Maakies
Encyclopedia
Maakies is a syndicated
weekly comic strip
by Tony Millionaire
. It began publication in February 1994 in the New York Press
. It currently runs in many American
alternative newsweeklies
including The Stranger
, LA Weekly
and Only
. It also appears in several international venues including the Italian
comics magazine Linus
and the Swedish
comics magazine Rocky
.
misadventures of Uncle Gabby (a "drunken Irish
monkey
") and Drinky Crow (a crow
), two antiheroes with a propensity for drunkenness
, violence
, suicide
, and venereal disease
. According to Millionaire, "Maakies is me spilling my guts... Writing and drawing about all the things that make me want to jump in the river, laughing at the horror of being alive."
Maakies strips typically take place in an early 19th century nautical
setting. There is rarely any continuity
between strips.
Maakies often includes visual references to historic works of art
, especially to the popular graphic arts such as Japan
ese ukiyo-e
, Europe
an engraving
s, and early American
newspaper
comics.
Like many early 20th century Sunday strip
s, each Maakies comic usually includes a second, smaller strip (known as a "topper
") that runs along the bottom of the main strip. Tiny landscape drawings
are interspersed between the panels of these strips. Also, a tugboat
(referred to once as "the enigmatic Maakies tug") appears somewhere in the background of virtually every strip.
who apparently is Uncle Gabby's employer, and in one sense the strip seems to be named after him. Discussing the strip's development, Millionaire said "I fleshed them [the characters] out as best I could at the time, knowing that they'd grow over time. That's why I didn't call the strip Drinky Crow. I called it Maakies because I didn't know who would become the most important character as I went along."
However, on more than one occasion he has claimed that the true significance of the strip's name is a strict secret: "I can't release that information until a certain person dies... Because he or she would be extremely pissed off to even know that that name was being used."
Elsewhere he has attributed the origin of the word to his friend Spike Vrusho: "Some of the tugboats in New York harbor have a big M painted on the side of them and my friend Spike Vrusho used to say "MAAKIES!" in a high pitched screech every time he saw one."
In Norwegian
, a "måke" (English
spelling "maake") is a seagull
. However, the plural of "måke" is "måker", not "måkies".
Other characters include:
who frequently appears as a character in Maakies. In the strip he is drawn as a mechanical
lizard
who wears a black cloak and hat and has the number '147' imprinted on his forehead; he claims this is his IQ
. Sometimes he delivers a monologue
or reads a poem
of his own composition. Other times he introduces one of his sinister or bizarre trademark
ed invention
s, such as a "safety harness" that ejects the wearer's spinal column
from their body using a cherry bomb
and M-80s
. The book collection Premillennial Maakies is dedicated
to "Terry Ross".
Terrence Ross also operates a blog called "Woe of Cartoons" www.bombzbomb.com which is connected to a link on the www.maakies.com home page.
's unsteady scrawl; his daughter and nieces have also made occasional contributions. One Maakies strip reprinted, in the original German
, four panels of an illustrated poem by Wilhelm Busch
dated 1867 and featuring the accidental demise of Hans Huckebein, an inebriated, Drinky Crow-like bird. On another occasion, after Millionaire had drawn a comic featuring a stereotypical
Native American
character, Chief Boomerang, Maakies ran a "rebuttal
" strip by Tania Willard of the Secwepemc Nation
lambasting Millionaire, his characters, and his editor
.
A pair of Maakies strips are purportedly drawn by Drinky Crow and Uncle Gabby (who passed out in the middle of drawing his).
Other cartoonists who have drawn Maakies:
All the Maakies collections are published
by Fantagraphics Books
and designed
by Chip Kidd
. All but the first of the books are hardcover, printed in an unusual 12” x 5” format that preserves the dimensions of Millionaire's original drawing
s.
With the exception of the first collection and its hardcover reprint, the title of each of the Maakies books refers to a classic children's book
- A. A. Milne
's The House at Pooh Corner
and When We Were Very Young
, Heinrich Hoffman
's Der Struwwelpeter
, Johnny Gruelle
's Raggedy Ann and Andy and the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees, and Laura Ingalls Wilder
's Little House on the Prairie
.
comics and books are loosely connected to their Maakies counterparts. They make occasional appearances in the weekly strip.
A horsefly
named Billy Hazelnuts appeared in an early Maakies strip. However, this character is unrelated to the titular character in Millionaire's 2006 graphic novel
Billy Hazelnuts.
The tiny 4" x 4" hardcover book Mighty Mite The Ear Mite (2003, Fantagraphics Books) is based on recurring characters in Maakies.
Millionaire has occasionally drawn X-rated adaptations of his familiar Maakies characters (e.g. "Shtuppi Eisberg, the Libidinous Penguin" instead of Drinky Crow) for Screw
, Legal Action Comics
and other explicit venues.
Several short Maakies Flash animations were shown on Saturday Night Live
in the late 1990s. Several more animations were produced but never broadcast. All of the Maakies Flash animations are included on the DVD
collection God Hates Cartoons
, published by Bright Red Rocket.
A Maakies short
bridges the two halves of the 2002 They Might Be Giants
documentary
Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns)
.
An animated pilot
for The Drinky Crow Show
, based on the Maakies characters, aired on Cartoon Network
's Adult Swim
on May 13, 2007.
Dino Stamatopoulos
provided the voice of the titular character, and They Might Be Giants performed the show's theme song. Adult Swim picked up the series for a full season in October 2008 and its series finale aired on January 25, 2009. The series cancellation was confirmed by both a Maakies strip and the person in charge of answering Tony Millionaire's e-mails.
Print syndication
Print syndication distributes news articles, columns, comic strips and other features to newspapers, magazines and websites. They offer reprint rights and grant permissions to other parties for republishing content of which they own/represent copyrights....
weekly comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
by Tony Millionaire
Tony Millionaire
Tony Millionaire is an American cartoonist, illustrator and author known for his syndicated comic strip Maakies and the Sock Monkey series of comics and picture books.-Early life:...
. It began publication in February 1994 in the New York Press
New York Press
New York Press was a free alternative weekly in New York City, that was published from 1988 to 2011. During its lifetime, it was the main competitor to the Village Voice...
. It currently runs in many American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
alternative newsweeklies
Alternative weekly
An alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper, that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting local people and culture. Their news coverage is more...
including The Stranger
The Stranger (newspaper)
The Stranger is an alternative weekly newspaper in Seattle, Washington, USA. It runs a blog known as Slog.-History:The Stranger was founded by Tim Keck, who had previously co-founded the satirical newspaper The Onion, and cartoonist James Sturm. Its first issue came out on September 23, 1991...
, LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
and Only
Only (magazine)
Only is a free Canadian bi-monthly news and entertainment magazine published in Vancouver, British Columbia by the Only Trust - who also organize Vancouver's Music Waste Festival and Victory Square Block Party. The paper has a circulation of 10,000 in the Vancouver area...
. It also appears in several international venues including the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
comics magazine Linus
Linus (magazine)
Linus is an Italian comics magazine. The first number was published in April 1965 by Milano Libri, a subsidiary of Rizzoli. It is currently published by Baldini & Castoldi in monthly issues....
and the Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
comics magazine Rocky
Rocky (comic strip)
Rocky is a Swedish autobiographical comic strip created by Martin Kellerman, focusing on an anthropomorphic dog, Rocky, and his friends in their everyday life in Stockholm.-Overview:...
.
Characteristics
Maakies focuses on the darkly comicBlack comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
misadventures of Uncle Gabby (a "drunken Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
monkey
Monkey
A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...
") and Drinky Crow (a crow
Crow
Crows form the genus Corvus in the family Corvidae. Ranging in size from the relatively small pigeon-size jackdaws to the Common Raven of the Holarctic region and Thick-billed Raven of the highlands of Ethiopia, the 40 or so members of this genus occur on all temperate continents and several...
), two antiheroes with a propensity for drunkenness
Drunkenness
Alcohol intoxication is a physiological state that occurs when a person has a high level of ethanol in his or her blood....
, violence
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
, suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, and venereal disease
Sexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease , also known as a sexually transmitted infection or venereal disease , is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex...
. According to Millionaire, "Maakies is me spilling my guts... Writing and drawing about all the things that make me want to jump in the river, laughing at the horror of being alive."
Maakies strips typically take place in an early 19th century nautical
Seamanship
Seamanship is the art of operating a ship or boat.It involves a knowledge of a variety of topics and development of specialised skills including: navigation and international maritime law; weather, meteorology and forecasting; watchstanding; ship-handling and small boat handling; operation of deck...
setting. There is rarely any continuity
Continuity (fiction)
In fiction, continuity is consistency of the characteristics of persons, plot, objects, places and events seen by the reader or viewer over some period of time...
between strips.
Maakies often includes visual references to historic works of art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, especially to the popular graphic arts such as Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese ukiyo-e
Ukiyo-e
' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an engraving
Engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
s, and early American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
comics.
Like many early 20th century Sunday strip
Sunday strip
A Sunday strip is a newspaper comic strip format, where comic strips are printed in the Sunday newspaper, usually in a special section called the Sunday comics, and virtually always in color. Some readers called these sections the Sunday funnies...
s, each Maakies comic usually includes a second, smaller strip (known as a "topper
Topper (comic strip)
A topper in comic strip parlance is a small secondary strip seen along with a larger Sunday strip. In the 1920s and 1930s, leading cartoonists were given full pages in the Sunday comics sections, allowing them to add smaller strips and single-panel cartoons to their page.Toppers usually were drawn...
") that runs along the bottom of the main strip. Tiny landscape drawings
Landscape art
Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...
are interspersed between the panels of these strips. Also, a tugboat
Tugboat
A tugboat is a boat that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugs move vessels that either should not move themselves, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal,or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, or oil platforms. Tugboats are powerful for...
(referred to once as "the enigmatic Maakies tug") appears somewhere in the background of virtually every strip.
Meaning of the title
Millionaire has given differing accounts of the origin and meaning of the word "maakies." "Maak" is the name of a character in the strip, a ship's captainCaptain (nautical)
A sea captain is a licensed mariner in ultimate command of the vessel. The captain is responsible for its safe and efficient operation, including cargo operations, navigation, crew management and ensuring that the vessel complies with local and international laws, as well as company and flag...
who apparently is Uncle Gabby's employer, and in one sense the strip seems to be named after him. Discussing the strip's development, Millionaire said "I fleshed them [the characters] out as best I could at the time, knowing that they'd grow over time. That's why I didn't call the strip Drinky Crow. I called it Maakies because I didn't know who would become the most important character as I went along."
However, on more than one occasion he has claimed that the true significance of the strip's name is a strict secret: "I can't release that information until a certain person dies... Because he or she would be extremely pissed off to even know that that name was being used."
Elsewhere he has attributed the origin of the word to his friend Spike Vrusho: "Some of the tugboats in New York harbor have a big M painted on the side of them and my friend Spike Vrusho used to say "MAAKIES!" in a high pitched screech every time he saw one."
In Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
, a "måke" (English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
spelling "maake") is a seagull
Gull
Gulls are birds in the family Laridae. They are most closely related to the terns and only distantly related to auks, skimmers, and more distantly to the waders...
. However, the plural of "måke" is "måker", not "måkies".
Characters
Maakies features a varied cast, with Drinky Crow and Uncle Gabby being the most frequently drawn characters.Other characters include:
- Captain Maak
- Captain's daughter
- Phoebe (Drinky's Girlfriend)
- Mighty Mite the ear mite
- Terrence Ross
- Rear Admiral Maak
- Blinky Crow (Drinky's son)
- Numerous French alligators
- Tony Millionaire
- The editor
Dr. Terrence Ross
Terrence Ross is a real-life friend of Tony Millionaire from Fort GreeneFort Greene, Brooklyn
Fort Greene is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Part of Brooklyn Community Board 2, Fort Greene is listed on the New York State Registry and on the National Register of Historic Places, and is a New York City-designated Historic District...
who frequently appears as a character in Maakies. In the strip he is drawn as a mechanical
Machine
A machine manages power to accomplish a task, examples include, a mechanical system, a computing system, an electronic system, and a molecular machine. In common usage, the meaning is that of a device having parts that perform or assist in performing any type of work...
lizard
Lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 3800 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains...
who wears a black cloak and hat and has the number '147' imprinted on his forehead; he claims this is his IQ
Intelligence quotient
An intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. When modern IQ tests are constructed, the mean score within an age group is set to 100 and the standard deviation to 15...
. Sometimes he delivers a monologue
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
or reads a poem
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
of his own composition. Other times he introduces one of his sinister or bizarre trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
ed invention
Invention
An invention is a novel composition, device, or process. An invention may be derived from a pre-existing model or idea, or it could be independently conceived, in which case it may be a radical breakthrough. In addition, there is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social...
s, such as a "safety harness" that ejects the wearer's spinal column
Vertebral column
In human anatomy, the vertebral column is a column usually consisting of 24 articulating vertebrae, and 9 fused vertebrae in the sacrum and the coccyx. It is situated in the dorsal aspect of the torso, separated by intervertebral discs...
from their body using a cherry bomb
Cherry bomb
Cherry Bombs are approximately spherical shaped exploding fireworks, ranging in size from three-quarters-inch to one-and-one-half-inch in diameter...
and M-80s
M-80 (explosive)
M-80s are a class of large firecrackers, sometimes called salutes. The Simulator, Artillery, M80, was originally made in the early 20th century by the U.S. Military to simulate explosives or artillery fire; Later, M-80s were manufactured as fireworks...
. The book collection Premillennial Maakies is dedicated
Dedication
Dedication is the act of consecrating an altar, temple, church or other sacred building. It also refers to the inscription of books or other artifacts when these are specifically addressed or presented to a particular person. This practice, which once was used to gain the patronage and support of...
to "Terry Ross".
Terrence Ross also operates a blog called "Woe of Cartoons" www.bombzbomb.com which is connected to a link on the www.maakies.com home page.
Guest cartoonists
Numerous episodes of Maakies have been drawn (and possibly written) by cartoonists other than Millionaire. The most frequent "guest cartoonist" is Millionaire's nephew Curtis Sarkin, who drew the strip in a childChild art
Child art is the drawings, paintings and other artistic works created by children. It is also referred to as "children's art" or the "art of children"....
's unsteady scrawl; his daughter and nieces have also made occasional contributions. One Maakies strip reprinted, in the original German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, four panels of an illustrated poem by Wilhelm Busch
Wilhelm Busch
Wilhelm Busch was an influential German caricaturist, painter, and poet who is famed for his satirical picture stories with rhymed texts....
dated 1867 and featuring the accidental demise of Hans Huckebein, an inebriated, Drinky Crow-like bird. On another occasion, after Millionaire had drawn a comic featuring a stereotypical
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
character, Chief Boomerang, Maakies ran a "rebuttal
Rebuttal
In law, rebuttal is a form of evidence that is presented to contradict or nullify other evidence that has been presented by an adverse party. By analogy the same term is used in politics and public affairs to refer to the informal process by which statements, designed to refute or negate specific...
" strip by Tania Willard of the Secwepemc Nation
Secwepemc
The Secwepemc , known in English as the Shuswap people, are a First Nations people residing in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Their traditional territory ranges from the eastern Chilcotin Plateau and the Cariboo Plateau southeast through the Thompson Country to Kamloops and the Shuswap...
lambasting Millionaire, his characters, and his editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
.
A pair of Maakies strips are purportedly drawn by Drinky Crow and Uncle Gabby (who passed out in the middle of drawing his).
Other cartoonists who have drawn Maakies:
- "Angry Jim" CampbellJim Campbell (comic artist/musician)Jim Campbell , a.k.a. "Angry Jim", is a U.S. comic artist and musician living in Brooklyn, New York.-Biography:While studying at the Kansas City Art Institute, he founded the band Ottomen with fellow Illustration students David Stevenson and George Garcia...
- Rick DetorieRick DetorieRick Detorie is the creator of the popular comic strip One Big Happy. He is the author of 14 humor books, including the best-sellers No Good Men, No Good Lawyers, Totally Tacky Cartoons, Catholics and How to Survive an Italian Family...
- Renée FrenchRenée FrenchRenée French is an American comics writer and illustrator and, under the pen name Rainy Dohaney, a children's book author.Her work includes The Soap Lady , The Ticking , and Micrographica , "Edison Steelhead's Lost Portfolio - Exploratory...
- Sam HendersonSam HendersonSam Henderson is an American cartoonist, writer and expert on American comedy history.Henderson attended Boiceville, New York's Onteora High School, graduating in 1987, and the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where he graduated in 1991.Henderson has been self-publishing xeroxed minicomics...
- Kaz
- Michael KuppermanMichael KuppermanMichael Kupperman, also known by the pseudonym P. Revess, is an American cartoonist and illustrator. He created the comic strips Up All Night and Found in the Street, and has written scripts for DC Comics...
- Carol LayCarol LayCarol Lay is the author of a weekly comic strip, Way Lay, which first appeared in 1992 and which runs in the LA Weekly and Salon. It is also printed in daily and weekly newspapers as far afield as Hong Kong and Norway. Lay has been drawing professionally for over 25 years.-Biography:Lay was born...
- Ted RallTed RallTed Rall is an American columnist, syndicated editorial cartoonist, and author. His political cartoons often appear in a multi-panel comic-strip format and frequently blend comic-strip and editorial-cartoon conventions. The cartoons appear in approximately 100 newspapers around the United States...
- Eric Reynolds
- Johnny RyanJohnny RyanJohn F. Ryan IV is an American alternative comics creator. He is best known for Angry Youth Comix, a comic book published by Fantagraphics, and for "Blecky Yuckerella", a comic strip which originated in the alternative newspaper the Portland Mercury and now appears on Ryan's website...
- Jon Sarkin (Millionaire's brother-in-law)
- Christine Shields
Book collections
- Maakies (2000)
- The House At Maakies Corner (2002)
- When We Were Very Maakies (2004)
- Der Struwwelmaakies (2005)
- Premillennial Maakies (2006) - a hardcoverHardcoverA hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...
reprint of the contents of the first Maakies book - The Maakies with the Wrinkled Knees (2008)
- Little Maakies on the Prairie (2010)
All the Maakies collections are published
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
by Fantagraphics Books
Fantagraphics Books
Fantagraphics Books is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, magazines, graphic novels, and the adult-oriented Eros Comix imprint...
and designed
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
by Chip Kidd
Chip Kidd
Chip Kidd is an American author, editor, and graphic designer, best known for his book covers.- Early life :Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, Kidd grew up in the Reading suburb of Shillington, strongly influenced by American popular culture...
. All but the first of the books are hardcover, printed in an unusual 12” x 5” format that preserves the dimensions of Millionaire's original drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
s.
With the exception of the first collection and its hardcover reprint, the title of each of the Maakies books refers to a classic children's book
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
- A. A. Milne
A. A. Milne
Alan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children's poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.-Biography:A. A...
's The House at Pooh Corner
The House at Pooh Corner
The House at Pooh Corner is the second volume of stories about Winnie-the-Pooh, written by A. A. Milne and illustrated by E. H. Shepard. It is notable for the introduction of the character Tigger, who went on to become a prominent figure in the Disney Winnie the Pooh franchise.- Plot :The title...
and When We Were Very Young
When We Were Very Young
When We Were Very Young is a best-selling book of poetry by A. A. Milne. It was first published in 1924, and was illustrated by E. H. Shepard. Several of the verses were set to music by Harold Fraser-Simson...
, Heinrich Hoffman
Heinrich Hoffmann (author)
Heinrich Hoffmann was a German psychiatrist, who also wrote some short works including Der Struwwelpeter, an illustrated book portraying children misbehaving.- Early life and education:...
's Der Struwwelpeter
Struwwelpeter
Der Struwwelpeter is a popular German children's book by Heinrich Hoffmann. It comprises ten illustrated and rhymed stories, mostly about children. Each has a clear moral that demonstrates the disastrous consequences of misbehavior in an exaggerated way. The title of the first story provides the...
, Johnny Gruelle
Johnny Gruelle
Johnny Gruelle was an American artist, political cartoonist, children's book author and illustrator . He is known as the creator of Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy...
's Raggedy Ann and Andy and the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees, and Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder was an American author who wrote the Little House series of books based on her childhood in a pioneer family...
's Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie
Little House is a series of children's books by Laura Ingalls Wilder that was published originally between 1932 and 1943, with four additional books published posthumously, in 1962, 1971, 1974 and 2006.-History:...
.
Related works
The characters of Uncle Gabby and Mr. Crow in Millionaire's Sock MonkeySock Monkey
Sock Monkey is a series of comics and illustrated books written and drawn by the American cartoonist Tony Millionaire.-Description:Sock Monkey relates the adventures of the titular sock monkey, named Uncle Gabby, and a plush crow named Mr. Crow. Despite being toys, they are able to move, think,...
comics and books are loosely connected to their Maakies counterparts. They make occasional appearances in the weekly strip.
A horsefly
Horse-fly
Insects in the order Diptera, family Tabanidae, are commonly called horse flies. Often considered pests for the bites that many inflict, they are among the world's largest true flies. They are known to be extremely noisy during flight. They are also important pollinators of flowers, especially in...
named Billy Hazelnuts appeared in an early Maakies strip. However, this character is unrelated to the titular character in Millionaire's 2006 graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
Billy Hazelnuts.
The tiny 4" x 4" hardcover book Mighty Mite The Ear Mite (2003, Fantagraphics Books) is based on recurring characters in Maakies.
Millionaire has occasionally drawn X-rated adaptations of his familiar Maakies characters (e.g. "Shtuppi Eisberg, the Libidinous Penguin" instead of Drinky Crow) for Screw
Screw magazine
Screw is a weekly pornographic magazine published in the United States aimed at heterosexual men. It was first published in 1968 by Al Goldstein and was printed weekly in tabloid form...
, Legal Action Comics
Legal Action Comics
Legal Action Comics is a series of comics anthologies edited by illustrator Danny Hellman which features work from many alternative comics artists.The first volume in the series was published in 2001, and the second followed in 2003...
and other explicit venues.
Animation
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
in the late 1990s. Several more animations were produced but never broadcast. All of the Maakies Flash animations are included on the DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
collection God Hates Cartoons
God Hates Cartoons
God Hates Cartoons is a DVD compilation of animated shorts by a variety of artists produced by Bright Red Rocket. The cartoons include works by Ivan Brunetti, Sam Henderson, Walt Holcombe, Kaz, Tim Maloney, Lance Myers, Tony Millionaire, Mark Newgarden and Jim Woodring.One of the cartoons, Diaper...
, published by Bright Red Rocket.
A Maakies short
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
bridges the two halves of the 2002 They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years Flansburgh and Linnell were frequently accompanied by a drum machine. In the early 1990s, TMBG became a full band. Currently, the members of TMBG are...
documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns)
Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns)
Gigantic is a documentary profiling the alternative rock band They Might Be Giants, featuring interviews with Frank Black, Sarah Vowell, Dave Eggers, Jon Stewart, and others. It was directed by AJ Schnack and premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2002. It was released in theaters...
.
An animated pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
for The Drinky Crow Show
The Drinky Crow Show
The Drinky Crow Show is an American animated television series created by Eric Kaplan and Tony Millionaire, based on the latter's comic strip Maakies. The pilot episode aired on Cartoon Network's late night programing block, Adult Swim on May 13, 2007. The series premiered on November 23, 2008 and...
, based on the Maakies characters, aired on Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
's Adult Swim
Adult Swim
Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...
on May 13, 2007.
Dino Stamatopoulos
Dino Stamatopoulos
Dino Stamatopoulos is an American television comedy writer, actor and producer who has worked on Mr. Show, TV Funhouse, Mad TV, The Dana Carvey Show, Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O'Brien...
provided the voice of the titular character, and They Might Be Giants performed the show's theme song. Adult Swim picked up the series for a full season in October 2008 and its series finale aired on January 25, 2009. The series cancellation was confirmed by both a Maakies strip and the person in charge of answering Tony Millionaire's e-mails.