Walt Kelly, a former Disney animator and one of the greatest cartoonists of the 20th Century, is not one usually associated with the likes of Paramount’s Famous Studios. But did you know Kelly illustrated two comic book stories starring Paramount’s animated characters of the 1940s?

Long before Harvey Comics, or St. John for that matter, had the rights to Paramount’s cartoon menagerie, Western Publishing (Dell Comics) acquired those rights in the mid 40s — and produced comic stories featuring such animated “stars” as Hector the Henpecked Rooster, Herman the Mouse, Blackie Sheep and Cilly Goose. Kelly illustrated two 8-page stories - the first of which I’ve post below (click thumbnails to enlarge each page). These were done for Animal Comics, the book in which Kelly developed Pogo Possum and are thus worth hundreds of dollars each. My thanks to Mark Kausler for loaning me his copies to scan. Cilly Goose is based on a one-shot Noveltoon cartoon of the same name from 1944. The Famous Studios comics ran from issue #7 through #17 as far as I can tell. This Cilly Goose story, from Animal Comics #15 (June-July 1945), has no relation to the animated film, and I have no idea who might have written it.

This post was inspired by the many new sites popping up reprinting classic comic books (such as Cartoon Snap and The Big Blog of Kids Comics). I have no intention to compete with them - though if there is interest in seeing Kelly’s other Famous story (featuring Blackie Sheep) let me know.

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Between 2007 and 2009, Leslie Cabarga and I had the privilege of assembling five volumes of classic Harvey Comics reprints for Dark Horse Books. These comics were an offshoot of Paramount’s Famous Studios cartoon creations and were initially written and drawn by their finest animators.

Now, Dark Horse has announced plans to continue reprinting classic Harvey Comics material on a regular basis beginning May 2010. The new format (which Leslie is art directing the covers, but neither he nor I are selecting the reprints) presents each Harvey character in 200-page trade paperback editions with every page in color, for $14.99. The first one devoted to Casper is available for pre-order here. If you like this stuff, it’s a bargain.

Our weekly survey of recent comic strips and editorial cartoons that reference animation characters. We begin with two by Mark Parisi:

Off The Mark by Mark Parisi (12/28/09)

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Off The Mark by Mark Parisi (1/1/10)

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Though we usually feature print cartoons, the two below — Medium Large by Francesco Marciuliano (12/30/09) and Eek! by Scott Nickel (12/30/09) — are professional web comics.

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(Thanks to our regular eagle eyed comic strip watchers Edwin Austin, Jim Lahue, Charles Brubaker and Uncle Wayne)

Our weekly survey of recent comic strips and editorial cartoons that reference animation characters. Once again we begin with The Princess and the Frog being used as a metaphor to comment on the Health Care Reform Bill (via Mike Luckovich in the Atlanta Journal Constitution):

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Next, Tim Rickard’s sci-fi spoof Brewster Rockit presented a Christmas Special in serialized form:

(Thanks, Uncle Wayne)

Richard Graham at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has put together an online collection of 183 government comic books - i.e. comics commissioned by the the U.S. Government to educate and inform the general public. Charlie Brown, Yogi, Dagwood and many other well known characters show up in these booklets, as well as obscure work by Walt Kelly, Dr. Seuss, Will Eisner, Al Capp, etc. All of it is downloadable via PDF files. Absolutely worth a browse during your off time over the Christmas holidays. Here’s the link.

(Thanks, Mark Bieraugel)

Our weekly survey of recent comic strips and editorial cartoons that reference animation characters.

Mike Peters in the Dayton Daily News.

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Rob Rogers from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

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Off the Mark by Mark Parisi (12/13/09)

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Rhymes with Orange by Hilary Price (12/11/09)

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Janis & Arlo by Jimmy Johnson (12/12/09)

(Thanks, Jim Lahue, Billie Towzer and Uncle Wayne)

Our weekly survey of comic strips and editorial cartoons that reference animation characters.

Glen and Gary McCoy’s The Flying McCoys from Thursday December 10th.

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Andy Marlette (12/4) in the Pensacola News-Journal.

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Gary Varvel (12/10) in The Indianapolis Star.

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Scott Hilburn’s The Argyle Sweater on Friday December 11th.

(Thanks Joe Apel, Kurtis Findlay, John Hall, Jim Lahue and Rachel Willis)

December 8th is the 105th birthday of Elzie Segar, creator of the Thimble Theatre comic strip and Popeye the Sailor. Google is commemorating the day with this graphic on its main page.

UPDATE: The Popeye drawing was done by Stephen DeStefano.

(Thanks Joseph Game and Bill Andres)