Just a few Odds and Ends on the two series I've picked up in my efforts at research the past month or so, including some pure guesswork. It gets stuck here since I don't have a blog, although one of these days I am going to try and write a real article on Peter Wheat and get it posted or published somewhere.
Del Connell wrote the series when Kelly left. According to Who's Who, he wrote both Adventures and News through 1956.
Peter Wheat News ran to at least issue 61. At this point finding out it ran to issue 111 wouldn't surprise me. 112 would, though- 111 assumes a monthly run up to when adventures ended.
Based on the VERY limited number of covers I've seen, it seems possible that Peter Wheat News was not distributed by everybody who distributed Adventures. I've only seen Sterling and Krug issues of Peter Wheat News. Also, based on the two issues I have, it seems possible that different bakeries had different page two's in their editions of the news. Krug was in the New York/ New Jersey area, at least.
Known bakeries include Krug, Sterling, Rice's, Donaldson, Friedrichs', and the Kitchen Fresh Bakery in Long Beach, California. Which means the book was distributed on both coasts, if not nationwide. The last one listed may be a stamp rather than actual printing, I can't tell from the scan I've seen. I've also seen copies without any bakery listed. (Adventures 55 has an unusual logo and neither of the two cover scans I've seen has the bakery on the front. My copy does name the bakery on the back cover, the only issue I've seen that has anything other than the top of the front cover personalized.)
Adventure had a very eclectic publishing schedule once Kelly left. Up through issue 33 appears to be monthly, with issue 33 being late 1950. Issue 44 is copyright 1952. I THINK issue 47 is as well, but the printing on my copy is very blurry and it might be 1953. Issues 55 and 57 are 1955, issues 58-63 are 1956, issue 64 is 1957. In any case, it seems that Adventures dropped to at best bi-monthly when Kelly left, and possibly as little as quarterly if not actually suspended for a bit. It's possible that spaces were taken up by the other promo items.
Known Promo items: We have the coloring book. Overstreet lists an Artist's Workbook in 1954, A four-in-one fun pack (vol. 2) in 1954, and a fun book in 1952. The fun pack we have a couple of pages from is marked vol 1. Fort Mudge Most mentions a Puzzle Book. (The images of the fun and puzzle book I found are both low quality, but the PW image on the puzzle book looks like Hubbard while the fun book might be Kelly. If it is Kelly it's from that early batch of stock art that I'm still not sure if Kelly drew or not.)
I'm not sure if Kelly drew the stock art of Peter Wheat we see in the ads.
At least in the 184 pages of story I've seen in reprint or original, Kelly never drew Peter with that silly Wheat hat.
Anybody have anything to add to that that I've missed?
Amusing side note: The Walt Kelly entry on Wikipedia now has a link to a blog that posted my scan of 19. Which is neat on one level, but I really wish it had been any other issue, since my copy of 19 is badly damaged on the covers.
