 | The Dodo and the FrogOriginal Medium: Comic Books Published by: DC Comics First Appeared: 1947 Creator: Otto Feuer image: © DC Comics. |
To look at DC Comics today, you'd think its output consisted of nothing but a vast sea of superheroes. But in decades past, it published westerns like Johnny Thunder and The Wyoming Kid, war comics like Sgt. Rock and The Haunted Tank, teenage humor like Scribbly and Buzzy, and funny animals like The Dodo & the Frog.
Dunbar Dodo and Fennimore Frog made their first appearance in
the 18th issue (February, 1947) of DC's Funny Stuff, where
the stars included J. Rufus Lion and The
Three Mouseketeers. They replaced two features, McSnurtle the Turtle (probably the best
remembered of Funny Stuff's early features) and Bulldog Drumhead (a parody of a fictional
detective). They were clearly intended from the start to be the
title's stars, as they not only had two stories, but also snagged
the cover — and never gave it up as long as Funny
Stuff lasted. Their schtick was that Dunbar was a dodo, not
just by species but also by mental capacity. Fennimore was
constantly taking advantage of him, but usually wound up
outsmarting himself.
The artist on that first outing, as well as most subsequent ones, was Otto Feuer, formerly an animator at Famous Studios. Feuer's other work for DC's funny animal line included Peter Porkchops, Raccoon Kids and dozens of less prominent series.
About a year after their debut, Dunbar and Fennimore moved into a second venue. DC converted Comic Cavalcade, where The Flash, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman had been sharing the covers, into a funny animal anthology. From January, 1948 until the title's demise in 1954, The Dodo & the Frog shared the Comic Cavalcade covers with Nutsy Squirrel and The Fox & the Crow.
They got their own comic, in a way, in October, 1954, when Funny Stuff's title was changed to The Dodo & the Frog. But the glory was short-lived, as it started being published sporadically a couple of years later, and ended altogether with #92 (November, 1957).
Since then, they've turned up on rare occasions, usually as reprints. Their most prominent post-series appearance was in Captain Carrot & His Amazing Zoo Crew #3 (May, 1982), where, ignoring his previous characterization as an imbecile, the Dodo appeared as captain of a luxury cruise ship; and, ignoring his previous characterization as an inept chiseler, the Frog appeared as that issue's menace, Frogzilla.
Like most of DC's funny animal properties, they're now pretty much forgotten.
