Our Gang with Tom & Jerry #46
Our Gang with Tom & Jerry #46 is a representative snapshot of Dell's mid-1948 anthology formula at its most populated, packing nine distinct strip features — including Tom, Jerry, Tuffy, Barney Bear, Benny Burro, and the cantankerous Mooseface McElk — into a single 48-page package. The issue is editorially significant as the launch point of Walt Kelly's multi-part 'Treasure Island Treasure Map' serial for the Our Gang feature, an unusually ambitious long-form narrative that stretched across at least seven consecutive issues in 1948 and set Kelly apart as a storyteller willing to push beyond the single-issue gag structure typical of funny-animal comics. As a title that brought MGM animated characters into ongoing comics continuity alongside the Little Rascals cast, the series as a whole represents Dell/Western Publishing's early demonstration that licensed animated properties could sustain rich, original comic-book storytelling independent of their screen counterparts.
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By May 1948, the Our Gang with Tom & Jerry title (which had been rechristened from plain Our Gang Comics starting with issue #40 in late 1947) was operating with a division of creative labor: Walt Kelly scripted the Our Gang / Little Rascals stories, while Gil Turner — a Western Publishing contributor who had previously supplied scripts to Carl Barks for Barney Bear stories — had by this point taken over the writing and drawing of the Barney Bear and Benny Burro backup feature entirely. Turner was the creator of Mooseface McElk, Barney's obnoxious elk neighbor, who had debuted in Our Gang #31 (February 1947) and became a fixture of the Barney stories Turner shepherded through this period.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published May 1948 by Dell (Western Publishing) as part of the 'Our Gang with Tom & Jerry' run (issues #40–#59, November 1947–June 1949).
- The issue launches the 'Treasure Island Treasure Map' serial in the Our Gang feature (Part 1 of at least 7 installments), written by Walt Kelly — an unusually long serialized adventure for a Dell funny-animal anthology of this era.
- Walt Kelly, later celebrated as the creator of Pogo, wrote the Our Gang / Little Rascals strip stories throughout this period of the title.
- Gil Turner — MGM animator and Western Publishing contributor — wrote and drew the Barney Bear and Benny Burro feature at this stage, having taken over those duties from Carl Barks after Barks' run ended around Our Gang #36.
- Mooseface McElk, Barney Bear's combative elk neighbor, appears in the Barney Bear story 'Peace and Quiet'; the character was created by Gil Turner and first appeared in Our Gang #31 (February 1947) — making his appearance here a recurring one, not a debut.
- The issue features nine distinct strip features in 48 full-color pages, including solo Tom and solo Jerry segments alongside the traditional Tom and Jerry co-starring story, reflecting the expanding cast architecture of the anthology by mid-1948.
- Mooseface McElk went on to appear in a large number of subsequent Dell and Gold Key Barney Bear stories, and was later reprinted in digest-format publications including Golden Comics Digest.
- The Our Gang 'Treasure Island Treasure Map' serial introduced villain Happy Slade as an antagonist across multiple installments, demonstrating a degree of continuing-story plotting rare in Dell's contemporary funny-animal output.