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)