Exclusive to The Daily Cartoonist is Patrick McDonnell‘s Introduction to The Essential Peanuts. Like poetry, creating a small four-panel daily comic strip is about paring it all down to the heartfelt essential. On January 28, 1999, Schulz included Earl, the dog from Patrick McDonnell’s comic strip Mutts, in Peanuts. That strip had a profound impact on how cartoonist Patrick McDonnell approaches the art form. Introduction (and Earl) © Patrick McDonnell; Peanuts characters © Peanuts Worldwide