Raggedy Ann + Andy #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeRaggedy Ann + Andy #1 (Dell, June 1946) represents the first time Johnny Gruelle's beloved rag-doll duo headlined their own dedicated comic book series, graduating from a supporting feature inside Dell's anthology New Funnies (where they had appeared monthly since June 1942) to a solo title. The issue is historically notable as an early showcase for Walt Kelly — who would go on to create Pogo — at a stage when he was the most active artist in Dell's stable of children's comics. Coming eight years after Gruelle's own death in 1938, the launch of the series also marks the point at which the Raggedy Ann franchise moved fully into posthumous hands, with Dell's editorial staff and freelancers sustaining and reshaping characters whose book sales had already surpassed five million copies by 1942. As a Golden Age children's comic, it stands as a document of how mid-century publishers translated beloved toy-and-book properties into the booming comic-book format.
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Johnny Gruelle created Raggedy Ann as a patented doll design in 1915 and introduced her to the reading public in the 1918 book Raggedy Ann Stories; her brother Raggedy Andy followed in the 1920 sequel. Gruelle continued writing and illustrating the characters until his death on January 9, 1938. Dell began adapting the characters for comics in June 1942 inside the anthology New Funnies, where they ran in 46 consecutive issues; when that arrangement wound down in May 1946, Dell editor Oskar Lebeck and Western Publishing spun the characters into a standalone monthly. Walt Kelly was assigned as lead artist for the new series partly by circumstance — his wartime health exemption had kept him at his drawing board while colleagues Noonan and Gollub were still transitioning back from military duty. The indicia of the first issue lists the title as Raggedy Ann + Raggedy Andy, and at least one Gruelle story credit is a posthumous attribution to the late creator rather than the actual writer, a publishing practice common at Dell in this era.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First issue of the standalone Raggedy Ann + Andy comic series, published by Dell in June 1946 (on-sale date confirmed by the Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1946–1947 Periodicals).
- Characters created by Johnny Gruelle (1880–1938), who had died eight years before this issue appeared; some story credits in the series continued to bear his name posthumously.
- Walt Kelly — later celebrated as the creator of the Pogo comic strip — served as the lead artist for this debut issue, adapting Mother Goose nursery rhymes and providing illustrated stories; he was the primary artist because Dan Noonan and Morris Gollub had only recently returned from World War II military service.
- The issue contains 48 full-color pages and was cover-priced at ten cents.
- Indicia titles the comic 'Raggedy Ann + Raggedy Andy,' not the common shorthand title.
- The book is structured as an anthology: it features one Raggedy Ann & Andy story alongside unrelated features (including Walt Kelly's Animal Mother Goose adaptations, the Billy and Bonny Bee strip, text stories, activity pages, and nature photography), a format carried over directly from the Dell New Funnies anthology in which the characters had appeared from June 1942 through May 1946.
- The series ran until August 1949 and also produced one Giant issue and a standalone adaptation of Gruelle's book The Camel with the Wrinkled Knees.
- Later in the run, starting with issue #39, the series incorporated John Stanley's Peterkin Pottle character; Dell revived the characters again in 1964–66 with a redesign, and a Gold Key/Whitman series followed in 1971–73.
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