Wednesday 3 May 2017

Yogi Bear Weekend Comics, May 1967

Either Ranger Smith is a bigamist, or his wife likes changing her hair colour, or Gene Hazelton and his comic strip artists really didn’t care too much about incidental character design. Whatever the reason, 50 years ago this month Mr. Ranger had a dark-haired wife one week and a blonde one the next.

The weekend newspaper comics of May 1967 also showed the Hanna-Barbera obsession with comic horror characters which began with the J. Evil Scientist clan in 1959 (what irony that The Munsters almost knocked The Flintstones off the air in 1965). In this case, little Rory McDread is a werewolf.

Boo Boo appears in only two of the four comics and really isn’t vital to the story (and he engages in some Yogi-like rhymes in the May 14th comic). Ranger Smith is being a particular jerk in the May 28th comic, concocting an elaborate scheme merely so he can give Yogi a ticket. And what’s a bear supposed to do with a ticket anyway? At least, I think that’s the joke in the story.

The non-color comic of May 21st has some nice angles in the middle row.

The coloured versions were supplied, as usual, from the Richard Holliss collection.


May 7, 1967


May 14, 1967

May 21, 1967


May 28, 1967.

4 comments:

  1. Interesting that Ranger Smith has a family, although did he get remarried in between the last two strips? One wife has dark hair, the other has blonde! (I guess she could have just colored her hair) Love these strips!

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    1. To be fair, it looks like the same character - just different hair colour.

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  2. Ranger Smith seems to be foreshadowing the future life of his future owner. Ted Turner has several girlfriends; he spends time with a different one each week.

    Alternatively, if Ranger Smith can have a different first name each week, there's no certainly no reason why his wife can't have a different hair color every week.

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  3. The Ranger's wife probably uses "Instant Anything."

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