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The DC Alphabet

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on February 15, 2007 at 2:59:53 pm
 

The DC Alphabet

by

Arthur Lortie

02/15/2007

 

Back in the 1940s, presumably to comply with new mailing regulations, National Periodicals began to carry numerous educational features scattered in the pages of its comics.

 

This created mini-series of related factoids, often tied together under an umbrella title. One such feature, written and drawn by unidentified creators, was the always interesting "Animal Alphabet": half vertical pages sporting a humorous Dr. Seuss style animal paired with a short ditty -- and a plug for a current DC comic thrown in for good measure.

 

These were presented sequentially over 25 months, from 10/1945 to 11/1947, presenting one letter and animal combination in each, usually on the inside front cover in black and white.

 

But ... ummm ... aren't there 26 letters?!

 

DC stopped the series just short at "Y is for Yak". Apparently since they had already used the Quagga, a distant cousin of the Zebra, and admitted they were stumped at "X is for Unknown", they ran out of options, hoping noone would notice.

 

Hah! Gotcha!

 

The letter Z would have been scheduled for the 12/1947 issues, obviously. The DC Chronology spreadsheet lists Action #115, Adventure #123, Detective #130, Superman #49, World's Finest #31, Wonder Woman #26, Big Town #11, All Funny #11, and Buzzy #16 as possibilities. Bob Hughes had kindly checked at least half of these without finding anything.

 

This idea continued in the Superman story "The Alphbetical Animal Adventure" in Worlds Finest #42 [09-10/1949]. In this adventure, aliens are selecting specimens from earth for their zoo using the fictional "Children Picture Book Of Alphabetical Animals" as their guide. The unknown writer here managed to find an animal beginning with X that eluded the DC marketers: the Afican Xerus.

 

In real life, this is a common [and obvious]  theme for children's books, dating at least as far back as 1842 with "The Scripture Alphabet of the Animals" by Harriet N. Cook [American Tract Society, 1842].

 

Just prior to the DC series, there were four on the market:

 

"Beast, Bird and Fish,: An Animal Alphabet" by Elizabeth Morrow [A.A. Knopf, 1933]

"The Ark and the Alphabet: An Animal Collection" by Nathalia Crane & Leonard Feeney [Macmillan Company 1939]

"Animal Alphabet (Learning to Read)" by Bobbie Craig [Penguin U S A, 1940]

"The Alphabet Book of Animals" [Samuel Lowe Co., Kenosha, Wi, 1944]

 

It'd be interesting to see which ones came closest to matching this series!

 

The one I recall from my youth was "Animal Alphabet From A to Z" by Elizabeth Beecher [Simon & Schuster 1950], which featured Warner Bros. Cartoons characters.

 

I found 5 of the DC letters in both black and white and color versions [K, L, O, Q, S], but three appeared just in color [N, P, V]. The rest were black and white only. This is where I found the vignettes posted below:

 

A - Adventure #100

B - Action #90, More Fun #106, Real Screen #3

C - Action#91, Buzzy #5

D - All Funny #9, More Fun #107

E - Batman #33

F - Star Spangled #54

G - Adventure #103, More Fun #109

H - More Fun #111, Sensation #54

I - Action #98

J - Action #99, Batman #36

K - Buzzy #9, Leading #21, World's Finest #24

L - Batman #37, Real Screen #8

M - Action #102, Adventure #110

N - Real Screen #9, World's Finest #25

O - Animal Antics #6, Superman #44, World's Finest #26

P - Action#105, Detective #120, More Fun #119

Q - Animal Antics#7, Boy Commandos #20

R - Adventure #115

S - Action #8, Animal Antics#8, World's Finest #28

T - Real Screen #12

U - Buzzy#14

V - More Fun #125

W - Adventure #120, Detective#127

X - Batman #43

Y - More Fun #127

 

Here, then, is the DC Animal Alphabet:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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