WFCTATC 1: Fritz the Cat

LOL, first in a series. Man, this was hard to categorize (why is their no humor option for digital anthro fanart? Oy.) Anyway, yeah, I thought it would be funny to do a series on fictional characters, unhappy with their life, turning against the very real people who created them. Are they ungrateful or are they onto something? Well, that's up for you to decide.

Firstly, here is the classic example: Fritz the Cat, of course. I'm sure you know the story of him (especially if you've seen my other Fritz fanarts). Well, now that he's gotten over being killed off by R. Crumb himself (and has since become some sort of walking dead pop icon, in my mind), he's decided to go on promoting the very film that pissed Crumb off anyway (Fritz must love mommy Bakshi better than daddy Crumb.. LOL), as well as it's sequel, which was poorly received... but hey, I liked it.. and Fritz is such an ego maniac anyway.

I've been researching the whole fallout over the film.. Crumb seems to hate it because of the phoniness of Hollywood (well, that I can see, yeah), and the fact that "words were put in Fritz's mouth that (he) would never have put there". I have read all the Fritz comics the film is based on.. I have not seen any major dialogue changes. Unless Crumb is referring to Fritz's "Peace and love monologue" at the end. In that case...well, I see Crumb didn't want Fritz to be to be kinder, gentler... he wanted Fritz to be an asshole (ironicly, in Fritz's death comic, it's his assholism that is what causes the ostrich girl to stab him with an ice pick). Well, I don't think I need to tell you Crumb has issues.

As for Bakshi, well, he later made a film called "Wizards" which I haven't seen yet, but there's a character called Fritz in it, and I read an interview with Bakshi and he said he named the character yet, so the character could die and one of the main guys could yell "They killed Fritz! Those lousy, stinking yellow fairies!". Bakshi himself said it was a crime for Crumb to kill Fritz. And I agree.

Fans of Fritz seem to be split into Crumb-purists and overall Fritz fanatics. I'm the latter. Crumb may be a genius, but like I said, he has fuckin' ISSUES, man (don't all geniuses, though?). And it was a crime to kill Fritz.. but as I have said in an earlier comic, at least it DID spare Fritz from having to drag on into the PC age, where he wouldn't fit. But it is horrible in that Crumb essentally killed one of his "children" over a movie he apparently agreed to at first (though I've heard varying stories.. oh, whatever). The only notable time Fritz was ever drawn by Crumb after that was that cover for his coffee table art book where all the characters are exploding from his head... Fritz is there.. with a halo. Perhaps that shows Crumb might miss Fritz a little. But it's too late. Fritz is dead to his own creator. But he lives on for all us fans, in our hearts, and out disturbed little minds.

Okay, on to the artistic blather: I don't draw characters from the side very often, and it shows. Fritz is supposed to have his head turned to the side and he's whispering all shady-like to the kid. I hope you could tell that when you first saw this. My original idea was for him to have a trenchcoat and have bootlegged copies of his own movies in it. But I thought "Nah, I've done Fritz in a trenchcoat already." so I went with the typical red sweater. My initial drawing made him look quite effeminate (quite a feat considering the character we're talking here). But I eventually got it more or less normal. Then I realized I had never drawn Fritz's legs before, so I went to Google images and checked a reference (and in the process, revised the number of stripes I'm supposed to use on him). No, Fritz NEVER wears pants. It's kooky like that in cartoons (as well as the fact that he never seems to have a dick unless he's using it. ).
As for the kid... that's quite an odd-looking kid, huh? Well, I didn't make a big deal out of it. Just some random kid. Random stereotypical kid with a striped shirt and a beanie hat (which no kid these days wears, of course). And yes, that's the second joke, folks, that Fritz is also contributing to the corruption of tiny minds. Like you're surprised.

Next in the series is most likely going to be Hermione Granger.. the character too good for the series she's stuck in.

Edit: I re-uploaded a new version because I finally noticed that in the original I forgot to put stripes on his tail! Oops.

Fritz the Cat © R. Crumb