[Electricmastro]

Nice to see Croydon’s Merry-Go-Round Comics finally on here. Thanks Yoc!

Link to the book: Merry-Go-Round Comics 01

[Robb_K]

Yet another bit of test-marketing a potential funny animal series.  This "series" is listed as being issued quarterly in the indicia.  But this issue, #1, was the only one to come out.  It is interesting that Croydon/Rural Home hired Al Fago to produce this "series", which was halted after only one issue, whereas they had previously hired Sangor Studio to produce "Laffy Daffy Comics", which ran for only 2 issues, and hired Louis Ferstadt's Studio to produce their "Funland Comics" potential series, which also ran only one issue.  Like Street & Smith, it seems that Croydon wasn't very dedicated to jumping on the Funny Animal bandwagon, giving it just a half-hearted effort.
Quality, Magazine Enterprises, Avon, Fawcett, Timely, Fox, and Robert Farrell(Four Star, Star,Ajax) all were relatively small publishers proved proved them wrong.

[Electricmastro]

Croydon, as well as Rural Home with Luffy-Daffy, aren?t listed as having published after 1946, which leads me to think they essentially went defunct, probably related to Lindsay Baird?s jail time problems.

[Robb_K]

Al Fago drew the cover.  Irv Spector Drew "Simpee Seagull" and "Freddy Finch.  Steve Mufatti drew "Kitty Cat".

Kappy Kangaroo's drawing style looks very familiar to me.  Also that of "Rooney Raccoon".  Do you have any ideas on who drew them?

[Electricmastro]

Al Fago drew the cover.  Irv Spector Drew "Simpee Seagull" and "Freddy Finch.  Steve Mufatti drew "Kitty Cat".

Kappy Kangaroo's drawing style looks very familiar to me.  Also that of "Rooney Raccoon".  Do you have any ideas on who drew them?

Rooney Racoon and Kappy Kangaroo feel like they could have been by a Frisky Fables artist, either by Al Fago or an artist going by his style.

[Robb_K]

Al Fago drew the cover.  Irv Spector Drew "Simpee Seagull" and "Freddy Finch.  Steve Mufatti drew "Kitty Cat".

Kappy Kangaroo's drawing style looks very familiar to me.  Also that of "Rooney Raccoon".  Do you have any ideas on who drew them?

Rooney Racoon and Kappy Kangaroo feel like they could have been by a Frisky Fables artist, either by Al Fago or an artist going by his style.

As far as I understand it, Al Fago had his own studio, with a few other artists working for him (including his brother, Vince, and a handful of others from The New York metro area).  The reason that artwork looks similar to "Frisky Fables" style, is because they worked regularly on Frisky Fables features that Al Fago didn't draw, like "Dipsy Doodle"/"Dopsy Durvy", "Tick, Tack, & Toe", "Bill & Koo", "Pidgy & The Magic Paint", etc.  And I agree, that the artist(s) for those 2 features is likely from his studio.

[Robb_K]

After looking at the credits in a lot of the Frisky Fables' issues from 1945-1947, it seems to me that Al Fago and his own studio artists drew about half the features, and JCA (Jason Comic Artists) drew the other half.  Kappy Kangaroo and Rooney Raccoon look more like Jason's style.

[Electricmastro]

After looking at the credits in a lot of the Frisky Fables' issues from 1945-1947, it seems to me that Al Fago and his own studio artists drew about half the features, and JCA (Jason Comic Artists) drew the other half.  Kappy Kangaroo and Rooney Raccoon look more like Jason's style.

It doesn?t help that JCA pretty much eliminated any potential signatures with their generic JCA one. It?s possible there are artists that did work for them whom didn?t do work for anyone else, but we?d never know about and are lost to history. It would probably take a considerable amount of research and analysis to discover the otherwise unknown artists, but evidently I suppose some feel that?s too big to chew on just for some funny animal art. That said, even I might fall into that mindset as well. Haha.

[Robb_K]

After looking at the credits in a lot of the Frisky Fables' issues from 1945-1947, it seems to me that Al Fago and his own studio artists drew about half the features, and JCA (Jason Comic Artists) drew the other half.  Kappy Kangaroo and Rooney Raccoon look more like Jason's style.

It doesn?t help that JCA pretty much eliminated any potential signatures with their generic JCA one. It?s possible there are artists that did work for them whom didn?t do work for anyone else, but we?d never know about and are lost to history. It would probably take a considerable amount of research and analysis to discover the otherwise unknown artists, but evidently I suppose some feel that?s too big to chew on just for some funny animal art. That said, even I might fall into that mindset as well. Haha.

The only times the public found out that X animator had also worked for Jason is when an artist admitted that "he, himself" had worked for them, or someone who worked there told about other artists who were their colleagues working there.  It's not something an ex animator would brag about, or bring up on his own.  It usually comes up only when an old-time artist is telling a funny story.

I think both Muffatti and Spector were friends of Fago, and he brought them in, rather than their having worked for JCA on that one-off project.  But, I've heard that Marty Taras, Howie Post, Holly Chambers, and others of the young New York artists in those early days of comic books did work, at least a short while for Jason.  Later, they made more money on other jobs, so they left.