Shoe is an American comic strip about a motley crew of newspapermen, all of whom are birds. It was written and drawn by its creator, cartoonist Jeff MacNelly, from September 13, 1977, until his death in 2000. MacNelly's last strip was dated July 9, 2000; it has since been continued by Chris Cassatt, Gary Brookins, Ben Lansing, and Susie MacNelly (Jeff's widow).
Shoe had its own monthly comic book in Norway for a six issues in 1987 under the name "Sjur", which consisted of reprints from newspapers. In 1989, Shoe was published again in Norway, under the name "Krax", appearing as an extra-feature in the Calvin and Hobbes magazine.
The strip won MacNelly the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award for the year 1979.
Contents
Characters and setting
Shoe deals with the day-to-day foibles of a group of newspaper employees and their families, all of whom are portrayed as anthropomorphized birds, in the fictional locale of Treetops, East Virginia. During hunting season, "hunting dogs" (hounds with rifles, a visual pun on the sharp-sniffing canines that hunters use to track game) are occasionally featured.
Collections and reprints
(All titles by Jeff MacNelly)
The Very First Shoe Book (1978) Avon
The Other Shoe (1980) Avon
Shoe Extra (1980) Yaffa Publishing (Australia)
The New Shoe (1981) Avon
On with the Shoe! (1982) Holt, Rinehart & Winston
A Shoe for All Seasons (1983) HRW
The Shoe Must Go On (1984) HRW
The Greatest Shoe on Earth (1985) HRW
One Shoe Fits All (1986) HRW
How Many Next Years Do You Get in Baseball?: Shoe Goes to Wrigley Field (1988) Bonus Books
Too Old for Summer Camp and Too Young to Retire (1988) St. Martin's Press
A Cigar Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry (1989) St. Martin's Press
Shake the Hand, Bite the Taco (1990) St. Martin's Press
Apply a Little Hardware to the Software (1991) Quark Prods.
The Athletic Shoe (1991) St. Martin's Press
Out to Lunch: A Brand New Shoe (1993) Tribune Publishing
New Shoes (1994) Contemporary Books
Play Ball! All I Ever Learned I Forgot by the Third Inning (1999) Triumph
From Couch Potato to Mouse Potato: Success Tips for the Technically Impaired (1978) Triumph
27 Years of Shoe: World Ends at Ten, Details at Eleven (2004) Andrews McMeel
