Marmaduke Mouse #55

Marmaduke Mouse is all business on this November 1955 cover from Quality Comics, winding up with a baseball bat as a battered ball goes spinning off in a cloud of smoke — the little guy swings with a confidence that fills the entire frame. Ellis Chambers draws our hero with irresistible cartoon energy, red shoes planted and gloves gripping tight against a sunny yellow backdrop with a quiet countryside fence and cottage behind him. It's a cheerful, lighthearted slice of mid-fifties funny-animal fun that captures exactly what made this series such a pleasant ten-cent treat.