Patrick McDonnell’s comic strip, MUTTS, is celebrating its 30th anniversary having appeared in over 700 newspapers across 20 countries. MUTTS has received numerous awards for its artistry and its animal and environmental themes including: the NCS Reuben for Cartoonist of the Year, eight Harvey Awards (including the Harvey Hall of Fame Award (2025)) and the Eisner Humanitarian Award. Charles Schulz called MUTTS “One of the best comics strips of all time.”
McDonnell has New York Times bestselling picture books, including the Caldecott Honor winning ME..JANE (a childhood biography of Dr. Jane Goodall) which, along with THE GIFTOF NOTHING were adapted as musicals for the Kennedy Center. He has collaborated with Eckhart Tolle (GUARDIANS OF BEING) and with the Dalai Lama (HEART TO HEART: A CONVERSATION OF LOVE AND HOPE FOR OUR PRECIOUS PLANET). This year McDonnell had two picture books published, THE GIFT OF EVERYTHING and the 20th anniversary edition of THE GIFT OF NOTHING.
BREAKING THE CHAIN: THE GUARD STORY, a collection of his newsworthy comics about freeing his MUTTS character, Guard Dog, was published in 2024. THE SUPER HERO’S JOURNEY, his graphic novel love letter to Marvel Comics and Jack Kirby was on 11 ‘best of’ lists for 2023.
In 2021, Ohio State University hosted Side Effects, a major exhibition of his large-scale canvases. He has also shown his fine art at the Jeffrey Deitch gallery in SOHO NYC and at the Cory Helford Gallery in LA.
