McDonnell was raised in Edison, New Jersey and, after graduating from Edison High School in 1974, he attended the School of Visual Arts in New York on scholarship, graduating in 1978. Early artistic influences were Charles M. Patrick Luigi McDonnell was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the son of an Irish father and an Italian-American mother. He won the Harvey Award for Best Comic Strip eight times, and has been given four National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Mutts characters appear on the New Jersey Animal Friendly license plates, which fund state pet population programs. His characters have been used by the United States Marines, the American Library Association, and by the Humane Society of the United States. McDonnell is involved with many animal and environmental charities. He is a co-author of Krazy Kat: The Comic Art of George Herriman, published in 1986 by Abrams Books. His work has been animated for television commercials, most notably a public service announcement for the NY Philharmonic. Jane, which won a Caldecott Honor in 2012.

McDonnell's picture book, The Gift of Nothing, was adapted as a musical for the Kennedy Center stage, as was his picture book about the childhood of Jane Goodall, Me. Prior to creating Mutts, he was a prolific magazine illustrator, and would frequently include a dog in the backgrounds of his drawings. He is the creator of the daily comic strip Mutts, which follows the adventures of a dog and a cat, that has been syndicated since 1994. Patrick McDonnell (born March 17, 1956) is a cartoonist, author, and playwright.

Mutts comic