Thursday, October 2, 2008

Imitation is the sincerest form...

Fox and the Crow was a really popular feature for DC Comics from the 1940s to the 1960s. Don Markstein's TOONOPEDIA tells the history of The Fox and the Crow, from animated cartoons to comic books. The feature is about a trickster, Crow, and his victim, Fox, and plays out that one theme in an endless variety of ways. The artwork is by Jim Davis, but as pointed out in every article about this strip, not the Jim Davis who does Garfield.

In order to copy the formula for success Atlas Comics published a similar feature in the 1950s. Atlas, not famous for originality, but for a liveliness in copying trends, used artist Howie Post to give it the same type of frantic energy of the Fox and the Crow. It must be fairly rare...I have just this one example from a 1972 reprint.












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