On my Mount Rushmore of Cool, no, wait, make that seated in my Halls of Valhalla of Cool, presided over by the unassailable king, one Terrence Stephen McQueen, would be, in no particular order, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, James Byron Dean, Bob Marley, Bob Mitchum, Bruce Lee and a beagle that so embodied the ineffable quality that unites the cinematic legends and musical giants that, from time to time, they would whisper amongst themselves, “Goddamn, that dog is just so cool.”
I speak, of course, of Snoopy in his alter ego Joe Cool. One of the most fascinating dimensions to Snoopy has always been his multiple personalities, which he so totally embodies that he would make a Stella Adler master class in method acting stand and applaud. Of these alter egos, his most notable are the World War I Flying Ace, the World Famous Author and, of course, the irrefutable master of laconic élan, Joe Cool.
Joe Cool first made his debut in the comic strip in 1971 and was ostensibly styled after jazz-crazy beatnik college
