193: The Angriest Cat in the World

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The Angriest Cat in the World

Made by: Colin Foster

Explanation

This comic is an homage to The Angriest Dog in the World, a comic strip by noted surrealist filmmaker David Lynch that ran in the LA Reader from 1983 until 1992. Each strip began with a caption mostly identical to the one seen in the Garfield strip (with the exception of all cat-related words originally being dog-appropriate ones, of course), then continued on with three completely identical panels showing the titular dog, then ending with a final panel that was the same thing, but after dusk had fallen. The only difference between strips was the dialogue, which could show up in any panel and was often philosophical and/or a non-sequitur.

The SRoMG comic is mostly the same, except the dialogue's style is rather imperfect - unlike the aforementioned non-sequiturs Lynch used, Colin Foster instead makes a simple pun ("Claire and Annette" are clearly intended to evoke the clarinet). Also note that Foster has referenced the series before (though this strip was made first, but submitted later).

The author writes:

I actually came up with this before No. 135, but neglected to submit it before then. The toughest part was coming up with dialogue to match the strangeness of the original work. The second-toughest part was finding a suitable "angry" Garfield.

Original strip: 1978-07-11

Transcript

Caption: The cat who is so angry he cannot move. He cannot eat. He cannot sleep. He can just barely purr. Bound so tightly with tension and anger, he approaches the state of rigor mortis.
{Garfield sits angrily, motionless}
Voice off-screen: I met two very nice girls at the orchestra...
Voice off-screen: Claire and Annette.
{Garfield sits motionless}
{Garfield sits motionless in the dark, as the sun has gone down}