Too frequently dismissed as a “poor-man’s Garfield,” in this seminal collection by George Gatley, Heathcliff finally steps into his own, asserting through a combination of sly wit and linguistic subterfuge, the type of feline humor that would come to define the mid 80s.
Often called “second term” comedy, for its association with President Reagan’s second term in office, Heathlcliff projects both the class anxiety of the shrinking middle class, with a sometimes not so subtle critique of capitalist materialism, embedded within a special construct in which the cartoon as text is both object and interpretation.
Heathcliff certainly “does it again” in this collection, raising hell on the streets, tipping over garbage cans, and generally making life miserable for owner Mr. Nutmeg, as clear a representation of bourgeoisie excess as can be found in the Sunday funnies, save perhaps the short-lived strip, “Mr. Weatherbelly and His Golden Grapefruit Peeler.”
There is no question that underneath the thin veneer of humor, this collection relishes in its own dark impulses. This is not, as it were, traditional post-semantic irony, nor does it allow, even in its most capricious moments, a glimmer of what Marxist Theresa Walenberg has called, “the inflated ego of neo-capitalist suburban comedy” (see, for example, Marmaduke).
Heathcliff forces us to question contemporary socio-religious ideas such as guilt, heuristics, moral ambiguity, and the placement of certain dumpsters near certain restaurants that sell fish. It is not, on any means, an easy read. But it is, ultimately, in both its flirtation with what Charles Olson called “the projected image” and what Ronald Reagan deemed, “the shining city on the hill,” the most important feline comic strip up to and including present day (apologies to Krazy Kat).
In other words, a must read!
Tags: heathcliff, review