This is one of my favorite strips from Richard Thompson’s Cul de Sac, the middle part of an epic serialized story in 2005 wherein Danders the guinea pig gets lost in the city as he tries to make his way back to his cage in the preschool:
I suspect it’s a micro-parody of Homeward Bound and all those animals-quest-for-home stories.
Speaking of, here’s a panel from WE3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely:
He is indeed a GUD DOG. God, this comic is so good, I tear up every time I think about it. If you get the re-released version, they threw in a few more pages that weren’t the original. The climactic “IS COAT NOT WE” moment gets shown and some other nice bits.
It makes me think about Morrison’s “hyper-compression” technique and how much story he actually leaves out of most of this work. Think of all the little scenes we’re missing when we read or watch anything; what beautiful interstitial moments are often left on the cutting room floor? Think of how cruel you have to be to abandon the inbetween.
I was dog-sitting this past weekend, which is probably why I’m ruminating on animals seeking home. We walked around Hell’s Kitchen several times, enjoying the vibes of the Pride Month, where rainbow flags fly high from the tops of buildings and sparkle from people’s clothes.
New York City lifted its restrictions this month and all the festivities feel like people have forgotten we’re still working through a global pandemic, which is a bit unnerving. I wore a mask the whole time while the dog trotted next to me, happily oblivious to any of these complexities. Little anxieties welled up between our steps, between every rainbow. But the celebratory vibe persisted, and we made it home okay.