VOA慢速英语--狗展：两个世纪的狗卡通

Museum Show Celebrates 200 Years of Cartoon Dogs

In a 1970 Beetle¹ Bailey comic strip, a character known as Sarge shouts at his uniform-wearing dog, Otto, over a paperwork mistake.

"Think, Otto, think!!" Sarge says.

Anne Drozd, museum coordinator² at Ohio State University's Billy Ireland Cartoon Library Museum, stands at the entrance to the library's new exhibit, 

Anne Drozd, museum coordinator at Ohio State University's Billy Ireland Cartoon Library Museum, stands at the entrance to the library's new exhibit, "The Dog Show," on Thursday, June 24, 2021, in Columbus, Ohio(AP Photo/Andrew Welsh-Huggins)

"We can't all be Snoopy," a sad Otto answers.

This joining of two well-known comic strip dogs is being shown along with many other images at the world's largest cartoon museum. It is part of a new presentation of the history of dogs in the world of cartooning.

"The Dog Show: Two Centuries of Canine³ Cartoons" is being shown at Ohio State University's Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in Columbus, Ohio. It will be open through October.

The idea for the show came when the family of Brad Anderson, the creator of the cartoon dog Marmaduke, donated his collection in 2018. It included 16,000 Marmaduke cartoons from 1954 to 2010 and other works. Anderson died in 2015.

The addition of Anderson's dog cartoons started a discussion about other cartoons with dogs in the museum, said museum coordinator Anne Drozd.

"There were so many comic strips and magazine cartoons and comic books, and so many different examples that have dogs in them."

Dogs' personalities⁴ make them a very good fit for the comic strip, said show organizer Brian Walker.

Dogs "aim to please, so they actually make really good cartoon characters," said Walker. He is a cartoonist and cartoon historian⁵. He is also the son of Mort Walker, the creator of Beetle Bailey.

Though Otto first appeared in Beetle Bailey in 1956, he was a normal, four-legged dog until around 1970 when Mort Walker made him more human. He gave Otto his own uniform and desk. That change most likely came because of Snoopy in Charles Schulz' Peanuts strip, Brian Walker said.

The oldest image in the show is a reprint of British artist George Cruikshank's drawing of weather so bad it's "raining cats and dogs."

Moving through the years, the show includes well-known dogs like "Sandy" from Little Orphan⁶ Annie, "Daisy" from Blondie and "Dogbert" from Scott Adams' Dilbert strip.

George Booth's New Yorker magazine cartoon dogs are also being shown. And so are images by newspaper cartoonist Lynda Barry. Other works include Shary Flenniken's "Trots⁷ and Bonnie," about a girl and her talking dog that appeared in "National Lampoon⁸" from 1972 to 1990.

There are well-known characters like "Dog Man" from the book series by cartoonist Dave Pilkey. There are also six strips from a 1940s Dick Tracy cartoon with a dog named Mugg that the detective looks after for a while.

Brian Walker said his favorite cartoon in the show comes from the 1955 Disney movie "Lady and the Tramp," showing the dogs eating at an Italian restaurant.

"They're both eating the same piece of spaghetti and their lips kind of come together and they fall in love," Walker said. "It doesn't get much better than that."

Words in This Story

comic strip – n. a series of cartoon drawings that tell a story or part of a story

character –n. a person or animal who appears in a story, book, TV show, movie or similar form of art

cartoon – n. a series of drawings that tell a story and regularly appear in newspapers or magazines

museum –n. a building in which interesting or valuable things are collected and shown to the public

personality –n. the set of qualities and ways of behaving that make a person different from others

spaghetti – n. a long stingy food known as pasta which is made from flour

1 beetle   

n.甲虫，近视眼的人

参考例句：

• A firefly is a type of beetle.萤火虫是一种甲虫。
• He saw a shiny green beetle on a leaf.我看见树叶上有一只闪闪发光的绿色甲虫。

2 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

3 canine   

adj.犬的，犬科的

参考例句：

• The fox is a canine animal.狐狸是犬科动物。
• Herbivorous animals have very small canine teeth,or none.食草动物的犬牙很小或者没有。

4 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。

5 historian   

n.历史学家，编史家

参考例句：

• As a historian,he was most typical of the times in which he lived.作为历史学家，他是他所处时代最有代表性的人物。
• He calls himself a historian,but his books are a mere journalism.他自称为历史学家，但是他的书都是些肤浅的通俗作品。

6 orphan   

n.孤儿；adj.无父母的

参考例句：

• He brought up the orphan and passed onto him his knowledge of medicine.他把一个孤儿养大，并且把自己的医术传给了他。
• The orphan had been reared in a convent by some good sisters.这个孤儿在一所修道院里被几个好心的修女带大。

7 trots   

小跑，急走( trot的名词复数 )； 匆匆忙忙地走

参考例句：

• A horse that trots, especially one trained for harness racing. 训练用于快跑特别是套轭具赛跑的马。
• He always trots out the same old excuses for being late. 他每次迟到总是重复那一套藉口。

8 lampoon   

n.讽刺文章；v.讽刺

参考例句：

• His cartoon mercilessly lampoon the leading politician of the day.他的讽刺漫画无情地挖苦了当今的政界要人。
• He was lampooned for his short stature and political views.他的矮小身材和政治观点使他成了受奚落的对象。