Our Gang with Tom & Jerry #58
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeOur Gang with Tom & Jerry #58 stands as one of the penultimate issues of a title that had run — under shifting names — since 1942, and it arrived just one issue before Dell retired the 'Our Gang' banner entirely. The MGM live-action Our Gang shorts had already ceased production years earlier, and by 1949 the comic's own masthead acknowledged what readers could see for themselves: Tom and Jerry had become the true stars of the book, with the original gang-kid content fading toward the margins. With only issue #59 to follow, #58 is a tangible artifact of an editorial pivot that closed the chapter on one of early comics' most talent-stacked anthology titles — a series that had showcased Walt Kelly, Carl Barks, John Stanley, and Gaylord Du Bois — and handed the franchise forward to the long-running Tom & Jerry Comics series that would continue numbering from #60 onward.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The series that became Our Gang with Tom & Jerry began in 1942 when MGM licensed the Our Gang property to Dell, producing a full-color anthology that paired the live-action child stars with MGM animated characters including Tom and Jerry, Barney Bear, and Droopy. Gaylord Du Bois served as the principal writer across the run, with Walt Kelly providing both scripts and art in the early years. By the time the title reached its 'Our Gang with Tom & Jerry' phase (issues #40–#59, November 1947 through June 1949), the Our Gang film shorts had already ended, and the comic was quietly transitioning its identity toward its animated headliners — a transition completed with the rename to Tom & Jerry Comics at issue #60.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published May 1949 by Dell (produced in association with Western Publishing); 52 pages, full color.
- One of the final two issues published under the 'Our Gang with Tom & Jerry' title — the series ended at #59 (June 1949) before renaming as Tom & Jerry Comics with #60.
- Tom and Jerry appear across multiple separate story segments: a 10-page main strip, a 6-page 'Adventures of Tom' solo feature, and a 4-page 'Adventures of Jerry' solo feature — reflecting the expanded solo spotlight the characters had received since at least #45.
- Droopy (the deadpan MGM short-film character) appears in a one-page strip, consistent with his recurring role as a short-format gag feature throughout the late issues of the series.
- The issue also features Barney Bear & Benny Burro, Flip 'n Dip, Wiff the Prairie Dog, and Fuzz & Wuzzy — the full repertory company of MGM-licensed comic characters that populated the anthology.
- The broader series was the comic-book home of Tom and Jerry from 1942 onward; unlike the theatrical cartoons, the comic versions of Tom and Jerry spoke dialogue throughout, as writers believed young readers needed speech balloons to follow the action.
- The Our Gang comic outlasted the live-action film shorts by several years — the shorts ceased production around 1944, but the comic continued through 1949, demonstrating the independent commercial life the property had found on newsstands.
- Material from the Dell run of this series was later reprinted internationally by publishers in Mexico (Editorial Novaro), Australia (Rosnock/Magazine Management), and the UK, as well as domestically by Harvey Comics in the early 1990s.
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