurdum or holds up a mirror to society .

Stephan, an aardvark , is a typical geek . When he doesn't play video games with Avery , he tries in vain to convince the other characters of the genetic superiority of the geeks; even if the collapse of the New Economy in 2001 gave him a serious shock. Stephan tends to fall miserably in love with girls who don't want to know about him; neither Felicia nor Isolde and Stephanie returned his love.

Felicia and Jeremy

"You totally should try to be less of a dork, you know." ("You know, you should absolutely try not to be such a fool!") - Felicia

Felicia Laine, the school's most popular girl, is almost always with two friends from her clique , who serve as her cues. Her whole thinking revolves around branded clothing and boy groups , so it is not surprising that she and Millie share an intimate enmity . Felicia accuses Millie either of being too individualistic or of simply acting like a fool. Contrary to what you might think, Felicia is not stupid and knows how to assert herself in a verbal argument with Ozy or Millie.

Jeremy Studley, on the other hand, has in his fists what he has not in his head. Jeremy is a typical "bully" who beats up weaker classmates for fun. Ozy, Millie and Stephan are among his favorite victims and he likes to stuff them into the nearest trash can.

Just as it is not a coincidence that Ozy's father Llewellyn is a good-natured dragon and the school principal Beau Vine is a cow , it is no coincidence that Felicia and Jeremy, the heroes' two main antagonists, are a sheep and a rabbit , respectively . With the reversal of the usual distribution of roles between predatory and prey animals , common clichés are avoided and at the same time initial starting points for comedy are created.

More characters

If Ozy or Millie overwork the patience of their class teacher Ms. Sorkowitz, they will either become school psychologist Dr. I. Insane or sent straight to Headmaster Beau Vine. In order to prepare the students for the hard life after school, Beau Vine tries to educate the students to adapt behavior with various, pedagogically questionable methods. The fact that this is in stark contrast to the posters preaching individuality that hang everywhere in the school building doesn't bother him. Dr. I. Wahnsinnig, however, is very committed to Ozy and Millie and regularly criticizes the school principal for following every trend and also supporting the amoral behavior of Jeremy and Felicia.

Ozy's cousin Isolde, like all members of the Llewellyn family, which has their ancestral home in an old castle in Idaho , is involved in several conspiracies . Isolde supported Llewellyn, among other things, in his two candidacies for the American presidency.

Captain Locke, the ten-year-old captain of a pirate ship , lives in a parallel world that is connected to this world via a dimensional gate in Llewellyn's living room sofa. As one learns in a story published in the summer of 2002, Locke is also Millie's father, which can be explained by the fact that one is born old and dies young in his homeworld.

statement

Ozy and Millie as an appeal for more tolerance

Commenting on a previously published Strip the signatories of bar Ozy and Millie out that it him how many other cartoonists also not about going to demonstrate how to express children and behave, but how it feels to be a child to be . Ozy and Millie are symbolic of all children who, because of their differences, are avoided by their classmates or encounter other forms of incomprehension.

Ozy and Millie don't just suffer from the repressive behavior of the other students; the pressure to adapt that acts on them is even increased by the authoritarian order embodied by the school principal Beau Vine. Although this fact is always pointed to extremes and thus exposed to ridicule, the end of such a dispute is usually not the victory of the heroes over their opponents. Rather, they have to admit that not only children, but also many adults ignore reasonable arguments and are not prepared to tolerate behavior that deviates from the social norm . A further complicating factor is that this seems to apply precisely to those adults who would have the power to take action against such abuses in society.

In contrast, the character of the school psychologist Dr. I. It's insane, who is not portrayed as a mere vicarious agent of the school principal, that Ozy and Millie should not be understood as a general criticism of the school system or other authoritarian institutions. Rather, the main message of the comic strip is that all people should be allowed the freedom to live the way they want , as long as they do not harm anyone.

Criticism of consumerism and capitalism

After Ozy and Millie suffered mainly from Jeremy from 1998 to 2000 after the start of the comic strip, Felicia later took on more and more the role of the heroes' first antagonist . As the strip of January 15, 2001 becomes clear, the argument between the anti-authoritarian Millie and the superficial status symbols focused on Felicia is growing in intensity.

Simpson's critical attitude towards unbridled consumerism and capitalism is also evident in many of the strips in which Felicia does not appear. The excesses of the New Economy during the turn of the millennium, the increasing commercialization of Christmas and the socially irresponsible behavior of large corporations are repeatedly addressed by him. It is not uncommon for Timulty to disenchant the empty promises of advertising with an innocently naive but nevertheless astute comment .

Annoyed by the increasing commercialization of the comic strip as an art form, Simpson also repeatedly attacked the illustrator of the Garfield comic strip , Jim Davis , and the press syndicates , who, in his opinion, place too much emphasis on the marketability of the comic strips and too little on their quality: " Well, I don't want to give up on it, even if Jim Davis is a prostitute and the syndicates which could bring me to a much wider audience are more interested in being his pimps. ”(“ Notwithstanding that Jim Davis a Hustler is and the syndicates, which could get me a much larger audience, prefer to be his pimp, I will not give up so easily. ")

Political commentary in Ozy and Millie

Although the social interaction between the characters is the main plot element of the comic strip, the current political situation in the USA is thematized in numerous strips . Simpson always rejected criticism that these two different emphases would not fit together. Because reference is sometimes made to personalities or events that are virtually unknown outside of the United States, some non-political strips are also incomprehensible without prior knowledge of the facts portrayed.

Since January 30, 2004, DC Simpson drew a second, purely political comic strip entitled I Drew This , in which the staunch liberal, among other things, strongly criticizes the American government under George W. Bush . As a direct consequence of this move, the number of political strips in Ozy and Millie decreased significantly. The concept of Intelligent Falling goes back to an I-Drew-This -trip published on May 16, 2005 , which is a satirical answer to the concept of intelligent design , which is mainly represented by American Christians .

Content aspects

Narrative style

Ozy and Millie doesn't differ much from other comic strips in terms of narrative structure. The strips usually consist of three or four panels , with independent strips alternating with those in which a coherent story is told over several days. Conceptual changes to the comic strip were made several times in such story arcs, for example Isolde was introduced as a new character in the story from June 22, 2000 to July 19, 2000. As a webcomic, Ozy and Millie is not tied to the publication cycle of American daily newspapers with six weekday issues, which is why the stories are sometimes much longer. The longest connected storyline in which Millie found out who her father was spanned 31 strips from July 13, 2002 to August 23, 2002.

Although the plot is fixed due to the small number of different characters, there is only one real running gag in Ozy and Millie , namely that Ozy loses his fur once a year due to a curse on the Llewellyn family .

Autobiographical Approaches in Ozy and Millie

On several occasions, the cartoonist DC Simpson has spoken of the autobiographical approaches in Ozy and Millie . For example, Jeremy was named by him after a former classmate whom he was bullied by himself. Ozy's father Llewellyn, on the other hand, was supposed to be the exact opposite of his own father; according to his own statement, an arch-conservative, albeit principled, small mind. Simpson describes himself as a very serious and thoughtful person. Character traits that also characterize Ozy. During his childhood he found no one to share his thoughts with, which is why he dreamed of a friendship like the one between Ozy and Millie. It is also undisputed that Simpson tries to express his own liberal worldview through Ozy and Millie (see section on the statement of the comic strip).

Anthropomorphism in Ozy and Millie

Ozy and Millie is a comic strip in which only anthropomorphic animals appear, i.e. the animal characters behave like humans and not according to their species. Since ancient times, stereotypical, easy-to-understand characters have been represented in fables and fairy tales by humanized animals. In modern comic strips that are no longer explicitly aimed at children, this aspect fades into the background. Instead, cute cartoon animals are a good way for the draftsman to use them to express uncomfortable truths that lose their sharpness. With regard to Ozy and Millie , the problem is that the real people and events addressed in the comic strip do not fit consistently into such an anthropomorphic scenario. In the context of the suspension of disbelief , many readers are prepared to accept such logical inconsistencies to some extent.

Aging comic characters

Although the seasons in the comic strip are the same as in the real world, with references to annual holidays as well as past events, the cartoon characters in Ozy and Millie do not age as time progresses. With a few exceptions like Baby Blues , this is true of almost all comic characters.

When Simpson stopped drawing new strips for a month in April 2000 to revise the appearance of the characters instead, he broke that rule. If Ozy, Millie, and the other students were eight years old and in third grade in their elementary school before the revision , they were ten-year-old fifth graders afterward. The reader is only informed about this fact later and more casually, which makes it clear that this step did not involve any drastic changes to the concept of the comic strip. Apart from that, some readers are of the opinion that the characters look more adult than they did in 2000 due to the gradually evolving drawing style . The question of whether he intends to let the characters age again has always been asked by the draftsman denied.

Similarities with other comic strips

Both the character traits of the comic characters, the drawing style and, last but not least, the ironic undertone of many of the strips are reminiscent of the globally successful comic strip Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson . There are other similarities with Calvin and Hobbes in terms of the critique of consumerism and capitalism , which is repeatedly taken up in the comic strip . The House Rules Parcheesi, played by members of the Llewellyn family, is also reminiscent of the chaotic Calvinball. According to Simpson, the comic strips Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed and Pogo by Walt Kelly also had a significant artistic influence on his work as a comic artist .

Drawing technique and style

Drawing technique

All strips are drawn on special smooth paper measuring 38.1 cm × 11.4 cm or 41.9 cm × 21.6 cm for the Sunday strips. To write the texts in the speech bubbles and to draw other fine lines, Simpson uses crayons; He paints the outlines of the comic characters, the panel frames and other large areas with Indian ink with a thin brush of strength 1. He then colorizes Sunday strips with the help of the Adobe Photoshop image processing program . Because of the time it takes to color the Sunday strips, Simpson has drawn fewer than four Sunday strips a year since 2002.

Drawing style

Since the first Strips published in 1998, Ozy and Millie's drawing style has continued to evolve , especially when it comes to the appearance of the cartoon characters. The unframed panels, which are used in more than every second strip, represent a striking commonality with Calvin and Hobbes . In Ozy and Millie, shadows are not colored with the corresponding gray level, but imitated by black and white line drawings. Simpson often hatches the upper or lower area of ​​the panel with various patterns in order not to have to make complex background drawings when taking close-up photos of the characters, nor to have to leave the drawing field completely white . Occasionally, only the silhouettes or outlines of the cartoon characters are shown against a completely black background.

Others

Publishing

Ozy and Millie was originally conceived as a newspaper strip and not as a webcomic, which can be recognized on the one hand by the typical landscape format of the strips, and on the other hand, the scenario should not only appeal to a limited target group such as computer gamers or science fiction fans. The most important reason for the publication of the first strips on the Internet was rather to build up a first base of readers and to receive suggestions from them. However, it quickly became apparent that the big press syndicates like Universal Press Syndicate , from which the American daily newspapers get their comic strips, were not interested in an Ozy and Millie- style comic strip . The subcontracting of Ozy and Millie was rejected on the grounds, among other things, "Ozy and Millie appeals to fans and comic book readers" ("Ozy and Millie only speaks to fans and comic readers"). It was also criticized that only animal characters appear in Ozy and Millie , because although a lot of comic strips have one or more anthropomorphic animal main characters, there are only a few successful comic strips without human characters.

According to an estimate by the official website's webmaster , Ozy and Millie was read by around 10,000 to 50,000 readers in 2003. The comic book publisher Plan Nine Publishing had published five albums by 2005 , in which most of the strips published up to that point were printed.

Ozy and Millie was translated by fans into other languages ​​such as German or Russian over different periods of time , although the pun in the original, which was written in a very demanding English , was lost in many strips, at least in the German translation.

Awards

Ozy and Millie was a finalist in the 1998 Scripps-Howard Charles M. Schulz Awards for Best Comic Strip. In 1999, Ozy and Millie received the College Media Advisers' Award for best comic strip , and in 2002 the Cartoonist's Choice Award for best anthropomorphic comic strip . The previous nomination Millie as best female lead character for a cartoonist's choice award in 2001 was rejected by Simpson, among other things, on the grounds that a popularity contest between Millie and "big-breasted anime chicks" ("big-breasted anime girls") was absurd. In 2002, the album Ozy and Millie IV: Authentic Banana Dye received the most votes in the Best Anthropomorphic Other Literary Work category in the Ursa Major Awards . In addition, Ozy and Millie was named the best anthropomorphic comic strip in 2006 and 2007.

Publications

The following albums published by the book-on-demand service provider Lulu.com each contain all Ozy and Millie strips of the specified period:

The following albums published by Plan Nine Publishing are no longer available:

  • David Simpson: Ozy and Millie. Plan Nine Publishing, High Point, NC 2000, ISBN 1-929462-11-5
  • David Simpson: Ozy and Millie II: Never Mind Pants. Plan Nine Publishing, High Point, NC 2000, ISBN 1-929462-20-4
  • David Simpson: Ozy and Millie III: Ink and White Space. Plan Nine Publishing, High Point, NC 2001, ISBN 1-929462-43-3
  • David Simpson: Ozy and Millie IV: Authentic Banana Dye. Plan Nine Publishing, High Point, NC 2002, ISBN 1-929462-56-5
  • David Simpson: Ozy and Millie V: Om. Plan Nine Publishing, High Point, NC 2003, ISBN 1-929462-69-7

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The Ursa Major Awards - 2002 winners. Retrieved May 24, 2008 .
  2. ↑ The Ursa Major Awards - 2006 winners. Retrieved May 24, 2008 .
  3. ↑ The Ursa Major Awards - 2007 winners. Retrieved May 24, 2008 .
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on January 2, 2006 .