Top Notch Laugh Comics #40

From MLJ's Top-Notch Laugh Comics comes this October 1943 hillbilly hoot, with cover art by Don Dean capturing a lively rural scene: a lanky young fellow in a red shirt chats up a pretty blonde in yellow while an old-timer struggles comically with what the cover gag text calls a "new-fangled fan" — too heavy for Pappy, apparently. Chickens scatter, a green parrot takes flight, a wide-eyed pig bounces into the action, and a little girl rides the chaos in the background, making the whole cover a wonderfully busy slice of down-home comedy. At just a dime in 1943, this MLJ publication delivered the kind of cheerful, anything-goes humor that made the Laugh title such a fun fixture on newsstands.