Encyclopedia Drew and the Look-Alike Cats

After being called out by Batalla and Meg H. that I failed to recognize my artistic influences in cat doodles, I investigated the matter for myself.

In a post last month, I noted that a cat I had drawn reminded me of Alexandre, an ill-fated cat from Home Movies. Batalla and Meg argued, however, that the cat looked more like Mr. Pants, a character I drew for a sporadic-at-best comic strip I drew for the Nexus way back when.

Here’s the recent doodle cat:

And here’s Alexandre, from the Home Movies episode “Brendon Gets Rabies.”


And here’s Mr. Pants.

Thoughts?

In a side-by-side Batalla put up on his blog, it looks like Doodle Cat and Mr. Pants are dead ringers for each other, save for the ears, but I feel like I ganked Doodle Cat's ears directly from Alexandre. But it wasn’t until I actually thought about the matter a bit that I realized that Mr. Pants himself is a Home Movies reference. In the episode “History,” the kids make another installment of the Star Boy adventures. (A synopsis that I enjoy writing: Star Boy and the Captain of Outer Space must rescue William Shakespeare, Oliver Twist and the Mermaid Queen from three evil villains — Evil George Washington, Evil Pablo Picasso and Evil Annie Oakley.) In the last segment, George Washington introduces his “killing machine” and “favorite kitty,” the evil, rapping Mr. Pants.

Best line: "I got claws like a cat because that's what I am / I'll throw up on the carpet and scratch up your hands."

In the end, I feel like Doodle Cat falls somewhere between Alexadre and the comic strip cat I drew. Perhaps more importantly, Home Movies is amazing and I, apparently lacking in ideas of my own, suck.

I miss Home Movies.