Yogi Bear Weekend Comics, October 1966

Yogi goes from outsmarted-than-the-average to smarter-than-the average in the course of the Sunday newspaper comics 50 years ago this month. Each comic is full of the usual excellent drawings and layouts and there’s plenty of little detail.

Richard Holliss was again kind enough to supply coloured tabloid versions from his British collection. The black-and-whites are from a newspaper in upstate New York. One’s unfortunately a little too lightly scanned. (I don’t know about Great Britain, but the Lord’s Day Act in Canada prohibited the publication of newspapers on Sundays. These comics were seen in Canada in Saturday papers. The law was changed some time in the early ‘80s).



Guest appearances by Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw and Yogi Bear highlight the October 2nd comics. For the sake of the groaner in the final frame, I’m willing to buy Boo Boo didn’t see he hadn’t pulled the ball out of the hole. Boo Boo gives us a look like “I can’t believe Ranger Smith said that.” Five characters are in the panel, each with his own logical expression considering the turn of events.


Perhaps the October 9th comic was inspired by the Pebbles birthday party episode of The Flintstones, when long-legged dancing girls jumped out a cake. I’d rather not think about what it’s like crouched inside a piece of cooked meat. How did she fit in the turkey, anyway? (It seems to change size from panel to panel).



Did Iwao Takamoto draw the October 16th comic? Some of the little old ladies bear a resemblance to Granny Sweet, and I believe he was the one who designed her (Granny would be seen on Saturday morning TV by this time in the Precious Pupp cartoons). Ranger Smith doesn’t look too impressed in that final panel). A hopping rabbit makes a cameo appearance in the middle row.



Why is Yogi looking for water? I suppose we really don’t need to know, but that’s what he’s doing on October 23rd. I suppose the newspaper that printed this decided to save money by going to two-tone colouring, although a green rabbit (second row) looks a little odd.



Ah, that ingenious bear is at work in the October 30th comic. The writer sets up Yogi’s thievery as being justified because the guy he’s stealing the picnic basket from is a disrespectful jerk. How’s the bear going to get down from the tree without the couple seeing him?

As usual, you can click on each comic to see a larger version.