Yogi Bear Weekend Comics, October 1965

Did you know there was an Indian reservation on or near Jellystone Park? There wasn’t in the TV cartoons but, time and time again, native stereotypes from a reserve make appearances in the Yogi Bear Sunday comics. It happened twice out of the five comics from 50 years ago this month. Two other comics feature bees and the fifth has a worm that’s smarter than the smarter than the average bear.

Yogi was still syndicated on TV but I’ve found more and more newspapers dropped his comic strip (for example, when these strips were published, people in parts of Southern California could watch Yogi on Tuesdays on KTLA 3, KCOP 13 on Thursdays and Fridays on KOGO 10). However, by sheer accident, I’ve discovered the Ogdensburg Journal in New York had a two-page Sunday comic section starting at the end of January 1965. One page was the full Yogi Bear and Flintstones colour comics. Better still, it appears the copies of the newspapers on-line are not some photocopies of old scratchy microfilms; they look like the papers were put through a scanner. So hurray for the New York State Historic Newspapers Site.


Boo Boo is sure getting a kick out of the plumber gag that ends the October 3rd comic. Note the embarrassment lines around Yogi’s head in the final panel. Ranger Smith makes a cameo appearance. It seems odd that the hammy Yogi would suddenly bolt from having his picture taken, but the writer had to get to the plot. You think a comic would be able to get away with “redskin” today?


A worm jumping in a hole to escape isn’t terribly creative, but that’s what we get in the October 10th comic. I like how the worm thinks an exclamation mark to himself. Yogi has conjoint eyes when he wakes up. Boo Boo makes a cameo appearance. Yogi reads in italics in the opening panel; was this common in comics? I’ve always liked how the words emitted by characters and things form designs; Yogi’s “Zzzzz” and the clock’s “Rrrrring” are good examples.


The less said about the rebus groaner than ends the October 17th comic, the better. Dig the goofy horse in the top row with the masked eyes and a transistor radio accompanied by a fox tail. The double Yogi in the third row is effective. Final panel note: yes, kids did steal road signs years ago (today, they steal 420 mileposts). The final panel also shows the princess has an almost Boo Boo doll and is a fan of some singer with a Beatles haircut.


Bees play only an incidental role in the October 23rd comic and really have nothing to do with the plot. Many papers chopped off the top row of the three-row versions of comics so it has to be written to be dispensable. Ranger Smith should have known the punch line in the final panel might happen; he already points out that Yogi is clumsy. Considering the way the apple tree bends at a 90 degree angle, it’s more like a rubber tree.


The artist in the October 31st comic draws Yogi in a variety of positions. I like how bees are swirling around the hive-head in the final panel. Do beehives really get that big? Boo Boo has an uncharacteristic sneaky smirk. This comic has another thin silhouette panel in the top row; four of the five comics this month feature one.

As usual, you would be smart to go to Mark Kausler’s site to see the comics above in full colour along with his expert insights.

We’re on a month-to-month basis with these comic reprints (and with the blog, for that matter) but we can guarantee another edition of Yogi Bear comics in four weeks. The highlight is a special appearance by Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw and Baba Looey.

Yogi Bear Weekend Comics, August 1964

Yogi Bear and Yogi Berra?

Joe Barbera once told UPI’s Jack Gaver: “Any similarity [in the names] was pure accident.”

Mr. Berra once told UPI’s Vernon Scott: “I was going to sue the Yogi Bear program for using my name, until somebody reminded me Yogi isn’t my real name—it’s Lawrence.”

It would seem highly improbable that Mr. Bear and Mr. Berra would meet, one of them being a cartoon and all. But they did—in the punch-line of a Sunday newspaper comic 50 years ago this month.

The almost raison d’être for the Yogi (Bear) comics in the middle part of 1964 was to give a free plug for the movie “Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear,” which was released on June 3rd. The comics didn’t have a continuing story line per se, but they featured stories about Yogi going to, and traipsing around, Hollywood. The Hollywood series ended in August, and one of the comics included a gag about Mr. Berra—who appeared in cartoon form (one wonders if H-B caricaturist Ben Shenkman handled the design).

So here are the comics for the month.

August 2, 1964

August 9, 1964

August 16, 1964

August 23, 1964

August 30, 1964

If you want to see the Yogis (Bear and Berra) in full colour, Mark Kausler has posted them on his blog from his personal collection, clipped from newspapers way-back-when. Please go HERE.

This post will conclude our regular monthly reprints of the Yogi comics. They have simply become impossible to find in complete (three-row) form on-line. My access to some newspapers has been paywalled. In other cases, Google has dropped some old papers as their owner has elected to go elsewhere and paywall them. In still other cases, the newspapers themselves dropped the comic. And in still still other cases, even the two-row versions available have been scanned so poorly that they’re black and unviewable.

Mark offered to send me his two-row colour comics but I don’t want to put him to the trouble. And, as I have indicated for some time, I am trying to wind down this blog due to a lack of time to post. I have banked posts until the end of the year.

Yogi Bear Weekend Comics, August 1966

Military tests in a protected national park? I doubt it would happen in real life, but we saw it twice in the Yogi Bear TV series in the early ‘60s and we see it again in the Yogi newspaper comics. Something we don’t see in the Sunday comics 50 years ago this month is Boo Boo. Yogi could carry a cartoon on his own—and did in the first season of the Huckleberry Hound Show when Joe Barbera, Charlie Shows and Dan Gordon worked on stories—so the little bear-type buddy’s absence really isn’t noticed.

A kind reader named Richard Holliss has sent me his large collection of coloured Yogi Bear and Flintstones Sunday comics. It’s not a complete run but covers parts of about 4 ½ years. The full broadsheet versions of the comics take up three rows. The tabloid versions of Richard’s comics are four rows, but in order to fit them on the page, one small panel in the top row (usually the second panel) had to be deleted. I’ll have to describe the missing panel in each comic. My great thanks to Richard for volunteering to help.

If you can follow all that, let’s carry on.



Yes, there’s a leprechaun family living in a tree in Jellystone. And in the August 7th comic, the plot is one of those “be careful what you wish for” routines like the cartoon where Yogi got the golden touch from a genie and turned everything into pic-a-nic baskets. Neither Yogi nor the fish seem impressed with the pond of pink goop in the final panel. It’s not exactly magically delicious. Gene Hazelton’s layouts always have intelligent use of space. He needed something to take up the space over the pond so he invented a tree with a branch and birds sitting on it. The leprechaun spell-casting within an “O” is pretty creative, too. The missing panel has Yogi with a wide, crooked, close-mouthed smile and saying “Hmmm!”



Yogi is, indeed, smarter-than-the-average bear in the August 14th comic. He comes up with an instant messaging system, at least. I like the attention to detail on the pipeline. The missing (third) panel has Ranger Smith half-way through the doorstep of the ranger station, running out, his left hand holding down the brim of his hat (he must be going fast), saying “I wonder what the trouble is.” Yogi is in the background with two curved lines next to his head like he’s shaking it a bit in surprise (Peanuts comics did this frequently).



How about this comic from August 21st? Yogi’s not only expressive, but care is given to how he’s holding his rifle as he goes through his test. I’d never think of drawing it above the head and held upside down like in the ravine jump panel, but it seems accurate to me. The design of the drill sergeant has that mid-‘60s Hanna-Barbera look. Iwao Takamoto’s influence, perhaps? I like the sign on the tree in the opening panel and the little birdies sitting on top. The missing panel has a silhouette of Yogi, with two fir trees in the distance, saying “Hmmm...What’s that up ahead?”



Well, you smug Mr. Ranger, Yogi tried to warn you. You wouldn’t listen. In the August 28th comic, Ranger Smith’s son is once again named Kevin. Isn’t that a lovely framing in the top panel of the centre action? The same with Smith hogging the kid’s pool in the second row. The missing panel has a head shot of the Ranger in quarter view, drumming his fingers against his face, saying “Hmmm...I wonder?!?” There are drops of sweat drawn is the air around his face.

Next month, Boo Boo returns, Cindy shows up and Yogi uses his ingenuity. We have full-colour versions of all four September 1966 comics to post.

Yogi Bear Weekend Comics, July 1966

Quick Draw McGraw rides into Yogi Bear’s life in the weekend comics of 50 years ago this month. Yes, he’s a horse that rides a horse. Don’t ask. Actually, Quick Draw rides in only one of the five comics. He’s a patriotic American in the other.

Our usual source for comics has double-exposed photos of pages, rendering them useless. We’ve hunted through six sources and this is the best we can come up with, so you’re stuck dealing with crappy quality. Late note: the colour comics come from the collection of Richard Holliss.



Yogi is spending the Fourth of July engaged in non-stop rhymes or quasi-rhymes (the comic actually came out on July 3rd in the U.S.). The natives that populate Jellystone Park (or a reserve attached nearby) make another appearance. Note the patriotic rabbit in the top panel. No, I don’t know why the natives are coloured blue but Huck isn’t.



It’s a shame this tabloid version of the July 10th is in black and white because I would have liked to have seen the purple and gold that Quick Draw talks about. The cacti “Yogi Bear” in the opening panel is an appropriate touch. The opener also features a couple of rabbits watching the saddlesore action. The four-column comics are always missing a small top row panel; this one is missing Yogi and the grinning horse in silhouette, with a cactus in the background, and Yogi remarking “I shouldn’t oughtter rode this trotter.”


Another rabbit in the top panel on July 17th, as well as frogs and butterflies. As usual, the composition is really well thought out with action at various depths. Flowers evidently excite Yogi judging by the way he’s rubbing his rump in the air in the third panel. Hey, Ranger Smith, why didn’t you just write “flower”?



An anonymous guy who knows Yogi takes the place of Ranger Smith as the irate patsy in the July 24th comic. This version is missing a small silhouette panel of Yogi walking stage left and a tall fir tree in the left of the panel.


Yogi doesn’t have a lot of luck with greenhouses. The previous October in the Sunday comics, he destroyed one by tripping and accidentally firing apples through its windows. You can see what happens in the July 31st comic. Blame the general store owner and his faulty bag, Yogi! Hey, the rabbit and birdies are back. Boo Boo plays with a yo-yo just to make a couple of panels more interesting.

As usual, you can click on any of these to try to get a better look.

Yogi Bear Weekend Comics, April 1967

Dear Cartoon Fans,

No, The Simpsons did not invent the “writing sentences over and over on the blackboard” gag. For those of you who need proof, we direct your attention to the Yogi Bear comics that appeared in Sunday newspapers 50 years ago this month. (Teachers never forced misbehaving kids to scrawl when I was in school when the comic in question was made. A lawsuit would probably result if a teacher tried it today).

Before we get to the comics, you see a nicely crafted ad to your right. I think I’ve posted it before but I found it in another paper the other day so I’ve put it up nonetheless. There was a similar well-laid-out Flintstones promotional drawing.

Boo Boo only makes it into one of the comics this month. Ranger Smith is in a pair and we have kids in a couple of them. And instead of Boy Scouts, we have the distaff variety (distaff being one of those ‘60s words I doubt anyone uses now).

These full-page, four-row versions of the Yogi comics come from Richard Holliss’ fine archive. It’s not complete so you’ll have to deal with some not-so-well scanned black-and-white ones. The four-row comics are missing a thin panel you’ll find in the three-row version (many pages simply used a half-size comic, eliminating the first row.

The April 2nd comic has a wonderful perspective opening panel with angry tourists in the distance around the letters of Yogi’s name. The “ranger general” (with one star) is featured as well. Note the eye on the suspicious tourist in the final panel. The missing third panel is in black-and-white to your right.



Yes, he’s smarter than the average bear. I’m referring to whoever wrote the April 9th comic. This is quite an ingenious food-stealing idea that Yogi’s come up with. Kids love yucky things, after all.

Do flies bite? Apparently they do, even though they don’t have teeth. With that bit of scientific knowledge (see how educational this blog is?), we turn our attention to the April 16th column. You can see the missing third panel to your right (the mouth is somewhat reminiscent of Charlie Brown). I like the multiples of Yogi as he tries to deal with the fly. Finally, our bear comes up with a smarter-than-the-average idea, though we know that in a TV cartoon, that wouldn’t stop the fly (similar to how Huck Hound lost against a mosquito in Skeeter Trouble.

It seems to me there weren’t a lot of weekend comics with only two characters in them, and the fly really isn’t much of a character.



The colour change from day to night may be nicest thing about the April 23rd comic. The missing panel is a close-up of Yogi and Boo Boo, with a ? in a word balloon pointing at each of them. See how Ranger Smith expresses his anger in the opening panel. Ranger Smith is named for Bill Hanna again. I don’t think Hanna-Barbera had any Abes in 1967 (where was Abe Levitow then?).


Space.com tells us that Mars is 33.9 million miles from Earth at its closest point. But it is 225 million at its farthest, so Yogi is technically correct in his response to the little girl in the April 30th comic. Evidently, her parents put great confidence over a woodland creature as opposed to Ranger Smith to give their daughter the correct answer. I presume the father must be a hitherto unknown ranger. Why else would they be living in a national park. Do I detect Lucille Bliss as the Girl Scout?

You can click on each comic to make it bigger.

Yogi Bear Weekend Comics, November 1967

Though his vocabulary at the office around deadline time may not have suggested it, Bill Hanna was a Boy Scout and had been a big supporter of the organisation through to the end of his life. Perhaps that’s the reason Scouts show up somewhat frequently in the Yogi Bear newspaper comics.

This month 50 years ago, two of the four weekend comics involved Scouts, another highlights groovy teenagers and their far-out music, and the other has construction workers attempting to eat lunch. “Attempting” is the operative word here.

Before anything else, let me thank Richard Holliss for the colour tabloid version of the comics from his collection.



Boo Boo is kind of a substitute kid when it comes to plots, so it figures Boo Boo is only in the comic this month that doesn’t include kids. I always like how the artist in these comics has animals on or around the “Yogi Bear” lettering in the opening panel. These artists not only had to draw funny animals, humans and forest settings, sometimes they were called upon to sketch fairly realistic machinery, cars, trucks and such. In the November 5th comic, it’s a construction crane. This comic marks Ranger Smith’s only appearance of the month.



Hey, Kevin, this is why the other kids won’t play with you. Don’t tie a boat motor in a Boy Scout knot. At least, I presume he’s responsible. The November 12th comic also features a nice, little goony-eyed expression from our favourite Jellystone bear.



Winter? Hibernation? Fah! Not for Yogi Bear. He just puts on a scarf and away he goes. In the November 19th comic, he’s entrusted to lead a bunch of hyperactive Scouts. The panel compositions are very attractive here, with a good use of foreground and background. The characters always seem to read well in a Yogi comic no matter where they are. I especially like the long panels in the second and last rows.


Transistor radios are in! Okay, they were 50 years ago when we’d sneak them into class and listen to the World Series. Now people get score updates sent their handhelds. It’s about as much fun as reading a teletype. Oh, I’m getting off track a bit.

The November 26th has the Now Generation tuning in to the latest boss tunes. Little Kevin reappears. He’s kind of a luckless kid, isn’t he? I wonder if whoever wrote this knew there was a Radio Shack, supplying inexpensive stuff that kept some of those boss rock stations on the air. Here is their 1967 catalogue.

The writer uses the names of some real bands with an odd exception. The guy listening to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band parody kind of looks like Jerry Eisenberg. If this comic had been written two years earlier, the bands might have included The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Positively Thirteen O’Clock and The Guilloteens, all of whom, not uncoincidentally, were released on the Hanna-Barbera label. Read more about it right here from the Mighty Musical Mite of Mount Mackie, Kliph Nesteroff.

Yogi Bear Weekend Comics, October 1964

Some smiles but no big laughs in the Yogi Bear Sunday comics (Saturday in Canada) 50 years ago this month. I suspect Harvey Eisenberg drew these; it’s a shame I can’t find better versions on the internet to show off his artwork. Boo Boo isn’t really needed so he only shows up in two of the four comics, and only briefly in one.


The optional top row (some papers didn’t carry it) in the October 4th comic is self-contained and has nothing to do with the other two rows. I keep waiting for the line “Oh, Magoo, you’ve done it again.”


Cindy Bear was redesigned for the movie “Hey, There, It’s Yogi Bear” (1964), so that’s the version we see in the October 11th comic. Even Cindy rhymes in this one. She doesn’t seem to appreciate Yogi’s talent for playing five instruments simultaneously. And did he steal all that food around Cindy in the final panel?


I wonder if they sold Yogi balloons like the one the kid has in the final panel of the October 18th comic. The lousy scan ruins the great pose of Ranger Smith at the end. Hazelton’s Law requires all kids in Yogi comics to have dots on the sides of their faces. Mr. Eisenberg seems to have liked varying his use of silhouettes; Yogi and Smith are in silhouette in the background of the top right-hand panel with the subjects clear in the foreground. In other comics, he’ll have the characters in silhouette in the foreground (see example below).

As a side note, I found this story in the supplement of the San Antonio Express for the above date:

Yogi Dresses
NEW YORK—Fans of The Flintstones and Yogi Bear will be glad to hear (or sorry, if you’re a parent and have to spend the money) that dresses are being marketed for little girls that have “coloring book” characters from the shows printed on them, along with the material for the child to do her own coloring.


Odd looking zig-zag trees in the opening panel of October 25th comic. I like Ranger Smith’s moving fingers in the last panel.

Click to enlarge any of the comics.

Yogi Bear Weekend Comics, December 1963

“Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear” was not the original title of Hanna-Barbera’s first foray into feature cartoon production. Associated Press reporter Bob Thomas revealed in a column in June 1963 the film was called “Whistle Your Way Back Home.” Evidently someone came to the smart conclusion if you’ve got a star like Yogi Bear, why not use his name in the title? So the studio did.

But the original title seems to have hung around for a bit. It’s referred in a Yogi Bear newspaper comic 50 years ago this month. Of note—there was no Christmas colour comic in 1963, and Boo Boo only makes brief appearances in two of the five weekend comics. And the seasons change awfully fast.


You’ll notice in the December 1st cartoon a reference on the camera in the opening panel to “H-B Prod.” and Columbia Pictures (Hanna-Barbera’s bankroller when the studio opened in 1957) on the clapboard in the first panel of the middle row. The last panel seems to have a real ranger station on a set with a real swimming pool. It’s been years since I’ve seen the Yogi movie, but I don’t recall beach babes being in it.


A week later, December 8th, and it’s suddenly not swimming pool weather any more. It’s winter in the next four comics. How did the weather change so quickly? Must have been global warming in 1963. Notice how Boo Boo is a nice bear, accepting Yogi for what he is, instead of ol’ sour puss Smith.


Sorry for the lousy scan of the December 15th comic. The same snowy-covered first from the week before are back. The composition in the first panel of the middle row is just great. Characters on either side in the foreground, action in between them in the middle ground and a ski lift to fill the dead spots in the background. The final panel has some good varying perspectives, too. The silhouette of the phone booth is a nice touch.


Oh, another one of the über-cute kids again. She evidently takes after Mrs. Smith. The two only appear to fill the top row of the December 22nd comic; neither play a role in the story. Nice variations of angles on that rickety old two-seater prop plane. You’ve really got to appreciate Harvey Eisenberg. He can draw a funny animal, a cute kid and a realistic-looking plane, and all in the same cartoon. He’s also using jagged dialogue balloons, presumably to express changing emotions. The less said about the rhymes, the better.


Why can’t Yogi help the kid in the December 29th comic? Isn’t he smarter-than-the-average bear and can, therefore, solve problems? Ah, well. That would spoil the plot. It appears Ranger Smith has a pet lynx, judging by the opening panel. Look at the size of the cat. Angled fireplace and wood panelling are very attractive. I like Ranger Smith’s boyhood flashback. He looks like a munchkin instead of a little boy. The drawing of the rabbit is an interesting way of getting a change in visuals during dialogue. No rhymes this time.

As usual, you can head to Mark Kausler’s site where he’s taken the time to post the bottom two rows of each of these cartoons in colour.

Yogi Bear Weekend Comics, March 1970

Frank, Sammy, Dean—at Jellystone Park?

National parks must be raking in the coin if they can afford those acts. (Please don’t tell me I have to explain who the Rat Pack is).

They showed up in name only in the Yogi Bear weekend comics this month 49 years ago. Someone who didn’t show up was Boo Boo. He isn’t in any of the five comics published in March 1970.


Ranger Smith is being particularly jerkish in the March 1st comic. Who’s he to order people around and be verbally abusive? We get a talking squirrel in the unrelated gag in the first row, along with a silhouette panel in the second row.


Perhaps Mr. Ranger felt pangs of guilt. In the next comic on March 8th, he’s desperate to help Yogi. Out of the five, I like this story best. I marvel about how rain can be drawn without obscuring the characters and settings on the panel. Ranger Smith is named Bill this time.



Bear? More like wolf. In the March 15th comic, Yogi reveals he’s not faithful to Cindy, no doubt to anger people obsessed with continuity. Richard Holliss provided this comic from his collection, which has some colour troubles on one row. The reverse silhouette panel is nice. We get the same “Yogi Bear” sign in the opening panel for three weeks in a row and it’s hanging the same way in this comic as in the one published on the 8th.

I knew it couldn’t last. Yogi didn’t rhyme for two comics but he’s back at it in the March 22nd edition. Broken lines are used for the balloon when the ranger reads to himself. Is that common? The final drawing with the jeep engine in pieces is very admirable.


Back to the native stereotypes in the March 29th cartoon. At least they’re speaking English correctly (okay, the girl is speaking groovy English because it’s 1970). The smoke signal typewriter is ingenious, though, me think-um.



Click on any of the panels to enlarge them.

Yogi Bear Weekend Comics, January 1964

The biggest problem Yogi Bear had in the newspaper comic pages to ring in 1964 may not have been kids, though they seem to have dominated the Sunday pages. It may have been in the editorial room at newspaper offices.

I had four sources of half-page (three rows) of Yogi comics I could pick from for the start of 1963. For the start of 1964, I’m down to one. The other three papers dropped Yogi altogether. Maybe they think it’s winter so he’s hibernating. I don’t have figures about how many papers carried Yogi (or ‘The Flintstones’) at any given time. You’d figure with Yogi going into his own feature film, and his TV series still airing, that papers would have been signing up to run the comic.

(As an aside, it’s a shame the one Hanna-Barbera cartoon begging for a Sunday comic treatment never got one. Can you imagine Doug Wildey drawing a weekend Jonny Quest comic?)

Anyway, let’s get to Yogi and those little “ragged-muffins,” as Super Snooper used to call them. Say, it’s been quite some time since any guest appearances by H-B characters in the Yogi comics, hasn’t it?


Well, Boo Boo’s being awfully crotchety in the January 5th comic, isn’t he? Usually it’s Mr. Ranger who’s Mr. Negative. The top row features the only silhouette drawing this month. Can anyone explain why there’s an orphanage in a national park?


Hey, if a “frozen” gag works once, why not try it again? So that’s what’s happened in the January 12th comic. At least Boo Boo is in a better mood. No doubt Eagle Scout Bill Hanna would approve of the story-line. Feel free to click on the musical arrow below and read the final panel.




Hanna-Barbera was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1976 but, to the best of my knowledge, no H-B cartoon character was immortalised with foot prints outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Coincidentally, that’s the theatre where the recent Yogi Bear movie premiered (the real Yogi film, “Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear” didn’t debut until June 1964). I see Jellystone doesn’t have a “general” in the January 19th comic like it did in newspapers throughout 1963. “Chief” is generic enough to make sense.


Since I was snipping these comics together at 4 in the morning, perhaps that’s why it took me a little while to get the gag in the January 26th comic. Yogi moves the school zone sign to warn people that children are throwing snowballs. Ranger Smith is named “Bill” again.

As usual, click on each comic to enlarge it. I suspect colour versions of the bottom of two rows of each cartoon are, or will be, on Mark Kausler’s blog you see in the list to the right.