Anyway, here we are once again with Monday Sunday Morning Funnies featuring our old fave, Ellis Chambers. Our first two comics are from Two-Bit The Wacky Woodpecker. These were some of the last strips published from Chambers that weren't reprints from early books. As are all of today's tales.
The first story was drawn at an odd aspect ratio which required a spot illo to fill the space on a typical comicbook page. This is the drawing used:
It appeared at the bottom of each page of the tale. I've omitted it here, since we're presenting the stories and not the comics, to allow a slightly larger display size in the page code:
The second tale in the book was more typically formatted -
Two-Bit ran for only 3 issues, but these are the only two stories signed by E.C. that appeared in the book.
Meanwhile, other Frisky Animals were running around. This one is unsigned, but believed to be Chambers' work, and he has done other Senor Tamale stories, lending further credibility to the assumption.
Since we're not completely certain that the above tale is indeed from Ellis Chambers, here's one more to make sure we have 3 today. Marmaduke Mouse and King Louie from Marmaduke's own title -
Hmm...
I think i see and Marmaduke & King Louie and Egbert & The Count post coming up the street...
page art by Ellis Chambers from Two-Bit The Wacky Woodpecker #1, Frisky Animals #50, and Marmaduke Mouse #24 (1951, 1952)
I've seen those odd rectangular "space-filler" drawings on old Sunday newspaper strips from back when they ran full-page tabloid size. Kind of strange to see it employed in a comic book. Guess its better than printing the mag title or some slogan.
ReplyDeleteTwo-Bit and McPoodle's relationship in the first story is amusingly reminiscent of Mr. Haney and Oliver Douglas in Green Acres. Even has the farm setting. You don't suppose GA creators Paul Henning and Jay Sommers happened upon this issue back in the day, do you? :)
Thanks, I needed that.
DeleteI was driving myself (more) crazy working on that game i've been toying with. You can get a job as a play tester, and i was banging my head against the code trying to find a real bug hiding in the fake bugs. Took a break, and your comment on Oliver & Mr. Haney left me literally Laughing Out Loud. (Sorry, rotfl usually requires a tickler)
I didn't see it until you made mention, but - oh, yeah. Absolutely.
And i could believe that Henning & Sommers were sparked by it.
Though it could also be riffing on some old radio/movie character types, it is very spot on.
On the first bit - now that you mention it, i wonder if there was supposed to have been a filler strip that got dropped before it went to press? Or were they just drawn wrong aspect for some semi-random reason?