Fairy Tale Spotlight: Housepets!

A very talented artist and writer by the name of Rick Griffin came up with a wonderful idea. Although it had been done to some degree before, I gotta give him credit for drawing me into a more modern day fantasy to what was once made popular by Beatrix Potter. Let's have a look!

"Housepets!" is a comic strip series which depicts animals as anthropomorphic while still holding the same class roles as they do in real life. For example: a dog walks on two legs, has opposing thumbs, can speak English, and is even intelligent enough to play video games and win. Even so, that same dog is still the pet of a human being and must live life according to those rules. There may be some change in venue such as eating off of the floor. They will probably eat off of the equivalent of a kiddie table but never at the same table as humans.

Dogs are still loyal and silly, and cats are still independent and moody. Other animals have their own personal attributes but in the form of an anthropomorphic creature rather than a feral one. Wild animals have these traits also and there are still pests. Raccoons will occasionally break into trashcans and cause trouble. It is much easier for them because they have thumbs, so the humans have to be a little more careful in how they deal with their garbage.

The animals in "Housepets!" do at times seem like they are mere slaves, but they don't really care. At heart they are still animals and are loyal to humans in the same manner as real animals are. Likewise abused animals tend to act crazy and say crazy things, yet their loyalty is still there even after the abuse. Rick Griffin was very careful to explain all this.

At its heart, the stories told in the comic are comedy. There are punchlines in every strip, but on a grander scale, there is a very unique and interesting story told that keeps you reading endlessly. The story is often semi-serious and relaxing but can, at times, become heartwarming. These moments happen especially on holidays.

Although the cast of characters are many, the two that the comic seems to always fall back on is a dog named Peanut Butter and a cat named Jelly. Best friends at times and enemies when Jelly's mood is not so pleasant. With these two characters, you really get to understand how an animal can be given intelligent but still remain who they are. Peanut Butter has a wild imagination which is why he spends a lot of time drawing his own comics which do not always make much sense. Jelly spends most of her time lounging on a couch until Peanut Butter can rile her up to play with him. There has been a sort of on and off love affair between the two but I have not seen it go too far.

The fun of this sort of world really makes me consider what it would have been like to have a pet in that universe. How awesome would it be to have a pet dog who could play video games with you? How awesome would it be to have a cat to give you emotional advice when yer feeling bad? It's really quite a wonderful idea!

Before "Housepets!" the nearest thing we had to that sort of universe was that of Beatrix Potter. In her universe the animals were similar anthropomorphic and lived among humans in a similar way. It was a bit grimmer though if you consider that pigs were still slaughtered regularly and eaten by the humans. And apparently the pigs had just accepted this because they were pigs and it was their duty. I mean... Just be honest in the comment block. Could you do that? Could you eat the bacon knowing that the pig it came from was a person? But Beatrix Potter always had a rough streak in her stories anyways.

I get the impression that similar things happened in "Housepets!" but were not really addressed heavily because it wouldn't have been very funny. One part I did remember was when they talked about the dog actors in old movies where they had to cut off their tails or break their legs for the sake of the film before animal rights laws existed. (I can't remember which to be honest.) Still, you can imagine the connotations of that if they could walk and talk like us.

With "Housepets!" Rick Griffin managed to give us a peek at a fun and interesting world that we might not mind being a part of too much. I would love it if I could talk to my cat. Having an animal friend to hang with sounds like it would be a blast. Tell me what you think!

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