As previously established when I was a kid I completely leap frogged over ‘kids comics’ and dove straight for superheroes, specifically, my brothers (God rest his soul). When it came to comic books I was a superhero or nothing sort of kid; you couldn’t get me to try any other kind. Which is kind of strange, seeing as how I also had a mad, desperate love for the cartoon output of the Hanna-Barbara Studio. Laugh if you will but their characters were once close personal friends of a strange, lonely fat kid. How strange and lonely? For my 8th birthday my Mother threw me a birthday party-my only guest, Jake, the neighbor’s dog (somewhere there’s a photo of him wearing a party hat). I loved all of them,from Peter Potamus to Frankenstein Jr., but my first cartoon friend was Hanna-Barbara’s first cartoon star; Huckleberry Hound.

When you stop to think about it a blue hound dog with a Southern drawl was a fairly unusual character to headline his own TV cartoon show back in the late 1950′s. Plus Huck was not exactly what you would call a high energy performer; soft spoken and thoughtful, he always held himself with a certain kind of quiet grace. Which, in retrospect was at least part of his appeal -that and the fact he always seemed to be speaking directly to me. Other Hanna-Barbara characters routinely broke the fourth wall but usually only to deliver a sly “look how cool I’m being” aside. Huck, through his running commentary, let us all on his little secret; he had no idea how he was going to get out of his current predicament either.

The Huckleberry Hound Show was the first animated TV show to win an Emmy and although incredibly popular at the time it’s now mostly remembered, when it’s remembered at all, as the vehicle from where Yogi Bear sprung. If Huck was H-B’s first star Yogi was their first real cartoon superstar; he completely eclipsed Huck’s popularity. And with no apparent resentment Huck stepped aside, allowing himself to become just another one of the ‘gang’ of b-listers who populated the various H-B cartoon ensemble ’ shows from the 70′s to the 90′s. From the profoundly awful ‘pro-social’ Yogi’s Gang to Yogi’s Space Race to the ‘greed is good’ Yogi’s Treasure Hunt, he reliably played both second fiddle and banana to (you guessed it) Yogi Bear.

He deserved so much better.

As you know I eventually became mature enough to enjoy the antics of ducks and mice and teens, but there are still vast holes in my comic book knowledge — funny animals, for instance. All I know about this fun 1960 issue of Dell Giants is that the Grand Comic Book Database (all bow down before it) says that the prolific funny animal artist Harvey Eisenberg drew the cover. Even in my deepest, darkest superhero days I remember leafing through the pages of the Overstreet Price Guide and looking at beautiful covers like this. I would pause and sigh, thinking I would never get the chance to read these comics. How little I knew.

There are no credits given for any of the stories, but I really like this one.