Tuesday, February 19, 2013

A Mule Is A Mule

Tuesday Comic Strip Day.

A little odball strip from the early fifties. According to Alan Holtz' American Newspaper Comics it ran from May 5 1952 to November 28 1953. He quotes Alberto Becattini (who visits us here sometimes) as saying that the 'writer' David Stern, who also wrote the novel that spawned all the movies and comic strip versions, was only the editor here and tht Frank Thomas actually wrote the scripts. Is that the Frank Thomas of Disney fame, Alberto? I guess not.







1 comment:

Alberto said...

Hi Ger.

No, the Frank Thomas who did Francis has nothing to do with famous the Disney animator. Yet he was a very good writer/artist, both in newspaper strips and comic books. Following is what the Who's Who of American Comic Books has on him.

Best,
Alberto

THOMAS, FRANK
Name and vital stats
THOMAS, FRANKLYN [1914- dec] (artist; writer)
Biographical
Not to be confused with the Disney animator
Syndication
ALL-AMERICAN FOOTBALL (pen/ink/) 1938 > 38
DINKY DOYLE [daily] (wr/pen/ink/) 1946 > 46
FERD'NAND (ghost wr/ghost pen&ink/) 1955-65 for United Feature Syndicate > 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65
FRANCIS THE TALKING MULE (ghost wr/) c1952 for United Feature Syndicate > 52
GOING WEST (wr/pen/ink/) 1951-54 > 51 52 53 54
HOSSFACE HANK (wr/pen/ink/) 1955-64 for Al Smith Service > 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64
Comics in other media
Comics (wr/) 1985 for Cats magazine > 85
CENTAUR COMICS GROUP
CHUCK HARDY (wr/pen/ink/) 1940 > 40
DR. HYPNO (wr/pen/ink/) c1939 > 39
EYE SEES, THE (wr/pen/ink/) c1940 > 40
FANTOM OF THE FAIR (wr/pen/ink/) c1940 > 40
SOLARMAN (wr/pen/ink/) c1940 > 40
DELL PUBLICATIONS
ANDY PANDA (wr/) 1940s-52 > 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52
BILLY AND BONNIE BEE (wr/pen/ink/) 1942-45 > 42 43 44 45
BUDDIES (wr/pen/ink/) early-1940s > 40 41 42 43
DON BUGABOO AND FATCHO (pen/ink/) 1943 > 43
HANK AND LANK (wr/pen/ink/) 1942 > 42
HOWDY DOODY (wr/) 1940s > 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49
LITTLE LULU (wr/) 1940s > 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49
LITTLE SCOUTS (wr/) 1940s > 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49
OSWALD THE RABBIT (wr/) 1952 > 52
OWL, THE (wr/pen/ink/) 1940-42 > 40 41 42
WOODY WOODPECKER (wr/) 1940s > 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49
ECLIPSE ENTERPRISES
MR. MONSTER'S SCHLOCK!~ (wr/pen/ink/) 1987 reprint of The Eye Sees > 87
MARVEL COMICS
Illustration (pen/ink/) 1940 > 40