‘Shoe’ makes news as a popular comic strip

One of America’s favorite comic strips has a strong North Carolina influence. It is “Shoe,” which was created in 1977 by the late Jeff MacNelly, a legendary cartoonist. 

MacNelly got his start at The Daily Tar Heel while attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the mid-1960s. 

During his junior year, MacNelly took a job at the Chapel Hill Weekly. His editor and mentor was Jim “Shu” Shumaker, who also taught journalism classes at the university. Shumaker was described by a former dean as being “cranky, crusty and gruff…yet adorable.”

 

By 1970, MacNelly was already an accomplished artist and was recruited by The Richmond (Va.) News Leader to be its chief illustrator and satirist. MacNelly won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1972. (He would repeat the feat in 1976 and 1985.) 

Shumaker’s impression on the cartoonist was so profound that when MacNelly ventured into the comic strip business in 1977, he named his strip “Shoe” as a tribute to Shu. 

All of the fictional cartoon characters live in Treetops, East Virginia, and appear as anthropomorphized birds. 

P. Martin “Shoe” Shoemaker, an over-sized purple martin, is the grouchy, cigar-chomping publisher and editor The Treetops Tattler-Tribune. The newspaper’s mission is to “never let the facts interfere with a good story.”

The ace columnist and star reporter is Cosmo Fishhawk, dubbed the “Perfessor.” He is an “overweightly fluffy” osprey with zippo computer expertise. He frequently summons the tech-support guy, Wiz, who is billed as the “Merlin of motherboards,” and is always shown carrying his magic wand.

 

In one comic strip Wiz advised Cosmo: “First, let’s get your fist out of the computer screen.” 

Cosmo is also a philosopher who once commented: “Writing is simple. First you have to make sure you have plenty of paper...sharp pencils...typewriter ribbon. Then put your belly up to the desk...roll a sheet of paper into the typewriter...and stare at it until beads of blood appear on your forehead.”

“When it comes to humor,” Jeff MacNelly always said, “there’s no substitution for reality and politicians.”

Hence, it is no surprise that character Roz Speckelhen, who runs the famous greasy spoon, Roz’s Roost, in Treetops resembles Susie MacNelly (Jeff MacNelly’s wife). Character Senator Batson D. Belfry looks a lot like former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil.

 

Jeff McNelly was diagnosed with lymphoma in December 1999 and died about seven months later. He was 52. 

With contributions from associates Chris Cassatt, Gary Brookins and Ben Lansing, Susie MacNelly has taken “Shoe” to even greater success.