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The Angriest Dog In the World 1983-1992

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The dog who is so angry he cannot move. He cannot eat. He cannot sleep. He can just barely growl. Bound so tightly with tension and anger, he approaches the state of rigor martis.

About the comic strip | Content | Pictures

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  About the Comic Strip

David Lynch had the idea for the comic strip in 1973 when his life was filled with inexplicable anger. He visited a psychiatrist to find out about the origins of it but left after the honest man told him that therapy could affect his creativity. He subsequently discovered meditation that freed him from his anger, so according to Lynch

"the memory of the anger is what does 'The Angriest Dog.' Not the actual anger anymore. It's sort of a bitter attitude toward life."

From 1983 on his comic strip appeared weekly in the L.A. Reader. Now

"they pulled the plug on The Angriest Dog In The World. That was in 92! It went for nine years, and it had a good run."


David Lynch

"Well, I had tremendous anger. When I began meditating [in 1973], one of the first things that left was a great chunk of that. I don't know how, it just evaporated."

Why is the Angriest Dog in the World so angry?

David Lynch: "That's a mystery. Certain clues come from the world around him."

How much time have you spent on that strip in total?

David Lynch: "A long time. I've been doing it every week for seven or eight years. Every Monday is Dog day because I have to come up with a dog, and occasionally I've gone as late as Wednesday, but there's still time to get it in the paper."

"Yes, it is perverse because the humor in the strip is based on the sickness of people's pitiful state of unhappiness and misery. But it thrills me."

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  Content

The comic strip was always introduced by the words:

The dog who is so angry he cannot move. He cannot eat. He cannot sleep. He can just barely growl. Bound so tightly with tension and anger, he approaches the state of rigor martis.

then ever followed by the same four pictures including balloons with remarks by the (invisible) family Bill, Sylvia, Pete and Billy junior, e.g.:

"The only way you have exceeded my expectations is in weight."

"The psychological origin of the idea of space, or of the necessity for it, is far from being so obvious as it may appear."

"It must be clear even to the non-mathematician that the things in this world just don't add up to beans."

"Unfortunately, life contains an unavoidable element of unpredictability."

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© Mike Hartmann
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