New Terrytoons #1

History

By the time this issue reached newsstands, Terrytoons was operating as a CBS subsidiary following Paul Terry's retirement and sale of the studio in the mid-1950s. Deputy Dawg had been conceived by writer-director Larz Bourne in 1959 — originally as a supporting character in a projected series built around a possum — before being elevated to top-billed star in his own right. Silly Sidney had been introduced to animation screens under the creative supervision of Gene Deitch, while Hashimoto-san was the singular achievement of Japanese-born Terrytoons animator Bob Kuwahara, who co-created the judo-practicing mouse with producer Eli Bauer, drawing on his own cultural background to bring authentic Japanese domestic detail to the shorts. Dell Comics picked up the Terrytoons license after Pines Comics let it lapse, and interior art on the first issue is credited to Dan Gormley and others, though individual story credits are not widely documented in secondary sources.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published by Dell Comics, cover-dated June–August 1960; first issue in an eight-issue Dell run that concluded with the March/May 1962 issue.
• First comic book appearance of Deputy Dawg, a southern-drawl sheriff character created by Larz Bourne who originated at Terrytoons in 1959 as part of a projected TV series.
• First comic book appearance of Hashimoto-san, a judo-practicing Japanese mouse created by animator Bob Kuwahara and producer Eli Bauer; his theatrical short series had debuted just the previous year, on September 6, 1959.
• First comic book story featuring Silly Sidney the Elephant (also known as 'Sick, Sick Sidney'), a character created under Gene Deitch's supervision at Terrytoons; his second theatrical short, 'Sidney's Family Tree' (1958), had earned a Terrytoons Academy Award nomination.
• Dinky Duck — a Terrytoons character dating back to the 1939 animated short 'The Orphan Duck' — appears in this issue; while not his first comics appearance (he had his own St. John series from 1951–1958), this marks his return to comics after that series ended.
• Interior art credited to Dan Gormley and others; the issue runs 32 pages in full color at a cover price of ten cents.
• The issue contains multiple anthology stories, including separate Deputy Dawg, Silly Sidney, Hashimoto-san, Heckle and Jeckle, and Dinky Duck segments.
• After Dell's eight-issue run ended in 1962, the Terrytoons comics license passed to Gold Key (Western Publishing), where Hashimoto-san continued to appear in New Terrytoons alongside Deputy Dawg and other characters.

Cast · 4 characters

Full credits