Cover Story: John Stanley's Cover for New Funnies 92, 1944

Heritage Auction Galleries' auctions are a wealth of giant-sized images of old pop-culture detritus, including 1940s comic book covers.
I spotted this today and was struck by the obvious drawing of John Stanley.
This is certainly one of his earliest covers. The backgrounds are redolent of Stanley's spiky pen and ink style--as are the reluctant figure of Charlie Chicken, the schoolhouse, and the books and grass in the image's foreground.
The focus figure of Andy Panda seems to be more carefully rendered than the rest of the cover's elements.
I much more prefer the energetic, vivid lines of everything else (even Andy's body), but it's a super piece of cartooning by anyone's standards. Compare this 1944 piece to Stanley's Woody Woodpecker one-pagers for some obvious visual tells.
If/when I find other early Stanley-drawn covers, I'll post them here. And that's all for this ultra-short posting!