A Gen-u-ine Pin-Up Duck

Despite that title, there'll be nary a sign of Howard The Duck in this post. He's busy with the Guardians Of The Galaxy this season; also he doesn't fit our Old Friends Week theme.

Today we'll be talking about another duck, one from Howie Post. We've got a question leading into this one...

When is a Funny Animal not a Funny Animal?

Doodles Duck may be listed in the 1940s Funny Animalphabet, but he and his friends are a grey area. A brightly coloured grey area, but nonetheless...  Are they really Funny Animals if they're toys? 

Folks have been doing toys-come-alive stories long before the Toy Story movies, and Howie was doing it back in 1947 with a series he launched in Leading Comics, starting in #23. They were short, just 5 pages each, so here are the first three stories to introduce Doodles and his Toyland Playmates to you...

A couple issues later, Post decided he could take things further. If toys can come to life for the stories, why not pictures in books?
 

Howie had fun in Toyland for a few years with Doodles, and when he headed off to other strips, Sheldon Mayer took over for for several more years. But, if you go looking, it can be a bit tricky to follow. The strip bounced around between different comics. Besides Leading Comics (and Leading Screen Comics), Doodles also appeared in Comic Cavalcade, Funny Folks (and Hollywood Funny Folks), Funny Stuff, Movietown's Animal Antics, The Raccoon Kids, Nutsy Squirrel, Real Screen Comics, Peter Porkchops, and The Dodo and The Frog.

So...  Happy Hunting!

page art by Howie Post from Leading Comics #s 23-25 & 27 (1947)

Sunday Morning Funny Animals

I seem to be stuck in the '40s, so let's just roll with it. For our Sunday Morning Funnies this week, Funny Animals of the Fourties seems like a workable theme, eh?

Let's start out with another visit by Walrus Whopper -

DC's Comic Cavalcade featured a host of funny animals back in the '40s, including Dodo & Frog, Nutsy Squirrel, Blabber Mouse, the Raccoon Kids, Tortoise & Hare, and Goofy Goose. But the big duo, who stuck around for decades, was Fox & Crow -

Pelican Pete was an odd bird, no doubt. Beyond his Felix style "bag o tricks" pelican beak, he also lived... 'between worlds' seems the best description. Take a look at this tale, featuring art by Otto Feuer -

pages from Animal Antics #5, Comic Cavalcade #30, and Leading Comics #29 (1947, 1948)

Lightening The Mood

We've been brooding a bit over the recent losses. Let's pick things up a bit and switch to some light comedy. Jumping back 70 years (+2, for one of the tales), here's some quirky old humour from the late 1940s.

Artist and writer unknown, here's the final appearance of Walrus Whopper -

 this Tommy Tot and the Heir Corps tale is one of those rare beasts from the period that has both writer and artist credits - and both are the same man - Tim Howe. (However, i can't be certain that's not a nom de plume)

Two-Gun Percy is drawn by Jimmy Thompson ; as too often usual, writer unknown -

All three had more episodes. Tommy Tot and the Heir Corps had the fewest, with only 4, while Walrus Whopper had 9 tales to tell. Two-Gun Percy was the longest lasting, with two dozen appearances (if one includes the Daisy Handbook from 1948).

page art from Leading Comics #30 (1948), Nutty Life #2 (1946), and All Funny Comics #21 (1948)