Shoe (comic strip)
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Shoe is the name of a comic strip that was written and drawn by its creator Jeff MacNelly until his death in 2000. It has since been continued by Chris Cassatt, Gary Brookins, and Susie MacNelly.
Shoe deals with the day-to-day foibles of a group of newspaper employees and their families, all of whom are portrayed as anthropomorphized birds, in the fictional state of East Virginia. The cast of characters includes:
- P. Martin Shoemaker, the cigar-smoking editor (patterned after Jim Shumaker whom MacNelly worked for at the Chapel Hill (NC) Weekly), whose difficulties with his various ex-wives is legendary. He is the boss of Cosmo & Loon with a very similar management style to Mr. Dithers in the comic series Blondie.
- "Perfesser" Cosmo Fishhawk, the overeducated but underachieving columnist whose computer expertise is almost as poor as his understanding of women. His trademark desk is always overflowing with a very tall stack of papers, extending beyond the frame. Although the title of the strip is Shoe, Cosmo is arguably the main character, as the majority of the strips revolve around his life.
- Skyler, an overeducated but underachieving nephew that Cosmo is raising
- Senator Batson D. Belfry, a beltway blowhard, seemingly patterned after Tip O'Neill and Teddy Kennedy, and whose name is a pun of "bats in the belfry"
- Irving Seagull, a local repairman
- Loon, a mail and newspaper carrier whose aeronautic skills are the subject of recurring jokes, based on former Vietnam POW Navy Pilot Paul Galanti
- Roz, waitress at the local diner where many of the characters gather
- Various other recurring characters who come and go
While not politically-oriented in the style of Doonesbury, the strip often pokes fun at various social and political issues of the day, especially when Belfry makes an appearance.
The strip won MacNelly the Reuben Award for the year 1979.
