[The Australian Panther]

That's a good question. I didn't know so went and looked for an answer. Here it is, 'Like many cartoonists, Capp made extensive use of assistants (notably Andy Amato, Harvey Curtis, Walter Johnson and Frank Frazetta). During the extended peak of the strip, the workload grew to include advertising, merchandising, promotional work, public service comics and other specialty work—in addition to the regular six dailies and one Sunday strip per week. From the early 1940s to the late 1950s, there were scores of Sunday strip-style magazine ads for Cream of Wheat using the Abner characters, and in the 1950s, Fearless Fosdick became a spokesman for Wildroot Cream-Oil hair tonic in a series of daily strip-style print ads. The characters also sold chainsaws, underwear, ties, detergent, candy, soft drinks—including a licensed version of Capp's moonshine creation, Kickapoo Joy Juice—and General Electric and Procter & Gamble products, all requiring special artwork. '
https://www.revolvy.com/page/Al-Capp
And we think STAR WARS started the merchandising frenzy!
GCD doesn't list an artist. I'd like to know who it was, its not bad work.

Link to the book: Operation Survival (1957)

[positronic1]

Which leads to the follow-up question: Was "Graphic Information Services Inc." just a name for Al Capp's "shop"
producing work for commercial clients? Advertising clients and U.S. Government commissions were some of the most lucrative work you could get for comics. Both Will Eisner and the team of Neal Adams & Dick Giordano were famous for their commercial client work. While I was certainly aware of Al Capp's propensity for exploiting his characters as advertising spokesmodels, here the connection is distinctly subdued. Li'l Abner's appearance on the cover seems literally 'tacked-on', almost as an afterthought.

A good comparison for difference in approach to a U.S. Government-commissioned project is Harvey Comics' DAGWOOD SPLITS THE ATOM one-shot. Rather than just being utilized as a presenter or host, Dagwood, Blondie, and the rest of the Bumstead family take an active role as participants in the story, and Mandrake the Magician is heavily featured as well. Many other KFS characters like Popeye, Olive Oyl & Wimpy, the Katzenjammer Kids, Jiggs & Maggie, the Little King, etc. appear in more minor cameos.