How Heathcliff Went Weird

Heathcliff's transition from newspaper comic to web comic has been quite the journey

Script, VO, editing by Cam
(Twitter blows these days, I highly recommend Bluesky)

3D intro, thumbnail, custom effects, animations, basically 80% of the video by Sam

CXC 2022 panel with interviewer Andrew Neal, and Heathcliff Artist/author Peter Gallagher:

Music licensed through Storyblocks

[TheKingOfNachosTM]

Heathcliff saved my life once
I was choking on a piece of rubber when Heathcliff walked by. I asked if he can help with my predicament. He simply said "ham" and then I stopped choking, my tumour is gone and I'm no longer bald. Thank you Heathcliff.

[Vtubears]

Heathcliff is sit-com in its purest sense. The situation is the comedy

[JetSetDman]

heathcliff perfectly embodies the energy of "everybody's paying attention to garfield, let's just fuck around and have fun since we don't have to impress anybody"

[camwing]

I expect a pile of Jimmy fan art on my desk by this Sunday.

[jekrixlokan]

This comic is like, a complete twist on the phrase "Show, don't tell."

I'm reminded a lot about Steve Purcell's Sam and Max, specifically the games in which a lot of the funniest moments from the game are in which they subvert the phrase to be "Tell, don't show" where a character is telling a story so absurd, but it's taken to be true and when asked why or how, it just how it is. And a lot lf the funniest moments come from these inteactions.

I feel as though Heathecliff subverts the phrase in a completely different way, to "Don't show, Don't tell" in which the absurdity of the single moment tells you very little about how things happened and will happen, and it's up to the reader to interpret everything from almost nothing, which is entertaining and funny at the same time.

[CarelessFoolFallsFlat]

"Puppet Heathcliff likes you" is somehow more sinister than the opposite statement.

[Dullrig]

I was not expecting to like this video as much as I do.

[Kybhoh]

This reminds me of a reddit post about some dudes who went camping, and a man dressed like in 1880 came out of nowhere, said "Hello !" and walked away. I think it was pretty funny, not the scene, but what made this scene happens, the fact it happenned, and all the confusion around this. I feel like Heathcliff is about that feeling

[lilbiggs]

Heathcliff is the comic that is genuinely funnier the less panels you have read. But it also gains a new taste through multiple tastings.

[montaine]

16:36 “It’s what’s for dinner” is actually a cultural reference! There was an old pork council commercial (I think around the “the other white meat” era) that went “Pork: it’s what’s for dinner.”

[kagglerock]

Thank you for forcefully placing my eyes to the lens, wide angled, to gaze upon only Heathcliff. You don’t know what your missing until you see it for yourself. I used to be a man who enjoyed drawing Garfield in absurd ways, but oh how naive I was.

Heathcliff was there all along.

[TylerNinjaFortniteBlevins]

I feel like I've only ever heard of Heathcliff, like how old people hear of Minecraft. Everything I learned, heard, and saw in this video are things I did not know, and yet, I was infatuated.

[Big_Dai]

@7:58 Just the music in sync with the editing.. chef's kiss.

[Ovetupp]

Heathcliff isn't really a comic that invites you, but you're free to tag along if you want to discover its absurdity

[joshuatxuk]

Years ago I saw Heathcliff referenced by Hot Dad is a couple songs, specifically "Let's talk about ham" and "Children love the meat truck" but otherwise I hadn't looked into the comic. Then recently while listening to an episode of "Behind the Bastards" about Dilbert creator Scott Adams where guest R. K. Milholland mentioned offhand that "Heathcliff's been really weird in the last 10 years." He didn't say this as an indictment nor praise, just a fact to put out there. So I just looked up the most recent comic and it's Heathcliff at a lemonade stand like table that says "bro" and around him are kids with balloons that say "bro" and he and the kids all have this satisfied grin on their faces, as if they just solved an issue and are enjoying their contentedness. I have no idea what it means or if it means anything but it made me giggle and happy. A microdose of abusdity. All of his comics seem this way, this sort of non sequitar wholesomeness that is augmented by the cartoon's pleasant and colorful but still fairly benign aesthetic. It's like peanuts and far side met in the middle with a cute cat as the grounded center. I like it and I'm glad it exists.

[brhfl]

really outdid yourself on the production quality here! great stuff

[LanceEads]

I really enjoyed your Heathcliff video series. Thanks! I do a comic strip myself, but it only comes out once a month, and just in one local newspaper. It's supposed to start coming out twice a month soon. Being born in 1970, Heathcliff was an early influence of mine. When I was in fifth grade, as Garfield was ascending quickly, I said, "Screw Garfield!" and decided that Heathcliff was the orange comic cat for me. I remember getting "Heathcliff Rides Again" through Scholastic Books and reading it over and over, copying the art style. My own comic is called Jack the Woodchuck. It takes place in the forest and also includes a toad, a heron, and some other creatures. It more closely resembles Winnie the Pooh than Heathcliff, but I have been thinking about doing some sort of single panel strip also, and submitting it to some magazines. Thanks again!

[RbaDader]

Sometimes we just need a cat that does things sometimes

[jmalmsten]

As someone who grew up knowing Heathcliff as "that cartoon show I keep confusing with Garfield." And I never really looked into it more than "Yeah, it's based on a comic strip, I guess."

Seeing these absurdist masterpieces in panel form here, was quite eye-opening. I might have to get into the deep end.

Also, the lighthearted blunt approach to motivations is so closely related to David Lynch ("I like seeing women come out of darkness and into the light" and "I like electricity") and Junji Ito ("I thought sharks would be scarier if they had legs") that I cannot fault the logic.

[VhgfhhggRAAHH]

H-Heathcliff..? Where are you, Heathcliff..? Must I rid this world of all of its Catherines to finally meet your embrace..?!