Since Jeff Pepper already ran a Huey, Dewey and Louie comic book cover from one of Donald’s nephews’ Dell Giant Back To School issues over at his excellent Disney blog 2719 Hyperion (link below to the right), I thought I’d run something a little different before Back-to-School Month closes out. Donald Duck wasn’t the only “funny animal” star who had young relatives in his care. With nephew and niece Knothead and Splinter in tow Woody Woodpecker became a much tamer, more domesticated character in the pages of his comic book. Unlike Huey, Dewey and Louie, however, poor Knothead and Splinter didn’t have enough star power to headline their own “school” comic so Uncle Woody still gets top billing. Here, in a pleasingly designed 1954 Giant Comic cover drawn by comic artist Paul Murry, Woody financially exploits his young kin by selling them bribes for their classroom instructors. Doesn’t such behavior border on extortion? Maybe Woody wasn’t such a domesticated comic book character after all…
), and to judge by the Vanity Fair excerpt, it promises to be a thoughtful and extensively researched examination of a very complex man. Not surprisingly the selection printed in the magazine focuses on Snoopy, featuring an insightful analysis of the fantasizing beagle’s leap beyond mere popularity into superstardom during the mid-1960s. But, as the author points out, Peanuts—and Schulz—“had just begun.” This new book promises to be an important addition to our understanding of the artist and his comic-strip magnum opus.
