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Howie Schneider, the cartoonist and children’s book illustrator, died yesterday from complications following heart surgery. He was 77.

Schneider is best remembered for creating Eek & Meek, which began in 1965 as a gag strip about two talking mice with opposing personalities. Eek was an idle lush and Meek was, well, meek.

Midway through its 35-year run, the characters morphed from animal to human. This strip, from 1971, is before the transition occurred:

During its heyday, Eek & Meek was distributed to as many as 500 newspapers by Newspaper Enterprise Association. It still had over 400 clients in 2000, when Schneider chose to retire the comic.

“You get in the habit of looking at the world
through these little droplets of humor.”

Four years ago, he began The Sunshine Club: Life In Generation Rx. As the title suggests, Schneider found laughter in aging and retirement. The comic starred Uncle Bunty, a curmudgeonly senior citizen cat, who was a minor character in the previous strip.

In 2004, Schneider spoke to David Astor of Editor & Publisher about why he returned to the medium: “You get in the habit of looking at the world through these little droplets of humor,” he said. “If you don’t have characters’ mouths to put observations in, you feel frustrated. It’s like taking away a ventriloquist’s dummy.”

Schneider is survived by his wife, two sons, and a granddaughter.

Honey, He’s Drawing Mice Again
I was hugely influenced by Eek & Meek as a child. In retrospect, I can’t rationally explain the attraction.

Certainly Schneider possessed a pleasing graphic style, but I think it was his irreverent humor that really impressed me. Kind of like an hour of Laugh-In condensed into three panels.

For a few years straight, I drew nothing but little, Schneider-esque mice. They were lanky and floppy-footed rodents like his, but perhaps not as world-weary. (Cynicism was not yet in fashion for nine-year-olds.)

Only a few Eek & Meek collections ever were published, but I encourage you to seek them out. In addition, his children’s books (many in collaboration with his wife, Susan Seligson) are delightful. Enjoy for yourself the timelessness of Howie Schneider’s creativity.