| Shoe | |
| Author: | Jeff MacNelly (1977–2000) |
| Current: | Chris Cassatt, Gary Brookins, Ben Lansing, Susie MacNelly |
| Url: | http://shoecomics.com |
| Status: | Daily & Sunday |
| First: | September 13, 1977 |
| Syndicate: | Tribune Media Services (1977–August 2008)[1] King Features (2008–present) |
| Genre: | Humor |
Shoe is an American comic strip about a motley crew of newspapermen, all of whom are birds. It was written and drawn by its creator, cartoonist Jeff MacNelly, from September 13, 1977,[2] until his death in 2000. MacNelly's last strip was dated July 9, 2000;[3] it has since been continued by Chris Cassatt, Gary Brookins, Ben Lansing, and Susie MacNelly (Jeff's widow).[4]
While not politically oriented in the style of strips such as Doonesbury, Shoe often pokes fun at various social and political issues of the day (especially when Senator Batson D. Belfry makes an appearance). Although not particularly well known outside the U.S., Shoe was in fact granted its own monthly comic book in Norway for a brief time in 1987 under the name "Sjur," which consisted of reprints from newspapers. The magazine reached a total of six publications. Later on, in 1989, Shoe did a brief comeback to Norwegian readers, this time under the name "Krax," appearing as an extra-feature in the then brand-new Calvin & Hobbes magazine.
The strip won MacNelly the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award for the year 1979.
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 locale of Treetops, East Virginia. During hunting season, "hunting dogs" (hounds with rifles, a visual pun on the sharp-sniffing canines that hunters use to track game) are occasionally featured.
| Characters | Species[5] | Description | |
| P. Martin "Shoe" Shoemaker | purple martin | The cigar-smoking editor of The Treetops Tattler-Tribune, whose difficulties with his various ex-wives is legendary. He is the boss of Cosmo and Loon with a very similar management style to Mr. Dithers in the comic series Blondie. He was patterned after Jim Shumaker whom MacNelly worked for at the Chapel Hill (NC) Weekly. | |
| Prof. Cosmo Fishhawk (usually called the "Perfessor") | osprey | The overeducated but underachieving osprey columnist whose computer expertise is almost as poor as his understanding of women. He is always seen wearing a tweed blazer and striped necktie, and 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. He is sometimes shown driving a 1959 DeSoto. | |
| Roz Specklehen[6] [7] | unknown | Waitress at, and likely owner of the local diner (Roz's Roost) where many of the characters gather. | |
| Skyler | skylark | An overeducated but underachieving nephew whom Cosmo is raising. A recurring gag has him repeatedly attend Marine recruit training by mistake during the summer, then write a series of letters to Uncle Cosmo. | |
| Sen. Batson D. Belfry | unknown | An evasive beltway blowhard, seemingly patterned after Tip O'Neill and Ted Kennedy, and whose name is a pun of "bats in the belfry". | |
| Irving "Irv" Seagull | gull | A local repairman. A pun on the service-station chain Irving Oil Corporation. | |
| Loon | loon | A mail and newspaper carrier whose aeronautic skills are the subject of recurring jokes, based on former Vietnam POW Navy pilot Paul Galanti. | |
| Wiz | merlin | The "Merlin of motherboards," he appears as a wizard in a pointed hat and star-covered robe, carrying a magic wand. He is often called in by The Perfessor to fix his office computer. ("Okay, first, let's get your fist out of the computer screen.") | |
| Muffy Hollandaise | unknown | Former intern at The Treetops Tattler-Tribune; reintroduced in 2024 (after many, many years) as Treetops Channel 5 news anchor. | |
| Biz | unknown | A nonagenarian bird often encountered at Roz's Roost complaining of age-related foibles. | |
| Mort | vulture | Operator of Mort's Mortuary, the local funeral home. | |
| Madame ZooDoo | unknown | Local crystal ball-gazing psychic. | |
| Older characters no longer seen | |||
| Bumpkins | stork(?) | The "Perfessor"'s manservant/butler, acquired in an inheritance. |
(All titles by Jeff MacNelly)