HAROLD HARE’S OWN PAPER was another nice
nursery comic of the 60’s by Fleetway, and here is a random issue published at
about this time nearly 60 years ago.
The cover is by Hugh McNeill, as was some of
the artwork inside. I have credited the artists where I could recognise their
styles. The comic was larger in size than companion PLAYHOUR and JACK AND JILL at
the time, so I couldn’t scan complete pages, but the "clippings" below will give you a
taste. If I were a British kid when these comics were around, I would have probably
preferred PLAYHOUR but HHOP also had some nice art and stories to offer.
Here’s another strip by Hugh McNeill:
Moony was a weird creature from the Moon who could
transform himself into any shape and form:
The centre pages had Here Comes Mr. Toad by
Peter Woolcock:
The Adventures of Pinocchio was illustrated by Tom Kerr (I believe):
The back cover featured The
Stories of Katie Country Mouse by Mendoza. His work here seems to be
less inspired than that of Gulliver in PLAYHOUR which Mendoza had stopped drawing by then:
love that cover...
ReplyDeleteMr. Toad - my hero!
ReplyDeleteWhy on earth is the Mr Toad story "By arrangement with Walt Disney Productions"?! They didn't own the characters, just the film rights (and probably not even that : by this time, the book was probably out of copyright). It's not even as if the comic was using the likenesses of the Disney versions.
ReplyDeleteI SO remember this. I was so rapt in Harold Hare as a child, my father bought me the first issue and subsequent issues of this magazine. I was just devastated when it merged into which other comic, I can no longer remember. But, my stress did not last long! There were other comics to soon discover. Treasure, Valiant, Ranger, the Oldhams range POW! Smash! and how my childhood glowed! Thanks for sharing this!
ReplyDelete