The Grand Comics Database has no guesses for the writer or artist for “The Magic Ogre,” from Ha Ha Comics #29 (1946), but it is the same team that created the second story, “Stalwart Swinburne,” from Ha Ha #33 (1946): writer Hubie Karp and artist Al Hubbard. Hubert Karp and Allan Hubbard both worked for the Sangor Studio, which produced comics drawn by moonlighting animators, and were published by the company that became ACG. Hubie’s brother, Lynn, was an artist for Ha Ha and Giggle Comics, and said that besides his comic book work Hubie wrote jokes for Bob Hope and Martin and Lewis.
Al Hubbard went on to draw other features; he took over the Peter Wheat giveaway comics from Walt Kelly, and later he drew “Mary Jane and Sniffles” stories for Dell Comics’ licensed comics based on Warner Bros cartoon characters.
3 comments:
The second story reminded me of “Cowboy X”, narrated by Jean Shepherd for Sesame Street.
But, mostly, I felt sorry for the pigs in these two stories, and I wondered how livestock such as goats came to be promoted to farmers. I'm rather fond of goats, but pigs seem to be typically more intelligent.
One of my friends, Charles Kaufman, used to be a gag writer for Bob Hope. I'd guess that Kaufman's time didn't overlap Karp's, but I'll ask.
That art is gorgeous. The pigs on the last panel of the first page are super expressive, as everything else. The jokes were OK, in a sort of Droopy-Dog type lift, but the art, wow, it's really clean and reads very well. I just marveled at the art more than I read it!
Charles tells me that his time writing for Hope did not overlap that of Karp. If course, since Hope was performing for so many decades, there's no surprise, only a mild disappointment.
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