Euro Review: Morris’ ‘Rin Tin Can’ — Dumber Than His Own Shadow And A Comedy Masterclass

Well, I previewed this one a little while back, but finally had time to settle down with it and let you know how perfectly funny it is. Because, let’s not keep you in suspense here, Morris‘ Rin Tin Can is absolutely comics comedy perfection.

Created by Morris and Rene Goscinny as a supporting character in Lucky Luke, Rin Tin Can (Ran-Tan-Plan in French) is simply the dumbest mutt in the world – as far from his namesake that Morris & Goscinny were parodying, movie and TV star Rin-Tin-Tin, as they could manage.

But whilst Rin-Tin-Tin had all the courage and the stardom, he was about as funny as a screen door on a submarine, to use the wonderful phrase. Rin Tin Can however, thanks both to Goscinny’s writing and dialogue and Morris’ always sublime artistic skills, was, and is, funny. Very, very funny indeed.

Of course, Luke’s horse Jolly Jumper would completely disagree with that assessment. But on this one Jolly Jumper’s so wrong. Whether it’s the complete failure as a prison guard dog, the immense appetite for seemingly anything in front of him, the accidents, or the terribly misplaced devotion to Joe Dalton, one of the Dalton gang that he’s meant to be guarding most of the time, Rin Tin Can‘s appearances in Lucky Luke were always good for plenty of great gags.

So, a solo Rin Tin Can series was a natural next step. Launched 10 years after Goscinny’s death, Morris leans on writers and art assistants – but thankfully they’re all on board and make this pure Morris at his best. It’s funny, it’s fabulous cartooning, it’s just so damned good.

 

We’re in the far (and Wild) West of America, and the 7th Cavalry’s brave and noble mascot, Fido VI has gone missing, just before the President himself comes to visit.

Well, you can see where this is going, can’t you?

Sure, it’s predictable, but The Mascot is wonderfully, ridiculously funny predictable.

Rin Tin Can gets borrowed by the 7th Cavalry and havoc and confusion ensues, eventually leading up to a President going missing and a resumption of hostilities between the Cavalry and the Sioux – all of it down to the absolutely magnificent incompetence and knack of being in just the wrong place at the wrong time doing the wrong thing with the wrong people that Rin Tin Can has in spades.

The story is obviously a prop to hook gags on – and there’s plenty of gags here. Every single page has a moment or two or three where it can raise a smile on even the bleakest of days. (And I’m writing this in a hospital ward where my wife, love of my life, lies fighting off possible meningitis – I think I’m qualifying for the bleakest of days right here.)

So, shall I take you through a few of them just to make your day that little bit better and to show you what a comics great Morris truly was?

Here’s page 2, as the Colonel of the 7th Cavalry discovers Fido VI has gone missing – the double spit to begin and end it is perfection, but the real genius is the way Morris et al build it and build it, introducing themes that we’ll see again and again through the Mascot…

 

Later on, as the Colonel and his party are on the way back from collecting Rin Tin Can, a simple three-panel gag – two to set it up, one to give you the payoff…

Of course, the brilliance is the transition between panels two and three, the before and after Rin Tin Can goes after the “drowning bone”.

That would be funny enough, but the layering of the gag makes it better and better – with the Colonel’s obsession with Rin Tin Can and his eagerness to punish anyone he imagines have wronged the dog just the icing on this particular cake.

And then another example with a hard panel transition that gives a perfect one-two punch. Three panels set it up – the Colonel’s blind trust in Rin Tin Can convincing him of anything but the reality of the situation…

And then the pay-off in the caption…

“Eight days later“… brilliant.

Had enough? No, me neither.

Here’s the cover gag expanded to perfection. When the Colonel does make it back, Rin Tin Can’s insatiable appetite and ability to eat anything means poor old Brown is the latest to get his four days confined to barracks. It won’t be his last either…

 

And finally, a page absolutely full of gags, all of them so good…

 

There’s the Colonel’s insistence that Rin Tin Can is a worthy successor to Fido Vi, despite every bit of evidence pointing to the contrary, leading to the physical comedy and the ridiculous situation, the cavalry soldiers tiptoeing the kennel into place…

 

… the fact it doesn’t quite fit properly…

 

… the Colonel’s reaction to it all, poor Brown with another four days…

 

… and finally, the panel showing the solution, the ridiculousness of the dog kennel is one gag, but it’s the facial expression of Brown that really seals the deal…

 

All of that and we’re only 11 pages into this one – it all gets more and more complex, more involving, more hilarious as it goes on. Simply put, as I keep mentioning, Morris is, quite rightly, talked of as a master of Euro comics, a comics genius. Rin Tin Can may have others supporting him but it’s vintage Morris work, even late into his life.

And all that without even talking of the sheer brilliance of the man’s craft. As an artist Morris is just brilliance and genius wrapped up in so few lines. It’s one aspect that digital comics really does allow the art to shine through. Having the digital comic of Rin Tin Can allows zooming in and seeing just how Morris’ line is so pure, so simple, so effortless almost in doing the hard work of making it all read so well.

Again, I could pull panel after panel after panel of Morris’ artistic brilliance, but I’ve already shown you so much of it all here. Simply put, Morris, in whatever form you experience him, is a genuine genius of the comic art. Rin Tin Can is just another example of that.

Rin Tin Can Volume 1: The Mascot.

Artwork by Morris, with the assistance of M. Janvier and F. Garcia. Script by X. Fauche and J. Leturgie. Colours by Studio Leonardo. Translation by Jerome Saincantin.

Rin Tin Can character imagined by Morris and brought to life by Rene Goscinny.

Out now from Cinebook.

Originally published as La Mascotte in 1987 by Dargaud.