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| Thank you for the awesome upload, Los Pollos Hermanos! With 100 pages of a book titled, "Christmas Frolics", you'd think that, at least, there'd be a few Christmas-themed stories. Too bad Ajax-Farrell left Christmas after the front cover! Still a cool little book to zip through, though. |
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| Robert Farrell, in his 20 years in the comic book publishing business, never put much emphasis on Funny Animal Comics, as compared to Action, Combat, Western, Romance, Superhero, and Horror comics. When this Giant Holiday comic book was issued in late 1952, Farrell had no solely-owned Funny Animal series, only a partial interest in Star Publishing, which had a quarterly Frisky Animals series, and also a quarterly holiday-themed series, Fun Comics. So, he not only didn't have his own funny animal artist(s) on staff, but, he didn't even have a regular working relationship with any animation-trained funny animal artists by this time. Back in 1945, he had partnered with The Fago Brothers (Al and Vince) to produce a funny animal series titled Kiddie Kapers. But, they had a falling out, over differing ideas of how they should operate, producing only 2 (or possibly 3) issues, only one of which was published. Then, in early 1946, Farrell tried funny animals again, starting his Four Star Publishing's Hi-Ho Comics, hiring freelance artist, Ellis "Holly" Chambers. But Chambers was unreliable, - habitually late for production deadlines. THAT, and the fact that the books didn't sell much, made that series stop after only 3 issues. Farrell's next flirtation with funny animals was in spring 1947, with a one-shot funny animal/children-oriented 36-page comic book titled Daffy Tunes. Clearly, based on the number of pages, and the page format, layout and style, it was made up of stories originally drawn for the Kiddie Kapers series (for the 2nd or 3rd planned issue). So, knowing that Farrell never had funny animal artists in house, and knowing how Farrell had so little faith in funny animal books' sales, it is understandable why none of the stories in this book were Christmas-related. The first half of this book was made up of new stories starring a new character, Billy Bunny, who would, a little over a year later, in early 1954, star in his own Farrell publications bi-monthly series, as well as several stories starring other funny animals, which would be the filler stories in the Billy Bunny books. The 2nd half of the book was filled with stories reprinted from Holly Chambers' Hi-Ho Comics. Billy Bunny, chosen by Farrell to have his own series (ostensibly, to take advantage of Bugs Bunny's popularity by piggy-backing on Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes and Bugs Bunny comic books. The start of the planned Billy Bunny series seems to have been delayed several months starting in 1954. And due to weak sales, it only lasted 4 issues. The character was partially a carryover from the Holly Chambers-invented character, Bodkins Bunny, in Hi-Ho's Medieval Times set, Daffy Dragon series. |
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| Additional Information |
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| Publication | 1952 | Price: 0.25 US | Pages: 1 |
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| Featuring | Billy Bunny |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Featuring | Billy Bunny |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Featuring | Billy Bunny |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Activity | Billy Bunny's Puzzle Page (1 page) |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Comic Story | Actress (6 pages) |
| Featuring | Doris Duck |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Text Story | Smelly Skunk (2 pages) |
| Credits | Pencils:? (illustration) | Inks:? (illustration) | Letters: typeset |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Comic Story | Take It Easy (4 pages) |
| Featuring | Brewster Bruin |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Comic Story | Bunny Express (3 pages) |
| Featuring | Billy Bunny |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Activity | Billy Bunny's Puzzle Page (1 page) |
| Featuring | Billy Bunny |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Comic Story | Duel (6 pages) |
| Featuring | Pancho Pig |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Featuring | Billy Bunny |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Featuring | Lil Chief Hot Shot |
| Content | Genre: Humor |
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| Comic Story | A Hunting We Will Go (6 pages) |
| Featuring | Eddie Elephant |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Comic Story | Monkeyshines (6 pages) |
| Featuring | Jocko and Junior |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Text Story | Adventure in Hi-Hoville (2 pages) |
| Credits | Letters: typeset |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Featuring | Daffy Dragon |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Featuring | Kitty and Bob the Hep Catts |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Featuring | Major Mutt and Private Pupp |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Featuring | Lil Chief Hot-Shot |
| Content | Genre: Humor |
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| The data in the additional content section is courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under a
Creative Commons Attribution License.
More details about this comic may be available in their page here |
