But that’s what we see in the Yogi colour comic for the first weekend of May 50 years ago.
I’d love to know what inspired Gene Hazelton or one of his freelance writers to come up with such an odd, one-off idea. It’s a strange comic. The opening panel reads “By Hanna-Barbera” instead of “Hanna-Barbera’s”, then poppies suddenly appear by going “Ping.” (Poppies? Hmmm). The May 1, 1966 comic ends with both Yogi and a centaur being being hauled off to what they euphemistically called a “rest home” back then.
Yogi’s back to his old self in the May 8th comic, and so is the Hanna-Barbera world. Bill Hanna’s beloved Cub Scouts make another über-cute appearance, as does one of those native stereotypes that seems to inhabit the park. Yogi is rhyming again and a bad pun ends the story. Nary a centaur to be spotted.
A nice Yogi tip-toe drawing ends the May 15th comic with a parrot that you just know would sound like Mel Blanc if this were animated. No need for Ranger Smith when you have “Ranger General” (the military rank given rangers is something idiosyncratic to the newspaper comics).
Here’s where the poor scans by whoever put these on-line really hurt. I’d love to get a better view of the drag racer in the May 22nd comic. Excellent work. Mel Blanc would probably drag out his Frito Bandito voice if this story had been animated. Observe Boo Boo with the hand-to-side-of-head laugh in the final panel. This may be the first Hanna-Barbera comic where diarrhoea is a punch-line.
The May 29th comic includes the Cub Scouts again and some Yogi ingenuity. It seems odd for Boo Boo to make fun of Ranger Smith’s pain; the ranger certainly doesn’t appreciate it. This striped scan is the best version I can find.
Click on any of the comics to see them better.
Why not centaurs and centaurettes? After all, the 3 Little Pigs visited Jellystone, and so did Snow White, the Seven Dwarfs, the Prince, and the Wicked Queen. It's not unprecedented for Jellystone visitors to step out of the pages of story books. Notice how the centaurette's hair is tastefully draped to keep things G-rated. And "a hat and tie that actually talked" would probably be a novelty, even for a centaur. While the centaur is visiting Green Acres, he should plan on saying hello to Oliver and Lisa. (At the time of this comic strip, Green Acres was still "the place to be.")
ReplyDeleteKind of like Yogi Bear meets Fractured Fairy Tales.
DeleteThe last strip's one of the few times anyone mentions a "chin strap" when you're having a toothache.... SteveC
ReplyDeleteThese materials were drawn by Iwao Takamoto and Jerry Eisenberg.
ReplyDeleteI scan a lot of my own cartoons and I know how hard it can be to get them right so I totally understand. Better than no scan I always say.
ReplyDeleteI always love to imitate Yogi's voice as I read these. I could almost imagine Dick Beals doing one of the kids' voices.