Actually, "title puns" aside, it should be "TOO" for the Price of Two - since I paid for 'em both!
The "'em" in question being Gold Key Comics YOSEMITE SAM # 26 (Cover Date: February, 1975) and YOSEMITE SAM # 48 (Cover Date: October, 1977).
There were many strange things about the Gold Key comic books of the 1970s, but this is one I don't believe I've ever seen before - or since!
Our "Mirth Separation" comes in the form of a one-page gag, originally printed in YOSEMITE SAM # 26, and later reprinted in # 48. See below, and notice if anything stands out! (As always, you may Click to Enlarge!)
Let's begin a list...
Most obvious is that the entire page has been RECOLORED, despite its printings being only 32 months apart - and, for reasons unknown, the gag was RE-TITLED as "Too Anxious!"
But beyond that, and not all that noticeable until you view BOTH printings together (as I've done for this post), it goes far beyond merely "adding an adjective to the title"!
Look at the characters above - particularly Bugs - as well as the overall composition, and you'll will see that EVERY PANEL was, to one degree or another, redrawn and re-lettered!
Check the sun, the rocks and scrub on the desert, and Bugs' expression and positioning as he shouts! Let alone the thickness of the lettering!
...So, is it really even a reprint? Grand Comics Database thinks so - but I'm not so sure!
And what could possibly be the reason for this strange occurrence? As with so many things about Western Publishing's Dell, Gold Key, and Whitman comics.... we'll probably never know!
I had originally intended this post only to call attention to the odd re-titling of the gag...
...But there's so much more going on that instead of calling the second printing "Too Anxious!", it ought to be called "Anxious II!"
So, as a disheartened vulture flies slowly off into the west, we have YOSEMITE SAM # 26 and # 48, rather unconventionally "Separated at Mirth"!
18 comments:
Just to let you know… we blame the Collective of the Retconning Crocodiles.
I think possibly someone at some point in the recolorization process dropped coffe on the negatives or something like that, and rather than tell the boss, haphazardly filled the gaps they had accidentally created. Those drawings of Bugs and Sam do not look professional.
Wow, that is bizarro. And inexplicable.
I find it amusing that in the version that is titled "Too Anxious" Bugs actually looks considerably less anxious!
I do love the fact that the vulture has a napkin and cutlery.
That has got to be the strangest thing I've ever seen in a comic reprint. It is as if another artist completely redrew the original story, but almost exactly the same. The difference is glaring in panels like the 2nd panel where Bugs is a lot leaner, with smaller feet and hands, but essentially the overall art is the same. It is as if a new inker worked from original pencils. But why would Western go to that much trouble? They had only recently printed the original and surely must have the artwork ready to use, and if not why choose this story to reprint? What a great find!
Some forgetful editor could have assigned the same script to two different artists without realizing it, or they just had an issue that was a page short so they had someone draw the same gag again. Either way, the redrawn page gave someone some work, where a straight reprint wouldn’t have. Neither one is fantastic in terms of drawing, but I like the first one better. It looks less rushed.
Take a day off from Blogging, and look at all the great comments!
Before we get… um, “Too Anxious”, let’s get to ‘em!
Achille:
The possibilities are endless… and harm to, or the inadvertent destruction of, the original could certainly be one!
Elaine:
You write: “I find it amusing that in the version that is titled ‘Too Anxious’ Bugs actually looks considerably less anxious!”
Er, um... Perhaps the title was referring to the emotional state of the DUO of Sam and Bugs… and was mis-lettered from the intended “Two, Anxious!”
…Everything about this is a “Make-Up-Your-Own-Rationalization” thingy!
A neck-tied napkin and accompanying cutlery was standard issue for hungry predators in the LOONEY TUNES shorts… with optional drool! In the comics, a little less-so – but it’s a nice nod!
Carl and Deb:
To both your points, the two versions are unquestionably drawn by two different artists. Neither one of them the equal of the great work that Tom McKimson, Carl Buettner, Roger Armstrong, Tony Strobl, or Phil DeLara did with these characters but, in style, they were “close enough” for me (and apparently Grand Comics Database) to regard it as a straight reprint!
As mentioned, it was merely the odd retitling of the gag that caused me to select it for “Separated At Mirth”. But, when I went to scan them, I was flabbergasted to see ALL the differences – and made “Blog-hay” with it!
And, with the literally hundreds of one-page gags at their disposal for reprinting, why did Western choose THIS ONE, that was seen so recently?
True, if they were seeking a one-page gag with Bugs AND SAM, the choices would have been considerably more limited, but I can still recall some that were suitable.
Deb’s thought (“Some forgetful editor could have assigned the same script to two different artists without realizing it…”) is certainly LOGICAL, given the chaotic state of Western in its final decade as a comics publisher!
But, ultimately, I may have to go with…
The Horde of the Violet Hare (who said...)
“Just to let you know… we blame the Collective of the Retconning Crocodiles.”
That could turn out to be the best explanation!
We here at The Assemblage of Absent-Minded Editors don't remember whether one of our members was working at Western Publishing at the time or not, but it's always possible...we tend to forget a lot of things. Anytime you see a typo that makes it to print, or a book that's missing a page, it may be the work of the AAME...which to our dismay, isn't a funny acronym. Weren't we going to change that? I forget...
AAME:
Ah, that explains SO MANY THINGS!
Such as “Bird Bothered Hero”...
A fair amount of CHARLTON…
ALL of 1990s HARVEY COMICS…
…And IDW Disney comics of 2019!
Thank you for ALL those memorable moments!
We of the Host of the Very Hungry Vultures may have commissioned this comic as one of our many pieces of propaganda designed to alert the world to the plight of us poor hungry vultures. The vulture is, of course, the hero of this story, with whom the readers are meant to sympathize - observe how rudely that rabbit shouts at the poor bird, when all he wanted was a meal - that the meal was to be the rabbit is hardly of any consequence. Unfortunately, the general public has not been influenced sufficiently by our propaganda, as we vultures are still rather hungry. We really must work on creating brainwashing technology like the other organizations have. As for the twin versions of this particular comic - that, we think, is surely the blame of the Crocodile Collective and the Editor Assembly.
Maybe you “Vultures” should just re-brand yourselves as “Budgies”!
That way more people will like you!
The most interesting fact is that the cruder version was published second. Why redraw something, only to make it worse?
If I had to guess, I'd say the cruder, later-published version of the gag was drawn and turned in first.
Imagine this scenario: with borderline unprofessional art, it was determined not worthy of even Western's extremely low standards, so another artist was given the page to redraw—and that redraw was the version published first. But... flash forward a few years, and an editor notices the original version lying around the office. "Hey, why haven't we ever published THIS?" And—forgetting about the redraw, or the fact that the cruder version was originally shelved, he has it rushed into print."
"I ain't one o' dem Violet Hares, Doc—though..." (quick-change into drag costume of the week) "...my hairdresser calls me a shrinkin' violet! Tee-hee!"
David:
Ya know, that’s a VERY LIKELY scenario for this unexplained oddity!
Add to this that the YOSEMITE SAM title was produced by Western’s NEW YORK office, at that point in time (after originating out of the Los Angeles office), and even LESS would seem to be known of the workings of the New York office than the more familiar Los Angeles office of Chase Craig!
Other titles that “headed east” after a long time in Los Angeles included TWEETY AND SYLVESTER and (for a period, before eventually reverting back to LA to become an “all-reprint book” until it’s end) TOM AND JERRY! That’s why the stories in those titles “looked different and much looser” from their LA predecessors. Now, some of that was actually good (funnier and more imaginative than much of the Los Angeles product of the time), but it just didn’t look like the product of the Western Publishing we knew and loved.
Funny thing is that, LA or NY, Western ran perhaps the “tightest ship” in the comics industry from the 1940s thru the late 1960s – even tighter than the “buttoned-up” DC Comics of the period… then known by the more stuffy name of “National Periodical Publications”!
But, as the ‘60s gave way to the ‘70s (and, worse still, the ‘80s) Western’s standards loosened to where their product (save for a few stalwarts like Paul Murry, John Carey, and Pete Alvarado) looked like the product of a completely different publisher! …And not the result of any sort of “natural evolution over time”, but more of an abrupt mutation!
So, an “anything goes” mentality (more typical of Charlton than Western) had already taken hold, combined with the lesser known methods of the New York office… and yes… You end up with “Anxious” and “Too Anxious”!
…But, at this point and with so little actually known, literally ANYTHING could be responsible!
> And not the result of any sort of “natural evolution over time”, but more of an abrupt mutation!
There is no "abrupt mutation" like the Clomp Beast in Tom and Jerry #287... a creature that could only have been born in New York! (Well, or maybe New Jersey, given its unhygienic looks.) The story—in which a prehistoric clam with fangs and feet latches onto Tom's tail, and everyone reacts with either mild irritation or exploitative greed, even Tom—has to be seen to be believed...
David:
I’d say more likely New Jersey… They have SWAMPS there, allegedly full of dead gangsters… what better place for a mutation to rise!
I like to think of those “New York-created” Tom and Jerrys as the comics equivalent of the Gene Deitch theatrical shorts!
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