Number 824

Bouncy Bunny and Clippety Clop!

Both of these stories, produced for very young readers, are from 1946 issues of EC Comics. EC founder Maxwell C. "Charlie" Gaines believed in educational material, and also comics for very young readers.

When I saw Animated Comics and "Bouncy Bunny" I thought of the masterpiece of kitsch, the book Happy Kitty Bunny Pony, which is a couple of hundred pages of the schmaltziest stuff ever produced. No comics, though, but Bouncy Bunny should have been in the book. From these examples you can see why.

Animated Comics was a one-shot; the cover is signed by Al Fago, who later did Atomic Mouse and Atomic Rabbit, and also for a time edited Charlton Comics. I believe the Bouncy Bunny story may be by him, or if not, it appears at least to be lettered by him with his distinctive style. The cover has a character named Flitty Flicker. Some comic book companies, including DC, told their writers not to use the words FLICK or FLICKER.

Burton Geller did the Clippety Clop story in Tiny Tot Comics #1; the story owes a lot to Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio. As I've said several times before, swiping is no sin in the comics. Geller drew kiddie comics at least until the 1950s.