Best of DC #49

April 16, 2011

Title: Funny Stuff

Featuring the work of: Sheldon Mayer, Otto Feuer, Rube Grossman, Henry Scarpelli, Arnold Drake
Cover: Jim Engel
Editor: Nick Cuti
Publisher: DC Comics

I may not remember exactly what the first comic book I ever read was, but I remember that this DC Digest, which reprinted a lot of their funny animal comics from the Silver Age, was one of the first. I had this digest from 1984, and I read it over and over and over again. Recently, my local comic shop got a whole collection of old digests, and when I saw that this book was among them, I had to get it. I re-read it again today for the first time in years, and I’m happy to say that I still enjoyed it.

The book collects several old comics, including tales of the Three Mouseketeers, Dodo and the Frog, Peter Porkchop, Dizzy Dog, The Raccoon Kids, Stanley the Timid Scarecrow, Doodles Duck, Pinky and Winky, Bo Bunny, Goofy Goose, Peter Panda, Nutsy Squirrel, and the classic Stanley and His Monster. Having the great Sheldon Mayer on the book is a major bonus. His work, including the Dizzy Dog, Doodles Duck and Bo Bunny comics, are among the funniest in the collection. Each of these characters has a wonderful, hyperactive energy to it, packed with great one-liners and clever wordplay. Although none of these characters ever made it to animated cartoons, it’s the Mayer stuff that I think probably would have fit in the best.

Besides Mayer’s stuff, Otto Feuer’s Dodo and the Frog are the standouts of the comic. We get two stories, one which imagines the two characters as rival space explorers and another more down-to-Earth tale about Fenimore Frog trying to swindle Dunbar Dodo at a swap meet. I really loved these characters, and the somewhat unique formula they have. Most of these sort of funny animal combos are always about one character getting it over the other one. These two Dodo and Frog stories (the only ones I’ve read) actually feature the Frog winning in his schemes, but then somehow losing anyway. I’m also reminded that these characters actually did exist in the Pre-Crisis DC Universe. Dodo and the Frog turned up years later in the pages of Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew, while timid Peter Porkchop actually became a member of that superhero team, the tough-as-nails Pig Iron.

The only story in this book that kind of stands out is the Stanley and His Monster tale. It features human and monster characters, instead of the funny animals of the rest of the book, and it’s actually a very dark piece about Stanley’s parents discovering his monster, which gets hauled away by a mob of monster investigators. It’s really kind of disconcerting. It’s not a bad story, and the artwork is really wonderful, but it feels totally out of place with the rest of the book.

I really loved reading this book again, and I’m glad to have it back in my collection after all these years.

Rating: 7/10