View source for Red Meat (comic strip)

{{Short description|American comic strip by Max Cannon}}
{{Infobox Webcomic
| title = Red Meat
| image = Red Meat (comic strip).jpg
| caption = Bug-Eyed Earl in an installment from 2014
| author = [[Max Cannon]]
| url = {{URL|redmeat.com}}
| status = Weekly
| began = 1989
| genre = [[Black comedy]], [[Surreal comedy]]
| ratings =
}}

'''''Red Meat''''' is a three panel black-and-white [[comic strip]] by Max Cannon. First published in 1989, it has appeared in over 80 newspapers, mainly [[alternative media|alternative weeklies]] and [[college]] papers in the [[United States]] and in other countries. It has been available online since November 1996.

== Style ==
A visual hallmark of the strip is the almost total lack of movement of the characters from panel to panel,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://tech.mit.edu/V116/N67/redmeat.67c.html |date=15 January 1997 |title=From Tame to Revolting, New Comci Debuts |last1=Blau |first1=Stacey E. |last2=Blumenthal |first2=Saul |newspaper=[[The Tech (newspaper)|The Tech]] |publisher=Nathan Liang |volume=116 |issue=67 |page= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120808102400/http://tech.mit.edu/V116/N67/redmeat.67c.html |archive-date=2012-08-08 |url-status=live}}</ref> and a "featureless void" of no background.<ref>{{cite book |last=Zanettin |first=Federico |editor-last=Chiaro |editor-first=Delia |title=Translation, Humour and the Media |chapter=Chapter 2: Humour in Translated Cartoons and Comics |date=23 September 2010 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kzQSBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA43 |volume=2 |pages=43–44 |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |isbn=978-1441137883}}</ref> Cannon has said that he wanted ''Red Meat'' "to have a look that was somewhere between [[clip art]] and arresting [[minimalism]], so that the text was more important than the art itself".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://aan.org/alternative/Aan/ViewArticle?oid=oid%3A161887 |title=Max Cannon: You 'Have To Be a Little Crazy' to Draw Alt Comics |website=Association of Alternative Newsweeklies |date=28 April 2006 |access-date=2010-06-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061012181301/http://www.aan.org/alternative/Aan/ViewArticle?oid=oid:161887 |archive-date=2006-10-12 }}</ref>

[[Lambiek|Lambiek's Comiclopedia]] describes ''Red Meat'' as "a collection of absurd and sometimes cruel comics".<ref name=":1">{{cite web|author=Lambiek|date=2007-09-21|title=Comic creator: Max Cannon|url=http://www.lambiek.net/artists/c/cannon_max.htm|access-date=2021-01-13|website=Lambiek Comiclopedia|publisher=Lambiek.net}}</ref> In 1996, Cannon  described the essence of the strip as {{blockquote|To make people laugh without whacking them over the head with a big stick, or having to address a political message. There's plenty of people out there that do that way better than I could. It's just something that's sort of funny, sort of not. It deals with the things people really do but they don't want to admit that they do or say. Harshness, sadism, freakiness, cruelty, you know, the essence of humor... I'm just trying to portray what I find ironic or humorous. And I do think a lot of that has to do with achieving inner peace, and seeing the irony of what goes on around you without judgment.<ref name="Weekly1996">{{cite web |url=https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/05-23-96/cover.htm |title=Loose Cannon |date=23 May 1996 |last=Wadsworth |first=Mari |website=Tucson Weekly |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000902161614/https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/05-23-96/cover.htm |archive-date=2000-09-02 |url-status=live}}</ref>}}

''Red Meat'' features unrelated "[[Screenplay#Format and style|slug lines]]" at the top of each comic, which Canon explains as "That's just my own form of personal poetry. It's a little something extra for those who don't like comics, but who love the English language." In 2005, his favorites included "Plastic fruit for a starving nation" and "Official pace car of the apocalypse."<ref name=":0" />

== Characters ==
''Red Meat'' features an extensive cast of characters with unusual characteristics and personalities, described by ''Spike Magazine'' as "small town America, [populated] entirely with grotesques."<ref name="spike"/> Many of the strip's human characters are 1950s [[caricatures]], with Cannon commenting "Several of the characters are designed to have the look of late '50s, early 60s, real pleasant advertising art."<ref name=
"Daily Star">{{cite news |last=Gitman |first=Mitch |editor-last=Auslander |editor-first=Stephen |date=8 September 1997 |title=Alternative-comic fans hanker for 'Red Meat' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/105082256/alternative-comic-fans-hanker-for-red/ |newspaper=Arizona Daily Star |publisher=Star Publishing |volume=156 |issue=251 |page=ST 4 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref>
* '''Bug-Eyed Earl''' – A demented person, resembling [[Edgar Allan Poe]] and [[Steve Buscemi]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wc.arizona.edu/papers/92/catalyst/edition13/06_1_m.html |year=1998 |title=Read Meat |author=Catalyst Staff |website=Catalyst, the Arts Magazine of the Arizona Daily Wildcat |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220708161811/https://wc.arizona.edu/papers/92/catalyst/edition13/06_1_m.html |archive-date=2022-07-08 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ocweekly.com/red-meat-hilariously-twisted-comic-strip-returns-to-oc-weekly-6446042/ |title=Red Meat, Hilariously Twisted Comic Strip, Returns to OC Weekly! |date=12 July 2012 |last=Arellano |first=Gustavo |website=OC Weekly |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191205235517/https://www.ocweekly.com/red-meat-hilariously-twisted-comic-strip-returns-to-oc-weekly-6446042/ |archive-date=2019-12-05 |url-status=live}}</ref> Earl's appearances generally involve him telling a surreal, strange, and sometimes disgusting anecdote.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}
* '''Milkman Dan''' – The local milkman; he is eccentric and hostile towards people and animals, and constantly battles sobriety.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/2003-08-26/index.html |title=Tramp Steamer in Your Soup Kitchen |work=Red Meat |publisher=Redmeat.com |date=2003-08-26 |access-date=2009-09-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001134642/http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/2003-08-26/index.html |archive-date=2009-10-01 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/1997-11-24/index.html |title=The Antidote for Pleasant Moments |work=Red Meat |publisher=Redmeat.com |date=1997-11-24 |access-date=2009-09-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090903102338/http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/1997-11-24/index.html |archive-date=2009-09-03 }}</ref> Dan also dresses as a cow in the part of McMoo, the anti-drug cow.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Cannon |first=Max |editor-last=Mullin |editor-first=Jim |title=Perdition's Pogo Stick |date= 8 April 1999|page=21 |department=Red Meat |magazine=Miami News Times |url=https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/AA/00/06/92/21/00479/AA00069221_00479.pdf |publisher=New Times Inc. |volume=13 |issue=52}}</ref>  Cannon said that "Milkmen seem so wholesome, and there’s no way anybody can be that wholesome… I grew up in a military family, and there’s something about that military-style uniform, all cleaned up, a brutal control effort the military necessarily breeds."<ref name=":0" />
**'''Karen''': A neighborhood child who acts as Milkman Dan's nemesis, alternately being the victim or perpetrator of cruel pranks and gibes, described by Cannon as a "spoiled little brat."<ref name="Daily Star"/> 
* '''Ted Johnson''' – Cannon has stated that Ted is based on his own father, and said that–despite some readers thinking so–he is not based on [[J. R. "Bob" Dobbs|Bob Dobbs]].<ref name=":0" /> He has a taste for [[sexual fetish]]es and unusual hobbies.<ref name="attitude2"/><ref name="hodgeman">{{cite news |last=Hodgeman |first=John |authorlink=John Hodgeman |date=4 December 2005 |title=Comics Chronicle |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |page=Section 7, Page 50 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/books/review/comics-chronicle.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150529171328/https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/books/review/comics-chronicle.html |archive-date=2015-05-29 |url-status=live}}</ref>
**'''Ted's Wife''': A foil for Ted who appears almost entirely as speech bubbles originating off-panel.
**'''Ted's Son''': One of Ted's children, the victim of/participant in many of Ted's antics.
*'''Johnny Lemonhead''': A man with a large lemon for a head.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.redmeat.com/max-cannon/mirths-returns-counter/Content?oid=3264622 |title=Mirth's Returns Counter |work=Red Meat |publisher=Redmeat.com |date=2021-09-07 |access-date=2022-07-02 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908224007/https://www.redmeat.com/max-cannon/mirths-returns-counter/Content?oid=3264622 |archive-date=2021-09-08}}</ref>
*'''Papa Moai''': A godlike multi-dimensional entity in the shape of a living Easter Island [[Moai]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.redmeat.com/max-cannon/pelted-with-piffle/Content?oid=3224224 |title=Pelted with Piffle |work=Red Meat |publisher=Redmeat.com |date=2021-05-11 |access-date=2022-07-02 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516123359/https://www.redmeat.com/max-cannon/pelted-with-piffle/Content?oid=3224224 |archive-date=2021-05-16}}</ref>
*'''Mister Wally''': An older, bearded, balding man who acts as proprietor of a [[tobacconist]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.redmeat.com/max-cannon/hell-ride-backseat-driver/Content?oid=2138023 |title=Hell Ride Backseat Driver |work=Red Meat |publisher=Redmeat.com |date=2016-01-19 |access-date=2022-07-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314044049/http://www.redmeat.com/max-cannon/hell-ride-backseat-driver/Content?oid=2138023 |archive-date=2016-03-14}}</ref> when not appearing shirtless in public.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.redmeat.com/max-cannon/turbid-tales-of-the-tepid/Content?oid=3234565 |title=Turbid Tales of the Tepid |work=Red Meat |publisher=Redmeat.com |date=2021-06-08 |access-date=2022-07-02 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624080635/https://www.redmeat.com/max-cannon/turbid-tales-of-the-tepid/Content?oil=3234565 |archive-date=2021-06-24}}</ref>
*'''The Old Cowboy''': A man smoking a cigarette while leaning against a fence, wearing a cowboy hat and boots, who delivers monologues or converses with characters off-panel.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.redmeat.com/max-cannon/dour-dust-mites-of-desolation/Content?oid=3301728 |title=Dour Dust Mites of Desolation |work=Red Meat |publisher=Redmeat.com |date=2021-12-28 |access-date=2022-07-02 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211228171020/https://www.redmeat.com/max-cannon/dour-dust-mites-of-desolation/Content?oid=3301728 |archive-date=2021-12-28}}</ref>
*'''Priest''': a [[Priesthood in the Catholic Church|Catholic priest]] who stands, looking up, while carrying on conversations with [[God in Christianity|God]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.redmeat.com/max-cannon/marzipan-minaret-of-the-metaphysic/Content?oid=3350336 |title=Marzipan Minaret of the Metaphysic |work=Red Meat |publisher=Redmeat.com |date=2022-05-24 |access-date=2022-07-02 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220524132957/https://www.redmeat.com/max-cannon/marzipan-minaret-of-the-metaphysic/Content?oid=3350336 |archive-date=2022-05-24}}</ref>
*'''Stubbo''': a [[Shaving|stubbled]] caricature of Sluggo Smith from the ''[[Nancy (comic strip)#Characters|Nancy]]'' comic strip.
*'''Mr. Bix''': A psychopathic robot who speaks in a polite manner but commits violent acts and sometimes vomits on other characters.

== Publication ==
Last strip was published on July 25, 2023. Until then, ''Red Meat'' had a weekly release schedule. In 1989, after extensive prompting by his friend Joe Forkan, Cannon began producing the strip on a [[Macintosh SE]] using Adobe Illustrator.<ref name="attitude2"/><ref name="wildcat997">{{cite web |url=http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2006/03/30/GoWild/Max-Cannon.Shakes.Up.The.Loft-1765530.shtml |title=Max Cannon shakes up the Loft |date=30 March 2006 |last=Dillingham |first=Justyn |website=Arizona Daily Wildcat |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070123170940/http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2006/03/30/GoWild/Max-Cannon.Shakes.Up.The.Loft-1765530.shtml?sourcedomain=wildcat.arizona.edu&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com#more |archive-date=2007-01-23 |url-status=dead}}</ref> It was initially published in 1989 by the ''[[Arizona Daily Wildcat]]'', the student newspaper of the University of Arizona, though Cannon was no longer a student of the university at the time.<ref name=":0" /> Two months later, it was picked up by the ''[[Tucson Weekly]]''.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://www.newsreview.com/reno/content?oid=24698 |title=More Meat Amassed |last=Boegle |first=Jimmy |work= Reno News & Review |publisher=newsreview.com |date=19 May 2005 |access-date=2010-06-18}}</ref><ref name="Daily Star"/>  Since then it has appeared over 80 publications,<ref name=":0" /> including ''[[The Onion]]''.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=Ball|first=Ryan|date=2007-02-27|title=Comedy Central Debuts Web Shows|url=https://www.animationmagazine.net/tv/comedy-central-debuts-web-shows/|access-date=2021-01-13|website=Animation Magazine|language=en-US}}</ref> ''Red Meat'' is also available online, and has been published online since November 1996,<ref name="Daily Star"/>  making it one of the [[History of webcomics|oldest still-running webcomics]].

On 4 June 2024, Max Cannon announced that he would be resuming publishing new strips as of July, following a "much-needed year off from the Red Meat strip after 33 years of producing a weekly comic." As of late August 2024, no new comics have been published.

''Red Meat'' has been published in several other languages, including French, Italian, Spanish, Danish, and Finnish. [[Language localisation|Localisers]] have changed some details, such as the Finnish translation making Milkman Dan into a [[Mail carrier|mailman]].<ref name=":0" />

In 2009, Max Cannon urged his readers to contact the editors of their local alternative weekly papers in an effort to save the comics printed within.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/apocalypse.html |title=An URGENT Message from Max Cannon to All RED MEAT Readers: The Alternative Comics Apocalypse Has Begun |date=28 January 2009 |last=Cannon |first=Max |website=Red Meat |access-date=2009-09-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090825135847/http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/apocalypse.html |archive-date=2009-08-25 }}</ref> In a move applauded by [[Tom Tomorrow]], of the weekly strip ''[[This Modern World]]'', ''Red Meat'' returned to the pages of ''[[OC Weekly]]'' in 2012 after having been dropped in 2009.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://aan.org/aan/tom-tomorrow-enormously-grateful-for-papers-which-continue-to-support-cartoons/ |title=Tom Tomorrow: Enormously Grateful for Papers which Continue to Support Cartoons |date=13 July 2012 |last=Zaragoza |first=Jason |website=Association of Alternative Newsmedia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022040654/https://aan.org/aan/tom-tomorrow-enormously-grateful-for-papers-which-continue-to-support-cartoons/ |archive-date=2020-10-22 |url-status=live}}</ref>

At least three collections of the strips have been released:
* ''Red Meat'' (1997) {{ISBN|0-312-18302-X}}
* ''More Red Meat'' (1998) {{ISBN|0-312-19514-1}}
* ''Red Meat Gold'' (2005) {{ISBN|0-312-33014-6}}<ref name=":0" />

== Reception ==
[[Bill Griffith]], writing in the ''[[Boston Globe]]'', identified the strip as a noteworthy example of "compelling comics on newsprint" in 1996.<ref>{{cite news |last=Griffith |first=Bill |editor-last=Storin |editor-first=Stephen |date=10 November 1996 |title=Comics at 100... |newspaper=[[The Boston Globe]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/105084626/comics-at-100-by-bill-griffith-22/ |volume=250 |issue=133 |pages=D1, D3}}</ref> [[Matt Groening]] of ''[[Life in Hell]]'', praised the strip with "In a culture full of sick, twisted, perverted art, ''Red Meat'' is up there at the top—it's that good." ''Spike Magazine'' described the strip as "a window into a parallel world that is uncomfortably close to the real one."<ref name="spike">{{cite web |url=https://spikemagazine.com/1199theonion/ |date=2 November 1999 |title=The Onion: Our Dumb Century; Max Cannon: Red Meat |last=Marshall |first=Gary |website=Spike Magazine |publisher= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423044245/https://spikemagazine.com/1199theonion/ |archive-date=2021-04-23 |url-status=live}}</ref> Writing in ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[John Hodgman]] described the strip as "a bracing, bitter tonic — the antidote to comics-page malaise, albeit one that might kill before it cures" and said that it was typified by "the baroquely dark imaginings that make Cannon's work more than a tiresome anti-comic."<ref name="hodgeman"/>

The first ''Red Meat'' collection won a "Special Recognition/Wildcard" [[Firecracker Alternative Book Award]] in 1998.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.readersread.com/awards/firecracker.htm|title=Firecracker Alternative Book Awards|work=ReadersRead.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090304133738/http://www.readersread.com/awards/firecracker.htm|archive-date=Mar 4, 2009}}</ref>

== Author ==
Max Cannon was born into a U.S. [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] family (his father being a [[Boeing B-52 Stratofortress|B-52 bomber]] pilot)<ref name="gold"/> on 16 July 1962 in [[Hunstanton]], England, and spent his early years in England and Italy, before moving to Tucson, Arizona in 1977.<ref name="attitude2">{{cite book |editor-first=Ted |editor-last=Rail |title=Attitude 2: The New Subversive Alternative Cartoonists |year=2004 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r18Or31mODcC&pg=PA84 |publisher=[[NBM Publishing]] |chapter=Max Cannon: Greetings from the Dark Underbelly of America |pages=82–85 |isbn=1-56163-381-X}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2014/07/16/wish-max-cannon-a-happy-happy-birthday |title=Wish Max Cannon a Happy, Happy Birthday |date=16 July 2014 |last=Barajas |first=Henry |website=Tucson Weekly |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140725084413/https://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2014/07/16/wish-max-cannon-a-happy-happy-birthday |archive-date=2014-07-25 |url-status=live}}</ref> He attended the University of Arizona, majoring in fine arts.<ref name="gold">{{cite news |url=https://azdailysun.com/red-meat-goes-gold/article_d6319840-b8e3-5b3c-9665-c53c3de5ace2.html |date=6 July 2005 |title=Red Meat goes gold |last=Bonzani |first=Dean |newspaper=[[Arizona Daily Sun]] |publisher=Lee Enterprises |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220705191030/https://azdailysun.com/red-meat-goes-gold/article_d6319840-b8e3-5b3c-9665-c53c3de5ace2.html |archive-date=2022-07-05 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Lambiek]]'s ''Comiclopedia'' states that Cannon was born in England,<ref name=":1" /> but the ''[[Tucson Weekly]]'' described him as a "native [[Tucson, Arizona|Tucsonan]]".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Best of Tucson 1997: Max Cannon |url=https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/bot97/framed/people02.html |year=1997 |access-date=2021-01-13 |website=Tucson Weekly}}</ref>

Cannon is also creator of the eight-episode [[Comedy Central]] animated web show ''Shadow Rock'',<ref name=":2" />which was based on the ''Red Meat'' strip.<ref>{{cite web|date=2008-04-18|title=Shadow Rock|url=http://www.atom.com/channel/channel_shadow_rock/|access-date=2010-06-18|publisher=Atom|archive-date=2011-04-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110426081154/http://www.atom.com/channel/channel_shadow_rock/|url-status=dead}}</ref> He also contributed to [[Marvel Comics|Marvel's]] ''Strange Tales'' #2 & #3, writing stories with [[Spider-Man]] and the [[Fantastic Four]], respectively.<ref name=":3">{{cite web |last=Collins |first=Sean T. |date=7 October 2009 |title=Strange Tales Spotlight: Max Cannon |url=http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.9837.strange_tales_spotlight~colon~_max_cannon |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091011072031/http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.9837.strange_tales_spotlight~colon~_max_cannon |archive-date=2009-10-11 |website=[[Marvel.com]] |publisher=Marvel Characters, Inc.}}</ref> In a 2009 interview, Cannon said that he taught college animation and was working on two screenplays and doing some preliminary writing on a graphic novel.<ref name=":3" /> From 2008 to 2014 Canon worked as an instructor at the [[Southwest University of Visual Arts]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/bang-the-gong/Content?oid=3726850 |date=2 May 2013 |title=Bang the Gong |last=Pederson |first=Brian J. |website=[[Tucson Weekly]] |publisher=Thirteenth Street Media |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130504131831/https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/bang-the-gong/Content?oid=3726850 |archive-date=2013-05-04 |url-status=live}}</ref> and from 2014 to 2016 he worked as an adjunct instructor at [[The Art Institutes|The Art Institute]] of Tucson. He has also been a hospital worker, and reported on his experiences during the [[COVID-19 pandemic]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/opinion/report/062620_cannon_covid_op/max-cannon-covid-go-from-very-bad-unimaginably-worse-arizona/ |last=Cannon |first=Max |date=26 June 2020 |title=COVID about to go from very bad to unimaginably worse in Arizona |website=Tucson Sentinel |publisher= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716135710/https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/opinion/report/062620_cannon_covid_op/max-cannon-covid-go-from-very-bad-unimaginably-worse-arizona/ |archive-date=2020-07-16 |url-status=live}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{official website|http://www.redmeat.com/}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Red Meat (Comic)}}
[[Category:1990s webcomics]]
[[Category:2000s webcomics]]
[[Category:1989 comics debuts]]
[[Category:American comic strips]]
[[Category:Black comedy comics]]
[[Category:Surreal comedy comics]]
[[Category:Webcomics in print]]