IT GATHERS BUNNIES.
IT IS COMING FOR YOUR BUNNIES.
GIVE YOUR BUNNIES TO IT.
THERE IS NO ESCAPE.
In linking to my Spunky the Monkey post from yesterday, Dirk Deppey does the leg work I didn’t and points out that the 1946 date of Adventures of Patoruzu reprint doesn’t match up with the 1950 date for the story’s appearance in Animal Crackers. In fact, reading the contents of Animal Crackers #31 on Comics.org reveals that this entire issue comprises the Adventures of Patoruzu reprint comic that I own.
My best guess as to what happened:
1. An article on this site mentions that, in the mid-1940s, there was an effort to introduce Patoruzu, an Argentinian comic character, into foreign markets, including English-speaking countries like the U.S.
2. As part of this U.S. push, an English Patoruzu comic was put into production, and covers (dated “Winter 1946”) were printed.
3. Since, as far as I’ve been able to determine, no U.S. version of Adventures of Patoruzu actually containing Patoruzu stories was published, the covers remained unused and were stored away.
4. A few years later, sometime after 1950, for whatever reason a comic publisher ended up with both the unused covers and a whole bunch of coverless Animal Crackers #31s, paired ’em up and unleashed them upon unsuspecting newsstands.
Now, the Green Publishing Company is credited by Overstreet with publishing that Adventures of Patoruzu comic, even though there’s no indication in the comic itself. Green Publishing also produced the initial two issues of Animal Crackers in 1946. The next issue of Animal Crackers was the #31 in question, published by Fox Features, in 1950. (There were at least two more issues, a #9 in 1959 published by Norlen (also in my collection), and another unnumbered issue with no noted publisher from the 1950s.)
This site indicates that Green Publishing often republished material from other companies, and since Fox Features was gone by the early to mid-1950s, and Green was around at least ’til the late 1950s (as per this article about Cosmo Cat), it looks like it was indeed Green what did the deed, pairing the unused covers with a bunch of leftover coverless copies of Animal Crackers #31 that they obtained from Fox.
At least, that’s my best guess. If anyone else knows a little bit more and would care to smooth out the edges of my crackpot theory, please do.
You can also read more about Fox Features courtesy Toonopedia.
In other news:
Sure, I’ve mentioned Spunky the Monkey before, but aside from a few tantalizing panels, I haven’t really given you full Spunky exposure. So, here’s a story from an issue of Animal Crackers, as reprinted in 1946’s The Adventures of Patoruzu (discussed previously).
Enjoy, won’t you?
3-4
5-6
Kokey had one issue of his own comic in the U.S. in 1952, and also had an ongoing series in Australia (a sample of which you can see here). A quick Googling reveals a handful of mentions of Kokey in articles about Australian comics, so maybe he’s not totally forgotten (like, say, Spunky the Monkey).
starring…
Satch (?)
Rufus
Drooley
and (best of all) Spunky the Monkey!
However, there is no Patoruzu to be found, aside from the cover.
The Adventures of Patoruzu contained reprints from Animal Crackers, one of your standard-issue low-rent funny animal comics from the Golden Age. While “Spunky the Monkey” stands out as a pretty good feature, and “Rufus” isn’t terrible, “Satch” and especially “Drooley” are not exactly professionally done.
The Patoruzu reprint is pretty badly put together as well…the reason I’m not 100% on Satch’s name is because the first page of the story doesn’t appear in the comic. To make matters worse, the last page of the comic book is blank on both sides…it doesn’t appear to be a misprint, as the last story is complete, so they could have easily fit the whole “Satch” story into the book.
Ah, well, too late to complain about it now!
EDIT: According to the Grand Comics Database entry, it’s likely the covers for this comic may have been printed earlier, then used years later for otherwise unreleased or (in some cases) repackaged comics.
