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.

Number 494


The Wolf of Cave Canyon


Dell Comics, like the movies, licensed established characters and then did whatever the hell they wanted with them. It's why in this story Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd are not ventriloquist dummies sitting on Edgar Bergen's knees, but up and walking around like the British movie, Dead of Night, and its countless imitators.

Dell also had a habit of using the same motifs, crossing over standard themes. "The Wolf of Cave Canyon," could have featured Porky Pig and nephew Cicero, or Andy Panda and Charlie Chicken, or any number of other characters. It's probably because the same writers wrote much of the material for many comics.

For all that, Charlie McCarthy #9, from 1952, is pretty entertaining. It's made better by the artwork of Harvey Eisenberg, and as clichéd as the Western setting and plot are, I still like it. So sue me. Sometimes we old-timers, jaded by reading thousands of comics with every possible theme, plot and setting, forget what it was like to be seven or eight years old, wearing a cowboy hat and boots, our six-shooters holstered on our hips, reading a story set in the Wild West of someone's imagination.

Another adventure of Charlie McCarthy is featured in Magic Carpet Burn here.

Number 397

Harvey Eisenberg's Two Mouseketeers


Yesterday Hairy Green Eyeball showed you a 1953 kid's book with artwork by animator/cartoonist Harvey Eisenberg. The Eyeball showed a Little Golden Book-style adventure of Beany and Cecil. My choice is this beautiful example of his comic book work from The Two Mouseketeers, Four Color Comics #475, with a date of June 1953.

When I think of Eisenberg I think of his great composition from panel to panel and page to page, but also his action-filled artwork. His characters run low to the ground, and they always seem to be in some sort of motion. As a sort of signature of his work Eisenberg used occasional silhouettes, see page 1 of the story.

Eisenberg died way too young in 1965 at age 53.