Baby Huey, the Baby Giant #7

History

Baby Huey was created by animator Martin Taras for Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios, where the character first appeared on film in the 1950 Noveltoon short 'Quack-a-Doodle-Doo' — though his comic-book debut actually predated that, in Casper the Friendly Ghost #1 (St. John Publications, September 1949). Around October 1951, Famous Studios arranged a licensing deal with Harvey Comics to publish stories featuring Huey and other Famous characters beginning in April 1952. Taras personally asserted his authorship of the character when he moved over to draw for Harvey, and the publisher agreed, making him the regular penciler of the Baby Huey comic stories throughout the 1950s — though he relied on other Famous staffers for writing and inking duties. Harvey did not own the characters outright until purchasing the rights to all of Famous' original creations in 1959, meaning issue #7 was still produced under the earlier licensing arrangement.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published September 1957 by Harvey Comics as the seventh issue of the series that launched in September 1956 — the first comic title to bear Baby Huey's name.
• Stories and art credited to Marty Taras and others; Taras was the character's creator and primary penciler throughout the 1950s Harvey run.
• Issue contains multiple Baby Huey lead stories including 'Playmates,' 'Birds of a Feather,' 'The Weakling,' 'One Hens Family,' and 'The White Sheep,' plus a Herman and Katnip backup story, 'Food for Thought.'
• The cover depicts Baby Huey reinflating a tire for Papa — a gag built entirely on Huey's uncontrollable super-strength, the defining comic engine of every story in the series.
• Herman and Katnip appear as a recurring backup feature, a cross-title habit that reflected Harvey's practice of building a shared 'family' of Paramount-licensed characters across its humor books.
• Baby Huey was originally created for Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios animation division; Harvey Comics published the character under a licensing arrangement with Famous Studios dating from 1952, and did not acquire outright ownership of the character until 1959.
• The Baby Huey, the Baby Giant series ran for 101 issues across its original volume (1956–1990), with a second volume of nine issues following from 1991–1994.
• The character went on to spawn two spin-off titles: Baby Huey and Papa (1962–1968) and Baby Huey in Duckland (1962–1966), both of which grew directly from the audience built by this flagship title.