Real Screen Funnies [ashcan] #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeReal Screen Funnies [ashcan] #1 holds a specific place in the record as the first comic book appearance of Fauntleroy Fox and Crawford Crow, the trickster duo who would anchor DC's funny-animal publishing for over two decades. Although produced as a trademark-registration document rather than a newsstand publication, the ashcan set the legal foundation that allowed DC to launch the regular Real Screen Comics series — which eventually spawned the duo's own 108-issue title, The Fox and the Crow. The pair's cross-media life, moving from Columbia Pictures animated shorts to a long-running DC franchise, makes this unassuming piece of paperwork a genuine origin point for one of the Golden Age's most durable licensed properties.
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DC produced this ashcan in early 1945 under the standard Golden Age practice of submitting a hastily assembled physical booklet to the US Patent and Trademark Office to secure the 'Real Screen Funnies' title before a competitor could claim it. The ashcan's cover date is March 1945, and — consistent with DC's ashcan workflow — only a handful of copies were ever made, one destined for the Trademark Office and at least one retained as a publisher file copy. The underlying characters, Fauntleroy Fox and Crawford Crow, had been created by animator Frank Tashlin for Columbia Pictures' Screen Gems studio, first appearing on screen in the 1941 Color Rhapsody short The Fox and the Grapes; DC licensed them, along with other Screen Gems funny-animal characters, to populate its new anthology. The regular series quickly dropped the 'Funnies' subtitle, continuing as Real Screen Comics from issue #2 onward.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover-dated March 1945; published by DC Comics as a trademark-registration ashcan for the 'Real Screen Funnies' title.
- First comic book appearance of Fauntleroy Fox and Crawford Crow, per the DC Database.
- Characters created by animator Frank Tashlin for Columbia Pictures' Screen Gems studio, debuting on screen in the 1941 animated short The Fox and the Grapes.
- DC licensed Fox, Crow, and other characters from Columbia/Screen Gems to anchor its funny-animal anthology line.
- The full names 'Fauntleroy Fox' and 'Crawford Crow' originated in the DC comic books; in the theatrical shorts the characters were known simply as 'Fox' and 'Crow.'
- The regular series launched under the retitled Real Screen Comics (dropping 'Funnies' after issue #1) and ran through #128, then continued as TV Screen Cartoons (#129–138).
- Fox and Crow's popularity led to their own dedicated title, The Fox and the Crow, which ran 108 issues (January 1952 – March 1968) before being renamed Stanley and His Monster.
- Until the 1954 end of Comic Cavalcade, Fox and Crow were simultaneously cover-featured on three DC titles: Real Screen Comics, Comic Cavalcade, and The Fox and the Crow.
Cast · 2 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Real Screen Funnies #1 (1945)
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