The Monkey and the Bear (1972)

The great comic book cartoonist, Howard (Howie) Post, did some great characters for Marvel Comics back in 1972 within the pages of "Li'l Pals: Fun-Filled Animal Antics"!
Howie Post is best known for his work for Harvey Comics, where he had a hand in developing Hot Stuff the Little Devil and Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost. Here are a couple of articles discussing Howie's work.
http://drawn.ca/2005/03/24/the-howie-post/
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2007/07/howie-post-cartoony-harvey-artist.html
Seems that Melvin Monkey is a greedy, manipulative little character who is always trying to take advantage of his neighbor Boinard Bear. Check out their first adventure here from the first issue of Li'l Pals.

More Harvey Comics

Here are some more great examples of the classic Harvey Comics characters with great art from the various artists that also worked on the animated Harveytoons.
These strips are from several titles such as "Harvey Hits" and "Casper The Friendly Ghost"...

More Oscar Martin Tom & Jerry

Back in June, I made a post about Harvey Comic's Tom & Jerry comic that featured great artwork from Spain cartoonist Oscar Martin.
http://jedaniels-adventures.blogspot.com/2008/06
Oscar was pleased that I mentioned his artwork in my last post, so why not include another great Tom & Jerry story? This story was originally published in North America back in a 1992 issue of Harvey Classics' Tom & Jerry and Friends.As you animation fans may have noticed, this story is a tribute to Tex Avery's Wolf & Red cartoons. There is even a little "Thanks Tex" in the last panel.
Oscar Martin has been illustrating Tom & Jerry stories since the 1980's among other famous cartoon characters. He has even launched a new website to showcase his career and work.
Check out the link for more great Oscar Martin artwork!
http://www.oscarmartin.net/

A Look Back: Harvey Comics

I've been going through an old book of comics that I've collected and held onto since I was a young lad...
I have quite a few old Harvey Comics titles that are full of great artwork! The best out of the bunch would have to be Harvey Hits since this book featured a collection of various characters.
Here are 3 examples of stories with artwork created by several animation artists!

Book Look

Here's an interesting storybook I came across at a yard sale. "Casper the Friendly Ghost in Ghostland" was published in 1969 with story and art by the Harvey Cartoon Studios.Although it's called "..in Ghostland", most of the story takes place in the old west where Casper, Spooky and Nightmare take care of horse rustlers.
The artwork seems to have been done by cartoonist Warren Kramer who handled the artwork for many other Harvey Comic titles. The illustrations appear to be painted unlike the comic book art which gives it more of a storybook feel.
Check out these great images from this Wonder Books story...

Oscar Martin's Tom & Jerry

During the early 90's Harvey Comics decided to get the rights to some classic cartoon characters to get more mainstream with comic collectors.
Harvey started to print their own Tom & Jerry title with stories that were originally created overseas. Artist and writer Oscar Martin really captures the classic design and slapstick humor of these characters. Fortunately enough he was working with Tom & Jerry since the early 80's!If you wish to learn more and see more of Oscar Martin's artwork and stories, follow the link to his online portfolio!
http://www.oscarmartin.net/oscar_eng/begin.htm