Flippity & Flop #3

History

The Flippity and Flop series launched with a December 1951/January 1952 cover date as a bi-monthly title published by National Comics Publications under editor Larry Nadle — whose brother, Golden Age artist Martin Naydel, contributed art to the series, including stories in issue #3. The characters originated as a Screen Gems theatrical cartoon duo (a canary named Flippy and a cat named Flop) that had appeared in only four shorts before Screen Gems was replaced; DC licensed them, renamed the canary Flippity, and built a comic series around them alongside original backup characters. Most of the Flippity and Flop stories throughout the run were drawn by west coast animator Jim Davis (not the Garfield creator), with Ira Schnapp serving as the primary story letterer and scripting attributed to the husband-and-wife writing team of Alpine Harper and Cecil Beard.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published in 1952 as the third issue of the bi-monthly Flippity & Flop series (DC/National Comics Publications), which ran for 47 issues from December 1951 to November 1960.
• Features the core cast of Flippity (yellow canary), Flop (black-and-white cat), and Sam (the household dog) — characters originating in Screen Gems theatrical shorts for Columbia Pictures (1945–1947).
• Includes a Buzzy Brown backup story titled 'Buzzy Says Be Sure of Your Facts!' in which Buzzy teaches a group of teens not to jump to conclusions — a crossover appearance of DC's own long-running teen humor character, who had debuted in All Funny Comics #1 (1943) and headlined his own series from 1944 to 1958.
• The Flippity/Flop/Sam story in this issue was reprinted in The Best of DC (DC digest series) #43, cover-dated December 1983.
• Art on the Flippity/Flop/Sam story is credited to Martin Naydel, a Golden Age artist who was the brother of series editor Larry Nadle.
• The series was a licensed property tied to the Columbia/Screen Gems franchise; the characters had appeared in only four animated shorts before the studio was replaced by United Productions of America in 1948, making the DC comic their primary ongoing medium.
• Ira Schnapp — DC's iconic staff letterer — served as the main story letterer for the title across its run, handling roughly two-thirds of all page lettering.
• Writing on the Flippity and Flop strips was led by Alpine Harper, while Cecil Beard handled the Twiddle & Twaddle mouse backup strips; the two were a husband-and-wife team who often collaborated across both features.

Cast · 4 characters

Full credits

Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers