All Top Chambers

All Top Comics from Fox (not that Fox) ran for 18 1/2 issues starting in the spring of 1946. After that, it changed the title and format to My Experience for four issues, then to Judy Canova for a trio of issues before ceasing publication with issue #3. (23, 24, 3 - comics!)
But, we don't really care about any of that today - just the beginning.

For the first seven and a half issues, the format was Funny Animal comics. Perhaps most significantly, Cosmo Cat began his first adventures in All Top, starting in the first issue.

Those early issues of All Top featured - we think - four tales drawn by Ellis Chambers, including the aforementioned Cosmo Cat story - though that was is merely presumed, not confirmed.
The first two stories ran previously on the main blog. I suspect we'll copy more over time so as to collect it all here.

All Top Comics #1 - Cosmo Cat / The Lollipop Fiend:

For this second tale, Ellis Chambers is the 'best guess' by historians on who drew the tale. When some are trying to deduce the artist,  they note that the bottom of panel two contains what appears to be an box with artist's initials semi-obscured by white-out. While some say it looks like an E.L., they also note that there was nobody with those initials known to be active in the field at the time.

However, that EL could just as easily be a more completely hidden EC, and Chambers was known to draw a box around his initials at times. (He even signed with just an empty box on occasion, but that's not what we're looking at here.)

All Top Comics #3 - Cosmo Cat / The Fourth Dimension:

These next two tales he signed, so there's little doubt to the artist. There are others that he may have drawn during the early run of All Top, but we're sticking with just the four that are presumed to be his work. At least, until convincing arguments are made for other stories.

All Top Comics #5 - Señor Tamale / What Magical Magic!:

All Top Comics #6 - Cosmo Cat / Real Heavy Artillery:

With issue number 8, the format switched to Jungle Comics and Matt Baker was the new look of the book. The animals weren't so funny any more...

page art by Ellis Holly Chambers for All Top Comics #s 1, 3, 5, & 6 (1946, 1947)

Howie & Presto

(Despite the title of the post, this was not drawn by Howie Post. Most likely it's by Ed Dunn. But i liked it for a header, and it avoids repetition later in the page.)

Presto Pete, The Magic Bunny first appeared in Animal Antics #1 (1946). Pete was a rabbit who studied magic from a correspondence school, with tales originally being presented in the form of his reports back to the Eezy Magic Correspondence School.

Originally drawn by Ed Dunn, it's unknown who created or wrote the strip in the beginning. Possibly Ed himself? Ed drew, at minimum, the first half dozen strips, and possibly #s 7 &  8 as well. It's Ed's version that illustrates the Animalphabet entry, and we'll go back to look at his work at a later date. Currently, however, we're digging through some of Howie Post's work, so we're looking at Howie's run on the strip. (We're looking at HP over at the main blog, too - like his Alex In Wonderland strips running concurrently with this post)

It's hard to say with certainty how many episodes of Presto Pete were drawn by Howie Post. We can, however, be sure that he drew at least a dozen of Pete's tales - those that he signed. Starting with issue #9 of Animal Antics, and continuing through #20, Howie delivered 6-8 pages of Presto Pete every issue. He may have drawn others, including one for Comic Cavalcade in the early '50s. Someday we'll have a time viewer and can scan back to learn who created what back when.

Until then, let's stick to the 12 he signed. As you'll see, he abandoned the previous format of writing letters back to school with his first tale. Now he's working from his book - How To Be A Magician In 30 Difficult Lessons instead of receiving individual lessons from the Eezy Magic school...

Animal Antics #9:

(which might explain why he's not writing letters, eh?)

Animal Antics #10:

Animal Antics #11:

Animal Antics #12:

Animal Antics #13:

Animal Antics #14:

Next - the other six.

page art by Howie Post for Animal Antics #s 9-14 (1947, 1948)