New Funnies #79
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeNew Funnies #79 marks the comic-book debut of Charlie Chicken, the anthropomorphic rooster who would become Andy Panda's permanent sidekick and one of the longest-running supporting characters in Dell's stable of Walter Lantz properties. The issue introduced a partnership — Andy hatching Charlie from an egg — that defined the Andy Panda comic-book feature for the remainder of its decades-long run, eventually reaching readers in Mexico through El Pajaro Loco as late as 2010. It also represents a pivotal moment in the gradual evolution of New Funnies from a broad multi-licensor anthology into a title increasingly shaped by the Lantz universe, a transition that culminated when the series was formally retitled Walter Lantz New Funnies at issue #109. As a wartime children's comic, it reflects Dell's distinctly wholesome approach to licensed animation properties at a moment when the medium was still finding its identity.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
New Funnies was itself a retitled continuation of The Funnies, a Dell anthology that had begun in 1936 with adventure strips and hero features; by issue #65 (July 1942) it had been reformatted around children's licensed characters including Walter Lantz's Andy Panda, Oswald the Rabbit, and Woody Woodpecker, alongside Raggedy Ann, Felix the Cat, and others. The Raggedy Ann stories running through this era were scripted by Gaylord DuBois and illustrated by L. Bing and George Kerr, while DuBois also contributed Andy Panda scripts — his involvement documented in Michael Barrier's book Funnybooks. Charlie Chicken's comic incarnation was directly inspired by the unnamed rooster antagonist who appeared in two 1943 Lantz theatrical shorts, Andy Panda's Victory Garden and Meatless Tuesday, making issue #79 the bridge between the animation and comics arms of the Lantz operation. The specific interior art credits for this individual issue remain unconfirmed in publicly available databases.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published September 1943 by Dell Publishing Co., 68 pages, full color.
- First comic-book appearance of Charlie Chicken: the character is literally hatched by Andy Panda from an egg in this issue, establishing the duo's origin story.
- Charlie Chicken was adapted from an unnamed rooster antagonist who appeared in two 1943 Walter Lantz theatrical cartoon shorts, Andy Panda's Victory Garden and Meatless Tuesday.
- The Andy Panda design in this issue reflected the character's contemporary on-screen appearance in Meatless Tuesday, signaling a deliberate alignment of the comic with the current animated model.
- The Andy Panda–Charlie Chicken partnership that debuted here ran continuously in Dell comics for years; their stories were reprinted domestically as recently as the 1990s and in Sweden as recently as 2001.
- Andy Panda and Charlie Chicken also appeared together in the Mexican comic El Pajaro Loco, published by Editorial Novaro from 1950 to 1984 and Editorial Vid from 1986 to 2010.
- The issue appeared during the run of New Funnies (#65–108) when the anthology still featured multiple licensors — including Raggedy Ann (written by Gaylord DuBois), Felix the Cat, and Oswald the Rabbit — alongside the Lantz characters.
- The series in which this issue appeared was later retitled Walter Lantz New Funnies beginning with issue #109 (March 1946), by which point Lantz characters had effectively taken over the book.
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