See You In The Funny Pages!

Fred Basset for 11-11-2022

"Fred Basset" does not generally tell a story. Sure, you have a dog and his escapades but he leads a fairly cyclical and simple life. He chases a cat but never catches it. He has dog friends who go for runs around the park, but Fred can't jump because of his stumpy legs. He steals the sausages his owners regularly leave at the edge of the table. There's some kids who live next door who come over and play sometimes. It's simple stuff, a family caught out of time in an era that could be the 1960s, or could be the 1960s with cell phones.

There is one narrative thread running through the strips, however.

Fred despises his male owner and regularly mocks him for playing the piano poorly- I mean really poorly - seriously poorly, for painting poorly, for playing pool poorly,for playing golf poorly, and for driving poorly. He purposely sets him up for failure. And now, in this strip, for assembling a piece of furniture from Ikea or a similar flat-pack store poorly(again).

It's exciting when these little frissons of hate pop up.

The strip is still credited to Alex Graham but the current creators are his daughter Arran Keith and Michael Martin. When Graham died he had 18 months of strips stockpiled which possibly rivals David Willis when it comes to buffers.