MUTTS: Sunday Funnies Volume 1: The Complete Sunday Comic Strips, 1994

This first volume of Sunday Funnies from Abrams ComicArts drops you right back to the exact moment Mutts started to find its footing, pulling together those early Sunday strips from 1994 to 1996 in full color, the way they were always meant to be seen. If you’ve been following Patrick McDonnell from the start, there’s a real sense of nostalgia baked in. If you’re just stepping in, this is as clean and perfect an entry point as you’ll find.

I’ve been with MUTTS since the early days, back when it still felt like a quiet secret you wanted to pass along to the right kind of person. I’ve got a few collections on my shelf, including that first one with a foreword by Charles M. Schulz, who didn’t exactly hand out praise lightly. When he called it “one of the best comic strips of all time,” you paid attention.

MUTTS follows Earl the dog, Mooch the cat, and a cast of characters that feel simple on the surface but hit you somewhere deeper than you expect. There’s something disarming about those clean, stripped-down lines. No clutter, no noise. Just pure emotion sneaking up on you through a wag, a glance, or a perfectly timed pause.

MUTTS: Sunday Funnies taps right into that feeling. It’s the first time the Sunday MUTTS strips have been collected in full color, one per page, laid out in chronological order, the way they were meant to be seen. You get all the title panels too, the ones newspapers used to chop for space, which feels like finally seeing the whole picture. There’s also a “Title Panel Tribute Guide” in the back where McDonnell pulls back the curtain and shares what inspired each one, which adds a whole new layer if you’re paying attention.

You can see the DNA of the greats all over it, from Peanuts to Krazy Kat to Popeye. But it never feels like imitation. It feels like respect. McDonnell takes that lineage and distills it into something softer, quieter, and honestly, kind of necessary in a loud world.

Spend a little time with MUTTS and it works on you. Not in a big, dramatic way. More like a slow exhale. It stirs something gentle. A reminder that the basics still matter. Food, naps, love. That’s the whole game, really. Strangely, reading a strip feels closer to a haiku or a Zen koan than a punchline. There’s a stillness to it, a kind of emotional clarity that sneaks up on you and leaves you just a little better than it found you.

There’s a new preface from McDonnell as well, and this first volume covers 1994 to 1996, those early years where everything was still taking shape but already felt fully formed. If you’ve been around since the beginning, it hits like memory. If you’re new, it’s a perfect place to start. Either way, it’s the kind of book you leave lying around, not just to read, but to return to when you need a reset.

Street date: October 6, 2026