The Professor

The Professor is a deadpan, bookish funny-animal character from DC's Golden Age humor comics, serving as a dignified straight-man figure whose scholarly demeanor made him a natural anchor for gag strips alongside characters like Nutsy Squirrel.

Dreamed up by Rube Grossman and introduced in DC's Funny Folks #15 in 1948, The Professor is a charming relic of the Golden Age funny-animal tradition — the kind of deadpan, bookish figure who could anchor a gag strip with equal parts dignity and absurdity. Active through the late 1950s, this character carved out a steady niche across DC's humor titles, appearing in Funny Folks, Hollywood Funny Folks, and most prominently Nutsy Squirrel, sharing those cheerfully chaotic pages with the likes of Nutsy Squirrel, Doodles Duck, and Robert Rabbit. With 32 catalogued appearances and at least one recognized key issue to their name, The Professor is a rewarding find for collectors who love digging into the warm, wonderfully weird corners of postwar American comics.