Yes, the writers of the Yogi Sunday comics locked up Ranger Smith’s wife and kid and, instead, gave us woodland creatures and chorus girls. The friend of cartoon fans everywhere, Mark Kausler, has final two rows of each comic for March 1964 in colour on his blog HERE. Below, you can see the full comic in the usual not-too-great scanned photocopies from one of America’s leading metropolitan newspapers.
Boo Boo’s cheek ruffs in the March 1st don’t look like they do in the cartoon series, do they? There’s a silhouette panel and a food-gag punch-line. Interesting seeing the logo in a block in the first panel. I presume the only reason “Moen” was used as a name was to accommodate Yogi’s rhyme.
The star of the March 8th comic is a cutsey-wootsey squirrel who would be beaten up in a Tex Avery cartoon. The opening panel has Yogi trying to fly with both feet together. The final panel has an aerial perspective which is quite appropriate. Ranger Smith gets the weekend off.
The birds that are the focus of the March 15th comic aren’t very cartooney. But the comic works just the same. Another silhouette panel.
Chorus girls doing the Jellystone Twist. Is that the highlight of the March 22nd comic? It’d be funny if the tall, light-haired guy from the resort in the middle row was a caricature of someone at Hanna-Barbera. He reminds me a bit of John Stephenson. The first panel’s great with its lit-up marquee and the casino with the horseshoe on top. Did the Horseshoe Casino in Vegas have one of those, circa 1964? The ranger’s being a jerk again until Yogi is literally in the chips.
After being absent for a couple of weeks, Boo Boo is back on March 29th in a comic that has another food gag. There’s another silhouette panel, too.
As usual, you can click on each cartoon to blow it up.
P.S.: I wasn’t planning to do the Flintstones comics this month because all my sources for them dried up. However, I’ve found some of the comics so I’ll post them.
I'm guessing the Horseshoe didn't acquire a lot of repeat business with that diving board spanning over the blacktop. At least one could ogle the scantily clad showgirls while waiting for the paramedics to arrive.
ReplyDeleteA flying squirrel who's "depressed and bored", and considers his daily activities "stupid". Gee, that wouldn't happen to be a subtle swipe against a competitor's cartoon show, would it? No, no, it's all just for the closing gag. ;)
You know, TC, the words "flying squirrel" instantly bring up the obvious word association. I don't think it's a swipe at Rocky reruns. Why would a comic strip bother unless they're doing an out-and-out parody?
ReplyDeleteOh, I agree-that was my attempt at a joke. Knowing the animosity the Ward studio had towards H-B, I thought it was fun to imagine the strip's author(s) firing back a few jabs at the opposition.
DeleteAll these materials were drawn by Harvey Eisenberg.
ReplyDelete