Animal Antics #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeAnimal Antics #1 is the debut issue of DC's third dedicated funny-animal anthology of the Golden Age, launched in January 1946 alongside stablemates Funny Stuff and Real Screen Comics, and it introduced a roster of original characters — Presto Pete, Sheriff Corky, Eager Beaver, Goofy Goose, Walrus Whopper, and the Raccoon Kids — all in a single 52-page package. The Raccoon Kids, drawn by ex-Fleischer animator Otto Feuer, proved so enduring that they gradually displaced every other feature in the book, eventually lending their name to the entire title in 1954, making this issue the origin point of a character franchise that outlasted the rest of its own debut lineup. The issue also represents DC's post-war confidence in the funny-animal genre as a commercially viable segment of their publishing line, a bet they sustained for nearly a decade across multiple title iterations.
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The book was put on sale January 2, 1946, with a cover date of April 1946, published under DC's 'World's Best Comics Co.' indicia. Whitney Ellsworth held the credited editorial masthead as 'F. W. Ellsworth,' but Bernard Breslauer handled the actual day-to-day editing — a common arrangement at DC during this period where Ellsworth's name served as a senior umbrella credit across the humor line. Artist Otto Feuer, a German-born Cooper Union graduate who had worked at the Fleischer/Famous animation studios through the early 1940s before transitioning to comic book art circa 1943, contributed both the Eager Beaver and the Raccoon Kids stories to this inaugural issue, bringing a fluid, animation-informed draftsmanship that distinguished his pages from typical Golden Age comic fare.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: April 1946; on-sale date: January 2, 1946 — published by DC under the 'World's Best Comics Co.' indicia as a bi-monthly title.
- First appearance of Presto Pete — a magician's rabbit who attempts to learn magic himself through a correspondence course — drawn by Ed Dunn and the lead feature of the book at launch.
- First appearance of Sheriff Corky, Eager Beaver, Goofy Goose, Walrus Whopper, and the Raccoon Kids (Rollo Raccoon, Rudy Raccoon, and Percy Possum), all debuting in this single issue.
- The Raccoon Kids segment was created and drawn by Otto Feuer, a former Fleischer/Famous Studios animator whose cartoon-fluid style would come to define the series' visual identity.
- Additional art in the issue was provided by Rube Grossman (Sheriff Corky, Tortoise and the Hare, Goofy Goose) and Otto Feuer (Eager Beaver, Skooky, Raccoon Kids).
- Credited editor was Whitney Ellsworth (listed as 'F. W. Ellsworth'); the actual working editor was Bernard Breslauer.
- The Raccoon Kids became so popular that they took over as the series' lead feature by issue #6, and the comic was ultimately renamed The Raccoon Kids in 1954, continuing the original numbering.
- The series went through three title identities — Animal Antics (#1–23), Movietown's Animal Antics (#24–51), and The Raccoon Kids (#52–63) — all tracing back to this first issue.
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