When I started researching this topic, I thought I would include every animal star I could think of from Lockjaw to Devil Dinosaur to Mickey Mouse to Captain Carrot. But I quickly found that I had plenty for us to focus on just looking at RABBITS and DUCKS! Holy cow, you would not believe how many books there are starring the various bunnies and fowl!
So let's begin a $1 Challenge - four books for your imaginary dollar! Today we have a lot of books from the Golden Age of comics, but the trend definitely continues to modern day. It seems ducks and rabbits must have captured our imagination as they are everywhere. We have super-hero animals, funny animals, adventurous animals, and satirical animals. I am willing to bet there are many you have never heard of before today. While Bugs, Daffy, Donald, and Howard will be very recognizable. Rags, Dippy, and Dopey may be less known. I've also stretched the definition of the animal in a couple of instances, but it all fits the theme!
Take a gander and share your picks and pans!
7 comments:
Ok, I'd get. . .
Oswald the Rabbit. . . my grandfather used to tease me and call me that, because he remembered seeing shorts featuring the character in the 1920s.
Destroyer Duck. . . Jack Kirby and Steve Gerber sticking it to Marvel? SIGN ME UP!
Dinky Duck and Hashimoto-San. . . I know nothing about this comic, but the two racial caricatures on the cover require me to get this and look into it as a point of research into race and comics.
Star Wars. . . because no matter what anyone says, a big green wise-crackin' rabbit fits right in.
Dr. O, I am curious about that Dinky Duck comic too. Both characters were from Terry Toons running cartoons from the 30s to the 50s. From what I understand Dinky was usually depicted as an orphan looking for a home and the hero of the barnyard. But I’ve never seen the cartoons or read any of the comics. I think this is a one-off from Gold Key though Dinky had a Terry Toons comic series previously (that I did not share a cover from). I’d like to know what you find about the racial depictions.
I’m also curious about that Dopey Duck cover - clearly it rips off Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudds relationship - seemingly melding Elmer and Daffy.
I want the Bugs Bunny Specials from the early 50s / late 40s for a couple reason!
1) The rabbits are targeting my tulips at the moment in the garden and I am hopeful to see them catch a ration of grief in said comics!
2) I actually own the ones you show and got them 10 / $1.00 at a lead market in Gary, IN around 1974. It would be easier to buy them off the spinner for a re-read than to dig them out of the long boxes, LOL.
Nice blog Red! I really enjoy the non-marvel/DC superhero treats!
Oh god, the green Star Wars rabbit ... what was his name, Jaxxon? I read somewhere they're supposedly making him canon soon ...
Not much that impresses me here; I'd probably go with Captain Carrot, Howard, that Spectacular Spidey with White Rabbit (was that a DeMatteis story? He seemed to like White Rabbit as a comedy relief character), and maybe one of the Bugs Bunnys for nostalgia's sake.
O.k., I'll go with Lucky Duck, because of that black-humor cover, Bunny ("The Queen of the In-Crowd"), because the cover's so groovy, Star Wars, because I agree with Osvaldo that Jaxxon is awesome, and the Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck giant, because there's bound to be some Carl Barks goodness therein.
By the way, I used to have the whole run of Destroyer Duck and honestly found it a bit disappointing.
As a young kid, I had a hard time accepting the translations of cartoon characters to comic books. For instance, I loved Bugs Bunny cartoons, but never seemed to enjoy his comic book stories. On the other hand, I loved the Carl Barks ducks, but was always frustrated by the slapstick nature of the duck cartoons. I think I just wanted Donald to win over his nephews and the chipmunks.
I enjoyed all the Gerber Howard the Duck comics. I don't think I liked knowing 'the parents were fighting' so didn't really like the Kirby Destroyer Ducks as much as I should've.
First of all, Dinky Duck is not a "racist" character - that's simply an odd rendering that makes his beak resemble lips.
I'd like to add a few characters that were overlooked, if you don't mind-
www.comics.org/issue/173417/cover/4
www.comics.org/issue/4854/cover/4
www.comics.org/issue/299829/cover/4
www.comics.org/issue/16687/cover/4
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