Yogi Bear Weekend Comics, February 1965

A guest appearance by Quick Draw McGraw highlights the Yogi Bear Sunday comics from 50 years ago this month.

I’ve come to the conclusion I’m in the minority. I like it when one of the Kellogg’s gang drops in once in a while on another one of the Kellogg’s gang; it probably stems from watching the shows years ago and all the Quick Draw characters would interact between the cartoons. And it’s okay for Huckleberry Hound to periodically meet with, say, Augie Doggie. I’ll even accept Top Cat; the designs have a similarity so aesthetically, it doesn’t look odd. But I’m not a fan of piles of characters constantly mingling with each other, merely for the artificial reason they’re made by the same studio. Maybe it’s because I didn’t grow up with Ark Larks and Galaxy Goof-ups and that sort of thing. But I don’t see why, say, Speed Buggy has any business being driven by the Hillbilly Bears in a race with the Jetson’s space car. But today you have a DC “Universe” and a Marvel “Universe,” so I guess fans want a Hanna-Barbera “Universe.” Count me as old-fashioned. I enjoy guest shots (when they make sense), but that’s about as far as I’ll go.

(I write this knowing full well there’s a guest contingent in March 1965)

So, let’s get to the comics. This post was written several months ago so I am assuming Mark Kausler has taken the time to post full-colour versions of these (bottom two rows only) from his childhood collection. Please see them HERE. You’ll appreciate the artwork more when you can see it better than you can here.


Overly cute kid? Endless rhymes? Talk like a stereotype? You betch-um, heap-big reader. It’s all here in the February 7th comic. I do like the fact the chief is watching a TV western.


Admirably designed merry-go-round in the February 14th comic. The refreshment stand sign in the opening panel is great; I’ll bet it looks better in full colour. This is Ranger Smith’s only appearance of the month. Kids missed it if their local paper only ran the bottom two rows (like the majority did, it seems). Does anyone think George has Daws Butler’s Henry Orbit voice?


Quick Draw appears in the February 21st comic. Somehow, I can picture the old western town with false-front stores not being far from Jellystone; I’m sure you can find the same sort of old town/park pairings in Colorado, Wyoming or even eastern British Columbia. Last week, there were a bunch of incidental characters. This week, only the two main characters. A couple of silhouette panels. Nice lettering as Quick Draw fires.


Boo Boo’s only appearance is on February 28th, along with atypical cutesy little animals. The van’s drawn at several different angles. It’s a modern looking vehicle, just like Quick Draw’s jeep the week before. The park drawings are very nice, especially the opening panel with its different depths. I wonder how Charlie Crow is going to pay for the gas. The park drawings are very nice. There’s actually a line where Yogi doesn’t rhyme.

Click on any comic to make it larger.