Over the years, film and TV director David Lynch, who has died aged 78, worked in many other mediums – music, painting, writing and vlogging – but none so personal, perhaps, than his foray into creating comics, with The Angriest Dog in the World.
The strip, an example of a “constrained comic”, each edition utilising the same art with different dialogue, centres on a dog that is very, very angry, because the world around is quite obviously unbearable.
The Angriest Dog in the World was first conceived in 1973, a release, it appears, from the troubled filming of Eraserhead, which was, according to Volodymyr Bilyk, doing Lynch’s mental health no favours. Along with discovering the joys of transcendental meditation, the strip offered a bit of creative release at a difficult time.
“I don’t know why I chose a dog,” the creator, writer and director of the Twin Peaks TV series and films, and cult classics such as the Oscar-nominated films Mulholland Drive, The Elephant Man, and Blue Velvet once said of the strip’s origin. “It has more to do with people and that the idea that anger is so intense… I was curious about anger. Once you’re angry, you’re really, really angry.”
Quite why the dog was so angry, was, Lynch also said, “…a mystery. Certain clues come from the world around him.”
The strip didn’t appear in print until 1982 in LA Reader, pitched directly to editor James Vowell, Lynch calling the editorial office each week and dictating “the script” to the editors. Then the editors would send “it” to the production department, who would remove the balloons from the previous installment and write in the new ones.
The Angriest Dog in the World also ran in several alternative press newspapers in larger cities, and some of the strips were reprinted in the Dark Horse anthology title, Cheval Noir, starting with Issue 20.
New strips of Angriest Dog in the World were also produced for davidlynch.com, before the site eventually transmogrified into the David Lynch Theater channel on YouTube, the final captured version of the original site archived on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, dated 23rd November 2016.
The strip may not have been Lynch’s only foray into humour – many reading this will be familiar with him poking fun at his own quirkiness by voicing himself on Family Guy as Gus the bartender – but perhaps The Angriest Dog in the World is more memorable, at least to me. And certainly something I’d rather remember Lynch for than the deeply and deliberately disturbing final scene in Blue Velvet. (If you haven’t seen it, let’s just say you’ll be suspicious of robins forever).
If you’re curious about the strip, origins and themes, then do check out writer and translator Volodymyr Bilyk’s 2017 essay on Medium, “Lynch goes comic: The Angriest Dog in the World”. Elsewhere, Bilyk has also offered the information of a considerable archive of the strips, which may be of interest to publishers thinking of a collection.
The Angriest Dog in the World ©️ David Lynch
Further Reading and Viewing
• Volodymyr Bilyk’s 2017 essay on Medium, “Lynch goes comic: The Angriest Dog in the World”
• Open Culture: Discover David Lynch’s Bizarre & Minimalist Comic Strip, The Angriest Dog in the World (1983–1992)
• You can read a few examples of “The Angriest Dog in the World here at Lynchnet and here on Volodymyr Bilyk’s Interstellar Superunknown blog
• The final captured version of the original david Lynch.com site archived on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, dated 23rd November 2016
• The David Lynch Theater channel on YouTube
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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