Patrick McDonnell

Patrick McDonnell
Patrick McDonnell and his dog Amelie

Patrick McDonnell (born March 17, 1956) is the creator of the daily comic strip Mutts. His picture book about the childhood of Jane Goodall, Me…Jane, won a Caldecott Honor in 2012. He is currently writing the screenplay for an animated feature film which is in development with Twentieth Century Fox. Prior to creating MUTTS, McDonnell had a successful career as a freelance illustrator, drawing the Russell Baker Observer column for the New York Times Sunday Magazine from 1978-1993. He also created Bad Baby, a monthly comic strip for Parents Magazine, which ran for 10 years. During that time he also was a regular contributor to Sports Illustrated, Reader's Digest, Forbes, Time and many other national magazines. His work has been animated for television commercials, most notably a PSA for the NY Philharmonic. He is coauthor of Krazy Kat: The Comic Art of George Herriman, published in 1986 by Abrams.

McDonnell was born in Edison, New Jersey, from an Irish father and an Italian-descendent mother. After graduating from Edison High School in 1974, McDonnell attended the School of Visual Arts on scholarship, graduating in 1978.

McDonnell began a career as a magazine illustrator and would frequently include a dog in the background of his illustrations. Moving to Hoboken, New Jersey, he met a group of underground cartoonists such as Peter Bagge and Kazimieras G. Prapuolenis (Kaz), and had some of his earliest drawings appearing in The Village Voice, and as Jerseyana in New Jersey Monthly magazine. A book of his life and work, Mutts: The Comic Art of Patrick McDonnell, was published in 2003 by Abrams Publishing.