Number 1036
The singing cowbunny
My friend, Eddie, has asked me a couple of times if I remember a Golden Age rabbit cowboy. Eddie, I believe the character you remember is "Red" Rabbit, who starred in his own comic book from 1947 to 1951.
"Red" Rabbit Comics was published by Dearfield Publishing Company of Chicago. According to the Grand Comics Database this publisher had a total of 44 issues of five different titles, and "Red" Rabbit accounted for half their output, with 22 issues. Since #5 is the only issue I've seen I can't say if animator and comic book artist Harvey Eisenberg created the look of the character, but he drew the contents of #5 (the GCD is sparse on information relating to this title). Eisenberg went on to draw Tom and Jerry, among other features in a prolific career with Dell Comics.
I've featured Eisenberg's work before, in Pappy's #397 and Pappy's #494.
Pappy: This is some fascinating Eisenberg! Unlike any I've seen, but I love it! You can really see why, a bit later in his career, he was called the Carl Barks of Hanna-Barera.
ReplyDeleteI think Red is the one! Thanks Pappy!
ReplyDeleteDearfield Publishing was owned by Joe Barbera (of Hannah-Barbera animation fame). He teamed up with Harvey Eisneberg while the two were working at MGM studio on the Tom and Jerry shorts. Most likely the script by Joe (the use of a narrator is a clue as many early H-B shorts had this feature.)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bob, for that background on Joe Barbera owning Dearfield. Knock me over with a feather!
ReplyDeleteThanks, also, Mykal, for your comment. (You can see Mykal's blog, "Big Blog of Kids' Comics", here.
Eddie, in the years I've done Pappy's I've had dozens--maybe hundreds--of requests to track down individual comic books, characters, or stories. Yours is the first question I've ever been able to satisfactorily answer. Shows how much of an "expert" I really am, eh?
Where can I find the issues 13 to 22 to read online?
ReplyDelete