Introduction

Here is the second volume of my magnum opus, in which you will find a myriad of funny creatures, many of which perhaps you did not know they existed, so obscure they are and so short their lifespan was. It is precisely writing about these forgotten characters that I had the most fun, as I myself discovered a whole world I little knew about.

True, in the first few chapters you will find some of your favorite characters, as these chapters concentrate on more funny animal comics from celebrated animation studios. Yet I wanted to devote a specific chapter to super-funny animals, as I think that they make up a category of their own. Chapter seven, which I have appropriately titled "All Aboard!", deals with the funny animal strips produced between 1937 and 1964 by as many as 57 different publishers, some well-known (if not for funny animal comics), others virtually unknown and short-lived. You will here discover (as I did) a myriad of unsung anthropomorphic creatures whose adventures may often appear naïve to our savvy eyes, although some of them seem to have kept their charms intact after all these years. Even more importantly, delving into these obscure comic titles will allow you to find out that artists later well-known for their funny-animal feats had first tackled this genre several years before. This is the case with Phil de Lara, a Warner Bros. animator who drew several nice features for such publisher as Harvey and Magazine Enterprises before becoming a prominent artists at Dell/Western/Gold Key. Along the way you will also meet such journeymen artists as Ellis Chambers, who seems to have worked for most funny-animal comic book publishers during the 1940s and early 1950s.

Once again, my main aim has been to highlight the creators rather than the characters, which of course does not mean that you will not find specific and detailed information about the latter ones—those which appeared in comic books, newspaper strips, or both. What is important is that you enjoy this happy ride as much as I did as I wrote about all of these colorful creatures. All aboard!