Sunday Comics | Guard Dog from ‘Mutts’ is finally free

Check out recent webcomics by Grover, Chris Eliopoulos, Joshua Barkman and more.

Here’s a round up of some of the best and most interesting comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

Followers of the comic strip Mutts by Patrick McDonnell will recognize Guard Dog, one of the strips most enduring and popular characters. Introduced about a year after the strip debuted, Guard Dog has been tethered to a stake in his owner’s yard ever since, a symbol of the cruelty of dog chaining.

After being abandoned by his owner and left to fate, Guard Dog is finally free and has a new home — not to mention his own web page.

“I started in my sketchbooks drawing a tough dog,” McDonnell told AP News about the dog’s origins. “I drew a big gruff dog and I put a studded collar on him. And then I drew a chain. And when I did that, it changed everything. I realized that it wasn’t a villain. It was a tragic character.”

McDonnell said fans of the strip have asked for the dog to be freed in the past, while animal welfare groups would ask him to keep the dog tethered as a way to bring attention to the dangers of animal neglect.

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Not only does Guard Dog have a new home, but he also has a new name, courtesy of his new owner — the neighborhood girl Doozy, who regularly visited him when he was chained up.

Mutts is available to read on Comics Kingdom. You can find the strips detailing Guard Dog’s latest developments on his web page.

This past week at Dork Tower, creator John Kovalic welcomed guest contributor Chris Eliopoulos to the webcomic. The Christmas-themed strips featured a group of elves playing the RPG “House & Humans,” with humorous results.

If you’re wondering what 2024 might bring, First Dog on the Moon has you covered with this predictions comic strip.

The Eisner-award nominated Grover Toons is always a fun place to see what new animated webcomics are available, or maybe see what you missed the last time you were there. Like this comic about McDonald’s The Hamburglar, and that time he went to hell.

Joshua Barkman’s False Knees is typically a four-panel comic strip featuring various animals doing funny things, but for November Barkman told a longer story featuring his trademark animals — specifically a barn owl with an interesting hobby that grows into something more. You can read it all on his website or on Webtoon.

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