Peter Wheat - questions and kudos

[Poztron]

Kudos first. Particularly, kudos to OtherEric and all other scanners and uploaders who have been rounding up and scanning all the Peter Wheat episodes. Despite the commercial tie-in (which is mercifully absent from the stories themselves), these have to be some of the most enjoyable and "innocent" children's comics of all time.

My questions are: Is there any authoritative information on when the Adventures of Peter Wheat shifted from Walt Kelly to Al Hubbard? I've seen statements that Kelly did the strip up 'til #35, and other statements that Hubbard came in in 1955. (I'm citing these numbers and dates from memory, so please allow for +/- slippage.) My sense of recently uploaded issues in the #40s is that perhaps there was an overlap of Kelly and Hubbard (Hubbard working as Kelly's assistant??) in many of those issues. Peter Wheat himself and some characters (and foliage) look like Kelly, while some of the big-eyed animals hint more at Hubbard. I've not heavily researched this, so I am not attached to the correctness of my hunches. I'm just looking for the most accurate information.

[OtherEric]

Saying Hubbard came in in 1955 is flat-out wrong.  #36 is quite clearly Hubbard, and looks to me to be almost purely Hubbard; similarly issues 42-47 are obviously Hubbard.  Everything I've seen up to #33 is just as clearly Kelly.  However, issues 34-41 (other than the 36) seem to be more up in the air.

#34 and #35 don't look that much like either Kelly or Hubbard to my eyes; except where they do.    Thom from Whirled of Kelly doesn't think Kelly had much to do with either of them; JVJ has suggested that they're roughly penciled by Kelly.  I will mention that I don't think there's a chance Kelly actually WROTE the issues, with the 34 in particular being a mess and the storyline in 35-37 suggesting some serious course corrections.  37 and 40 look to be mostly Hubbard, but if so he was doing the issues far more under the influence of Kelly than usual- and noticeably more than in the #36.  I cannot completely reject the idea Kelly had something to do in those issues, but I also can't say with any certainty he did.  I have not seen copies of 38, 39, or 41.

If you know of ANY scans of Peter Wheat that didn't come through me, please let me know!  As far as I am aware I'm the only person who has scanned anything other than Peter Wheat News #61, and even that was obtained by me talking to the seller on eBay (who was cool enough to provide good scans of the issue when I didn't win it!)

[Yoc]

Eric here is the man to thank for all these wonderful scans.
If ever a series deserved a nice TBP collection and retrospective it's this one!

Thanks Eric!

[Poztron]

All praise to OtherEric for these gems. My using the phrase "and all other scanners and uploaders" was just covering my ass in case there were others who I'd not seen or indicated.

Whether any given book was Kelly or Hubbard or whoever, what a great series.

[OtherEric]

Thank you, Poz.  I just hope I can finish putting together a run of at least Adventures; I don't see myself ever completing Peter Wheat News.  And once I do, I'm hoping I can convince somebody to publish it if I provide scans.  But the books are getting more and more expensive over the past couple years; I may have shot myself in the foot by sharing it! (Two lots, totaling 12 issues- 4 of which were unscanned- went for over $800 between the two of them a couple weeks ago.  I bid high, but still came in third.)

[OtherEric]

How the heck did I miss this one?  Cracked.com's take on Peter Wheat, of all things:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-8-most-baffling-food-mascots-all-time/

[Yoc]

Hmmm, those PW panels look oddly familiar.... 

[OtherEric]

And just came across this oddity; it's out of my price range right now but it's fascinating:

http://www.hakes.com/item.asp?Auction=204&ItemNo=107362

It's clearly later than the Kelly issues, since it uses a cut-out from a cover on the first page.  I really wonder what the history on this is.

[josemas]

They looks to me like pages prepared as a color guide for the engravers.  From what I can see, those look like Doc Martin color dyes that used to be commonly used to prepare such color guides.

Best

Joe

[narfstar]

Thanks to the links these can be downloaded by individual page.

[OtherEric]

It's listed as original art for a prototype; but it clearly postdates the actual Peter Wheat series.  I wonder what the circumstances were, and when exactly it was created.

I've downloaded the pages, it makes a decent CBZ file for my own records.  But I won't post it here; since it was never published (until now) it may not be in the public domain.  Probably isn't, in fact, as I understand the rules.

[OtherEric]

Just a heads up for people who might care:  The two comic pages only issues of Peter Wheat News have been identified!  They're issues 14 and 29; both have been renamed.  No new scans, sadly; but at least we know what issues we're looking at!

[Yoc]

Thanks for the update Eric and nice to see you posting again.
Please don't be a stranger!