Patrick McDonnell
 Patrick McDonnell’s parents met in art school. Surrounded by art and developing an early love of comic strips, it’s no wonder that he proceeded to create some very successful comic strips, including the nationally syndicated strip, Mutts.
In his youth, McDonnell found special inspiration in comic strips featuring animal stars-- Pogo, Krazy Kat and Snoopy among his favorites.
McDonnell received a Fine Arts degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York. Upon graduation, he played drums in punk band The Steel Tips and he also found work illustrating The Russell Baker Column in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.
The Tips broke up and McDonnell continued working for the Sunday Magazine for 15 years. During that time, he also created the Bad Baby comic strip for Parents magazine and illustrated the Scorecard section of Sports Illustrated Magazine.
Even before beginning the Mutts comic strip in 1994, McDonnell was drawing a little, white dog that looked alot like a Jack Russell Terrier. Those drawings evolved into Earl, the main pooch in Mutts. Mutts follows the joyful existence of a white dog named Earl and a black cat named Mooch in a world including their guardians, birds, squirrels and other neighborhood pets including Guard Dog, who is always tethered to a post.
Like Charles Schultz’ Peanuts, the characters of Mutts have keen eyes on the world but express themselves with a soft heart. Peanuts shares with us the worldview belonging to a community of children; Mutts suggests that we consider the viewpoints of those ostensibly voiceless fellow-creatures among us.. Charles Schulz remarked upon the success of Mutts:
"To me, Mutts is exactly what a comic strip should be. It is always fun to look at, and the two main characters are wonderfully innocent. Patrick has created a little world that exists within itself. Everyone in Mutts , from the little pet fish to the butcher behind his counter, is funny. Earl, of course, holds it all together and, as always, it is the way he is drawn that makes him so good. It's hard to believe that after 100 years of comics, Patrick could come up with a new and perfect little dog. I like everything about Mutts ."
In addition to Mutts , Patrick McDonnell has authored several children’s books including Wag!, and Hug Time and recent title, Guardians of Being, pairs McDonnell’s illustrations with Eckhart Tolle’s thought-provoking sentiments. Inspired by Tolle’s “deep truths” and lucid conveyance of “nature teaching stillness,” McDonnell finds that dogs and cats often teach these same truths.
Undoubtedly, McDonnell’s love of animals is what led to him to become a vegetarian over 20 years ago. While he had periods of vegetarianism starting in high school, he and his wife, Karen, together made the commitment early in their marriage. At first, they decided to eat meat-free once a week. Realizing this was pretty easy, they eventually asked themselves, “why bother eating meat at all?” They redoubled their commitment and never looked back. Both comment that eating meat-free is easier now than ever. Prepared foods such as Amy’s make it especially easy. McDonnell said we could quote him when he said, “Companies like Amy’s are changing the world!”
In addition to Mutts and his book projects, McDonnell serves on the Board of Directors of the Charles Schulz Museum here in Santa Rosa, California and he also sits on the Board of The Humane Society of the United States. In fact, he began his acclaimed Shelter Stories series as part of Animal Shelter Appreciation week. McDonnell produces these strips annually and the Humane Society credits them as having a measurable impact on the public’s increasing decisions to adopt shelter animals.
Patrick McDonnell, his wife, Karen, their cats, MeeMow and Not Udi, and their Jack Russell Terrier, Amelie, live in New Jersey.
Links for more information:
http://muttscomics.com
http://www.humanesociety.org
http://www.schulzmuseum.org
http://www.eckharttolle.com
http://www.pogopossum.com
http://krazy.com/toc.htm
Spotlight on Kristen Bell
This actress has a well-honed funny bone and a heart for animals
BY Bonnie Siegler / Vegetarian Times January 2010
Landing her breakout role in 2004 as a crime-solving high school detective in the TV series Veronica Mars, Kristen Bell successfully segued into a movie career as the title character in 2008's Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Next up for Bell is the romantic comedy When in Rome, opening in January. A vegetarian for more than 15 years, the 29-year-old animal lover shares her home with three rescue dogs: Lola, Shakey, and Sadie. Bell first met Sadie, a Hurricane Katrina survivor, on a visit to the Helen Woodward Animal Center, a shelter she's active with near San Diego.
Q What introduced you to vegetarianism?
A I had a lot of quirks as a child. One was that I didn't like to eat meat: I didn't like to chew it, didn't like the taste or smell of it, and just wasn't having any of it. I was in the minority of kids who actually loved fruits and vegetables. My mom, who was a nurse, was very supportive of my choice to become a vegetarian, but said we were going to do some research. I'm constantly monitoring how colorful the food on my plate is, which is a trick my mom taught me. I make sure to eat really dark power vegetables, like broccoli and kale.
Q Do you get to cook for yourself much?
A I cook a lot. Cooking makes me feel calm, makes me feel empowered; it makes me feel like I'm a provider. One of my favorite things to do is to pick a food, like kale, and get some fresh from the farmers' market, then look up different recipes with it as an ingredient, make all those recipes, and decide which is best.
Q Is it true you have dessert after every meal?
A Yes, even after breakfast. I like having something sweet to finish a meal, and I'm not ashamed of that!
Q How much does your concern for animal welfare influence your vegetarianism?
A When I was little, I loved my dogs so much. Part of my becoming a vegetarian was that I would look at my burger, then look at my dogs, and I wasn't able to see a difference. But I think it was Milan Kundera, in [his book] The Unbearable Lightness of Being, who said something like you can really judge people's personalities based on how they treat those who are at their mercy—in other words, animals. That's a great way to live, because a lot of creatures in this world are defenseless and we have to be compassionate and aware.
Q You've said how hard it was to keep a straight face while filming [the 2009 release] Couples Retreat with funnyman Vince Vaughn. How important is laughter to you?
A It's vital, it's No. 1. Laughter provides so much to your emotional and mental health. And you have to be able to laugh at yourself. That's key. At a dance rehearsal for You Again [scheduled for release in 2010], I wasn't picking up the steps quickly. I just couldn't get the "booty shake" right. I looked over at the director and the choreographer, and they were cracking up and videotaping me. I'm sure it'll turn up on some blooper reel!
One on One with Jane Goodall
By Michael Kaminer, Vegetarian Times
Photo: Michael Neugebauer courtesy the Jane Goodall institute
Nearly 50 years after she first joined legendary anthropologist Louis Leakey to study chimps in Africa, Jane Goodall, PhD, remains a force of nature herself. As leader of the international Jane Goodall Institute (janegoodall.org)—which she founded in 1977 to protect primates and their habitats—she travels the world teaching about the interconnectedness of all life and how we can help overcome ecological crises. Her 17th book, Hope for Animals and Their World, offers a renewed optimism about animals, humans, and our future together. VT caught up with Goodall, 75, a longtime vegetarian, at her family home in Bournemouth, England.
Q In the book’s foreword, coauthor Thane Maynard writes, “I really have no idea why Jane and I are so disproportionately buoyant in such a time of loss.” Where does your hope come from?
A Because of my endless traveling and the people I meet, I get told the good stories as well as the bad. One person I met, Don Merton in New Zealand, saved a bird called the black robin from extinction when [in 1976] only seven birds were left—there are about 600 or something now. I’ve seen with my own eyes that if you give nature a chance, she can bloom, even though we’ve destroyed a whole ecosystem, basically.
“If you give nature a chance, she can bloom, even though we’ve destroyed a whole ecosystem, basically.”
Q You write about “symbols of hope” you’ve collected—a leaf, a feather, tree bark. What symbols can we find in our own backyards?
A A symbol of hope could be a little plant coming up through concrete. You can treasure a child who’s survived cancer. There are all kinds of symbols.
Q What changes can we make in our own lives to perpetuate the arc of hope you write about?
A The most important thing is changing the meat diet. And eat organic as much as possible. Buy locally grown foods. Boosting small farmers and family farms is incredibly important.
Q During your travels, you must have sampled some exotic vegetarian dishes. Can you recall your favorite?
A There is one I loved best. I was literally in the middle of nowhere, in a forest in the northern Republic of Congo, visiting people studying chimps. We were out one evening in the forest with pygmy trackers. They picked these orange mushrooms, along with a large leaf from a low-lying plant—I have no idea of its name. They cooked them together; the leaves made a kind of broth. It was absolutely delicious, and the vibrant orange and green colors were so beautiful. And it was definitely vegetarian.
Q In your new book, you write about a connection to nature you felt growing up. You still live in your childhood home. Is that connection still there?
A Yes, absolutely. There are the same trees I climbed as a child. I see the same birds—or the descendants thereof. There are fewer insects, which is worrying. And some bird species are gone, which is also worrying. But that doesn’t mean they can’t come back.
New York–based writer Michael Kaminer considers squirrels in Manhattan’s Union Square Park a symbol of hope.
Previous Spotlights:
Mr.
Rogers | Alicia
Silverstone | Tobey
Maguire | Natalie
Portman | Russell
Simmons | Joaquin
Phoenix | Brendan
Brazier | Carrie
Underwood | Steve
Vai | Prince
Fielder | Chris
Walla | Emily Deschanel | Jane Goodall
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