rodney:
I've heard a lot of discussion that the creators of Asterix supposedly introduced Dogamatix in the Asterix series as homage to Snowy and indeed the Adventures of Tintin.
That’s interesting, because I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before - do you have any examples of this?
rodney:
I fail to hold the view that Dogamatix's creation was due to Snowy.
I agree, it certainly seems to be a pretty slim connection: so many people have dogs in real life, as do so many storybook characters (the
Famous Five includes Timmy, for example) and cartoon characters (Charlie Brown has Snoopy, Dennis the Menace has Gnasher), that to pick out one as a source seems a bit unlikely. I could imagine that they
might have said, “Oh, dogs can add a bit of fun to a strip, like Snowy does in Tintinâ€, but it seems a bit strong to class it as an actual
homage.
rodney:
was there a reason for Dogamatix being small and white in colour?
He’s undoubtedly small to make the most comical contrast with Obelix - the pairing of the two is unexpected and out of proportion, so it is funny. I’d image he’s white because a) why not? and b) he’ll stand out more against other things in the panel - being so small, he might get lost in the detail.
Update: Sorry, on re-reading the question, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a very bad old joke from when I was a wee boy at school:
Q. Why is an elephant big, grey and wrinkled?
A. Because if it was small, smooth and white, it’d be an aspirin… ;-)