Famous Funnies: An Early Stanley Trifecta from Animal Comics 10, 1944

As John Stanley learned comics writing on the job, he took on several licensed properties. Among them were a suite of characters from the newly-formed Famous Studios' attempt at a Technicolor roster of animation stars.

Famous (formerly the Fleischer Studios) tried hard to create a hit in their early, lavish Noveltoons. None of the characters really stuck, save for the Brooklyn-voiced Herman Mouse. The cartoons themselves are curiously compelling, and show a certain promise never quite fulfilled.

Western Publications apparently got a one-year lease on the rights to the Famous "stars." They plopped them into the random mix of Dell's Animal Comics, which played host to Walt Kelly's "Albert the Alligator" (later Pogo) and, in its last issues, to an early John Stanley comic-book original, "Jigger and Mooch."

Stanley cut his comics-writing teeth on the Famous characters, alongside MGM's "Tom and Jerry" and Walter Lantz's "Andy Panda," "Woody Woodpecker" and "Oswald the Rabbit." Here, he formulated his writing style, sense of dramatic narrative stakes, and first played with the three archetypal characters that dominate his finest work.

These Famous-derived stories were completed by moonlighting Famous animators. While they're hardly masterworks, they're of interest as examples of Stanley's early work and emergent sensibilities as a writer and cartoonist.

A helpful tool for identifying these Famous Studios-employed artists is the Nedor funny-animal title Ha-Ha Comics. Several Fleischer/Famous staffers have signed work in the early issues of this magazine--including Jim Tyer, who designed the title's distinctive logo. Thanks to recent access to the first seven issues (via the remarkable Digital Comics Museum), Thad Komorowski and I have been able to put some names to the art of these three stories.

Stanley appears to have lettered the first of today's three stories--all from a single issue of Animal Comics. I didn't spot any artist signature, but the layouts are recognizable as Stanley's work. Who knows? It appears that he had some hand in the finished artwork. I'd wager the inker was Bill Hudson.

This "Hector" story, easily the best of today's offerings, is infused with knockabout low comedy and jaunty chatter. It contains many examples of Stanley's windmill motion, lots of loud SFX and one well-placed YOW. Its dialogue is crisp and witty; Stanley seems to have enjoyed writing this story.

"Blackie Lamb" never really registered with movie audiences. This blatant Bugs Bunny knockoff has a certain horrifying wise-ass charm. Stanley's few stories with this character show more interest in the villain, Wolfie, than in the ostensible protagonists. This is a weak story, but Wolfie's self-absorbed musings show us an early glimpse into the "Tubby Type." Thad K. has IDd the artist as Gordon Sheehan.

In the manner of Carl Barks' earliest "Donald Duck" short stories, this ain't much to write home about. More vivid physical comedy keeps the pace lively, and, as said, Wolfie's desperate ramblings and ravings are always of interest.

Stanley lettered this story, as well. The artwork doesn't reveal as much of his input as does the "Hector" story.

The last, and shortest, of today's offerings riffs off one of Famous' most accomplished and atmospheric one-shot Noveltoons. 1944's Cilly Goose. Thanks to the doings of Thad Komorowski, you can see this little masterpiece HERE.

Western did a few "Cilly" stories, at least one of them written and drawn by Walt Kelly, who inherited the Famous characters once Stanley had either tired of them or was otherwise forced to remove them from his workload.

This story, according to Thad K., is inked by Otto Feuer--later a mainstay of DC's generally lack-luster funny animal titles.

This four-page story doesn't amount to much, but the anxiety of its title character, as she attempts to transport her goose-fruit to market, and to grapple with common superstitions, is at least peppy. It has that unmistakable "Uh oh! Four pages still open! An' we go to press tomorrow morning!" feel to it. Stanley also lettered this story. It looks remarkably like the "Hector" story, so I'll wager that he laid it out as well.

This is a one-pager's worth of material s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d into four.

Via stories such as these, John Stanley learned how to write for comics. His enthusiasm often outweighs his ability in these early pieces, but the potential that would come to fruition by 1945 is already visible.

High Stakes and Hassled Hubbies: "Hector the Henpecked Rooster" from Animal Comics 12, 1944

Finding material for this blog has become an increasing challenge this year. More of John Stanley's comics are in print in 2010 than at any time in the past 60 years. Stories I featured here in 2008 and '09 have since been officially reprinted in books like The TOON Treasury, Art In Time, The Golden Treasury of Krazy Kool Klassic Kids' Komics and Dark Horse and Drawn + Quarterly's ongoing Stanley reprint projects.

Aside from a few still-elusive issues of New Funnies, and the archaeological comix digs I still do through Dell Comics' back pages, there's fewer stories for me to choose from. I could, of course, run Little Lulu and Tubby stories, which are proven crowd-pleasers, but most of those are in print--or will be by the end of 2011.

So I sift through the remaining nooks and crannies. Occasionally I still have the good fortune to unearth stories such as today's humble offering.

John Stanley was about a year away from his first "Little Lulu" stories when he wrote a short batch of stories for the Dell anthology Animal Comics. Best-known as the birthplace of Walt Kelly's "Albert the Alligator" (retitled Pogo for its newspaper version, starting in 1948), Animal Comics was a hodge-podge of original material and licensed entities. The latter included Howard Garis' "Uncle Wiggily" and, for a year, newly-born characters from Famous Studios, the surviving entity of what had once been the Max Fleischer Studios.

Famous' "Noveltoons" series provided a fairly good simulacrum of the West Coast cartoons of the MGM and Warner Brothers studios, with flowing, full animation, lush Technicolor and striking musical scores by Sammy Timberg and Winston Sharples.

They struggled to create star characters. Blackie Lamb was the studio's attempt at a Bugs Bunny. A darker, more interesting series starred a feathered victim of spousal abuse, Hector Chicken. His bull-dozing, hyper-masculine wife runs and ruins his life. Only via the assistance of street-wise Herman Mouse, who scares the battle-axe $h!tless, is Herman ever briefly re-acquainted with his testicles.

Coincidentally, Famous also produced a series of Little Lulu animated cartoons, some of which are pretty good, tho' they take a far different path with the characters than the John Stanley version.

Stanley wrote a handful of these Famous-derived stories before the studio revoked their license. The Famous characters eventually wound up at Harvey Comics. Harvey bought the rights to all the Famous characters in the late 1950s. By this time, they'd been dumbed down almost to oblivion.

The early Famous Studios cartoons have much to offer, and have undergone a critical rediscovery over the past decade.

Famous' material was always dark. At worst, it was merely brutal and cruel. The underlying bleakness of their characters and scenarios somehow aligned with similar tendencies in John Stanley's writing.

This "Hector" story riffs off the Famous cartoon The Henpecked Rooster (1944). It does much more with the set-up than Famous ever managed. It also offers this first acknowledgment of a vital element in John Stanley's writing:

Stanley's characters almost never address the issue of stakes, but stakes-raising is the backbone of his narrative skill. He excelled at the creation of a problematic situation which gets increasingly worse--usually from the actions of his stories' self-obsessed, deluded protagonists.

Hector is a far cry from Tubby Tompkins, John Stanley's finest realization of this essential archetype. In this story, Stanley raises the potential for stakes-raising in his narratives, while effortlessly blending storytelling with incisive comedy. 

The plot of this story is similar to the 1935 W. C. Fields comedy Man on the Flying Trapeze. Stanley followed in Fields' footsteps in his depictions of enmeshed, co-dependent and deeply unhappy unions.

Like Fields, Stanley sided with the underdog in these effed-up relationships--which is most often the male. These unfortunates have let themselves settle for a bad situation. They're stuck with a disagreeable, inflexible mis-match, and do nothing to extricate themselves from the engulfing mire of their dilemma. They sigh, tuck their chins in and resign themselves to a lifetime of bickering and nit-picking.

Stanley's start for this story is remarkably like Fields' Trapeze. Though these stories part ways rather quickly, the obvious influence of the Fields movie is fascinating here.

For that matter, it's likely that the Famous Studios story men knew and liked the Fields films, and swiped their basic set-up from Trapeze, It's A Gift, You're Telling Me or The Bank Dick. All these movies feature Fields' grumbling, long-suffering anti-hero trying to cope with an impossible spouse. Fields' cinematic wives are hectoring, ranting killjoys. Simply by staying true to himself, even in these lessened circumstances, Fields' character wins in the end of these movies. Hid triumphs are tenuous, and it is painfully clear that he's doomed to quickly return to the ruts of bad behavior they have dug for himself.

Hector's married life is nightmarish.  His wife owns his cojones--and she's also a cannibal!

Through the smart-ass assistance of Herman and his mice brethren, Hector turns the tables on his trouble-making spouse--but the stakes are rather extreme. Chances are she'll be angrier--and meaner--than ever, upon her release from the mental hospital!

Corrosive relationships abound in Stanley's work; Loo and Sid, the candy store owner, in Dunc 'n' Loo, the pre-teen triangle of Tubby, Gloria and Wilbur in Little Lulu; Jimmy Fuzzi and Judy Junior in Thirteen Going on Eighteen and most of the character relationships in Nancy and Sluggo and Melvin Monster have something askew--or harmful--at their core.

The finished artwork for this story may have been drawn by a moonlighting Famous Studios staffer. The layout and staging are clearly of Stanley's hand. His 1940s comics are mostly set in home interiors. These settings are quite familiar to readers of his Little Lulu or New Funnies material. Whereas Carl Barks took his characters to exotic, far-flung settings for his comic book stories, John Stanley stuck close to home. No research was required, and the familiarity of the settings makes these stories still resonate with 21st-century readers.

Why circle the globe for trouble when it's all found in your living room, kitchen and bedroom? The dark domestic comedy of John Stanley offers us a reasonable world, and relatable human struggles and failings. Even in a minor work such as this, Stanley's vision is evident.

from Animal Comics #9, 1944: a very early Stanley Story

Happy Daylight Savings Time Sunday--that is, if you live in one of the many states that still participate in this cockeyed ritual. And here's a cock with which to feel cockeyed...

Among Stanley's earliest Dell assignments was "Hector, the Henpecked Rooster." This was one of at least three properties Dell licensed from New York animation studio (and wing of Paramount Pictures), Famous Studios.

Famous was the remnants of the staff of Max Fleischer's innovative animation studio. The Fleischers created some of the best animated cartoons of the 1930s. Their sheer energy, imagination and visual verve made Disney's slicker product look prosaic and anemic.

By 1942, the brothers Fleischer had been drummed out of their own studio--they were victims of rather vicious Hollywood business moves. (This blog isn't the place to get into movie-studio politics, etc., but the information on what happened to the Fleischers is out there...)

At first, the newly-christened Famous Studios (named after Paramount's music publishing division) offered high-quality, vivid cartoons, with an energy similar to the harder-edged West Coast efforts of Warner Brothers and MGM.

From the start, Famous trafficked in offbeat characters. Like Dell, they used licensed properties-- E. C. Segar's Popeye and (in an eerie tie-in with John Stanley) Marge's Little Lulu.

At the time these stories were published, Famous Studios still had plenty of promise. Their characters had a brutal, self-preservational bent that became more vicious and more pronounced as the cartoons sank in quality, later in the 1940s.

Famous continued to create interesting cartoons into the 1960s. Their series cartoons became highly repetitious by the early '50s. Famous' one-shot cartoons contain some surprisingly strong ideas and graphics, and are among the most underrated animated shorts of their era.

Dell dropped their Famous-licensed characters by 1946. The early characters featured in Animal Comics--which also included the one-shot cartoon star Cilly Goose and Famous' answer to Bugs Bunny, Blackie Lamb--were phased out of the animated films by 1947.

The Famous characters--Casper the Ghost, Herman and Katnip, Baby Huey, Little (shudder) Audrey--bounced around a few publishers before finding a permanent home at Harvey Comics. Harvey now owns the rights to the Famous characters. They made a lot of money repackaging the Famous films for TV.

That's a lot of non-comics information, but I hope it's interesting all the same.

Three Dell heavyweights worked on these Famous franchises--Stanley, Walt Kelly and Dan Noonan.

Here is the first Hector story, from the June/July 1944 issue. Stanley had already taken on some of the regular features in New Funnies, and the Tom and Jerry feature for Our Gang comics in 1943.

This is an amusing, if troubling, series. Hector is abused and debased by his brutal, overbearing wife. Her behavior towards him gets harsher and harsher in the five stories Stanley wrote for this series.

In Stanley's final Hector story, in issue 13, Hector gets two black eyes from his wife, and fakes his suicide in an attempt to wring a drop of empathy from her. I'll have to run that one here sometime soon. (Stanley also wrote the Blackie and Cilly stories in that issue.)

In the other Stanley-written "Hector" stories, as in the Famous cartoons, the timid rooster's ace in the hole is Herman Mouse, a smart-ass, street-wise rodent who enjoys hassling Hector's vicious "bitter half." She is terrified of mice, you see.

This gentler, more pastoral story features Hector and his family on a picnic. Mice are nowhere to be seen, but opportunistic frogs and gourmet ants are on hand.

Stanley loads this story with amusing and clever touches. The story offers a strong helping of his comedic wordplay, and of some of the character dynamics that would later be seen in Lulu and other better-known features. There's a unique occurence of a hilarious sound effect, when Hector blunders into the water at the end of p.1:

I love that it ends with a period. Alas, a blot on the paper--either a fleck of woodgrain or an engraving flaw--makes it appear as a colon.

Other notes: the mis-spelling of "lox," early occurences of "YOW!" and "Choff! Chompf!", and the spree of "windmill action" that literally winds up the story.

You can also see some pencil-scrawled dialogue in the word balloons. Perhaps Dell was saving rubber for the war effort by not using erasers!

Stanley would return to Animal Comics in its latter days with one of his finest "auteur" features, Jigger and Mooch. You can find three examples of this series in earlier posts on this blog.

I hope you enjoy this story, er, famously...