Over the Hedge is an American syndicated comic strip, written by Michael Fry, and drawn by T. Lewis. It tells the story of a raccoon, a turtle, a squirrel, and their friends, who come to terms with their woodlands being taken over, by suburbia, trying to survive the increasing flow of humanity and technology while becoming enticed by it at the same time. The strip debuted June 12, 1995. History Cartoonists Michael Fry and T. Lewis began collaborating through an agent who represented both of them. At the time, Lewis was a children’s book illustrator, and Fry was a freelance writer. They originally conceived another comic strip called The Secret Life of Pigs, featuring two anthropomorphic pigs. This idea was rejected by editors, who thought that readers would not relate to the strip’s rural setting or the use of pigs as characters. In response, the two changed the lead characters to an ordinary raccoon and turtle, and in 1995, the strip was approved by United Feature Syndicate. According to the Detroit Free Press, one factor in the strip’s initial success was the ending of Calvin and Hobbes in December 1995; when that strip ended, over 110 newspapers chose to run Over the Hedge as its replacement. Main characters RJ — RJ is a raccoon con artist. He takes pride in being extremely apathetic. He apparently envisions himself as an intellectual; however, his "facts" are obviously false. He is sometimes shown without a brain, using his brain cavity to store his "hanky" and breath mints. He loves to burgle human homes for food, as well as watch them, and their televisions, through the windows. He enjoys commenting on human life, and has studied humans, and knows their ways of getting food, and even has slightly imprinted on them. He was shown to care for Clara, even before she was born (after he learned that babies can hear some things outside of the mother from Verne) by reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and singing a horrible version of "Stairway to Heaven". RJ is shown to have the ability to expand to fit a massive amount of food, and is known as "that horrible raccoon kid" on Halloween. His favourite food is Twinkies. Verne — Verne is a cautious, easy going, lactose abhorrent turtle, who is reflective, and prone to allergies. Verne is a true renaissance turtle, an intelligent and quick witted