No porn, I swear!
Frank was generous with posting two early Andy Panda stories by John Stanley (here and here), so I am finally returning the favor by posting the first story with Andy’s longtime costar Charlie Chicken. As Frank noted, Charlie began as a fluffy hatchling, and ‘grew up’ over the span of three issues. The only other ‘growth’ of this kind in funny animal comics was the woodpecker kid Splinter changing from a boy to a girl in the first few issues the Splinter & Knothead duo (originally ‘Nuthead’) appeared in.
Charlie’s personality changed drastically in these first few issues, to say the least. Before he became the wise guy sidekick for Andy, he was pretty much an evil little asshole in the ‘baby guise’, similar to Bob Clampett’s Tweety. Perhaps Stanley quickly realized that this type of ‘persona’ (really, gag idea) was extremely limiting and decided to axe it.
I’m uncertain if this is Stanley’s first Lantz character story, but it has to be one of the earliest. I also like how Charlie’s sex isn’t taken into account throughout this whole story.
Taken from New Funnies #79 (September 1943).
Interesting, that Andy was a character we got to watch “grow-up” on screen… Birth, misadventures with Pop, and relatively bland adulthood, and readers (not me, unfortunately) got to watch Charlie “grow-up” on the printed page!
No porn? In which case, we should read this … why?
No porn? There’s a “laying” joke here somewhere….
Besides Felix, who are the other characters on the side of the cover?
Jim B, I think there’s Lil’ Eightball, Oswald Rabbit, and two dolls that are likely to be Raggedy Ann and Andy.
Thanks, Thad!
This is the first John Stanley AP story–perhaps his first story for comic books. I’m not sure if this preceded the first of the two BUGS BUNNY Dell one-shots Stanley claimed to have written.
If these two books (Four Colors 33 & 51) are, indeed, Stanley’s work, they are nothing to be proud of. this Andy Panda story has the goods, right from the get-go. Until I get information to the contrary, I’m inclined to believe this is Stanley’s first significant work for comics.
I’m glad to have access to this important story again! And belated Happy Boithday, too… your Fox & Crow story was quite funny and well-drawn.