Number 1414: McSnurtle the Turtle, aka the Terrific Whatzit

 This is day two of our Comical Comics Week, today featuring a superhero turtle.

Merton McSnurtle, despite being slow moving and slow thinking was at least honest. As a reward he was given superhero powers by beings from another planet. The story is told in this origin from DC’s Funny Stuff #1 (1944). In my opinion Funny Stuff #1 was one of the key DC Comics of the forties. Funny animals were an important part of the DC lineup for decades.

Sheldon Mayer was the editor and contributed “J. Rufus Lion” to this issue. “McSnurtle the Turtle, the Terrific Whatzit” was written and drawn by Martin Naydel, who was the brother of Larry Nadle (they spelled their names differently), who became editor of the DC funny animal comics.

Here's another Terrific Whatzit story I posted over four years ago. Just click the picture:

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Number 1147: Ron Santi's Three Mouseketeers, from the beginning

This strip, the initial offering from the first issue of Funny Stuff, published by DC Comics in 1944, is by Ron Santi. I've never been able to get much information on Santi, except for this note I got from a relative of Santi's, Blaise Picchi, in 2009. It's in response to a Santi strip, "Bulldog Drumhead," I showed in Pappy's #557.

I am not sure what this website is about. I was googling the name of my deceased Uncle, Ron Santi, and I hit your website. My uncle Ron was an animator in the 30's, 40's, and 50's. He has been forgotten. No one seems to know him although he worked for Looney Tunes, Terrytunes, Disney. He animated Heckle & Jeckle, invented Frosty the Snowman. I don't know about Bulldog Drummond and I cannot recognize his artwork, he kept so little of it. His real name was Romolo A. Santi, known as Ronnie. If you think we are talking about the same man, contact me. I don't want to put my email address down here. Contact me through Facebook: Blaise Picchi

Ms. Picchi, if you come across this blog, I hope by now you have found out more about your uncle. We'd all be interested in learning anything we can of him. If anyone out there worked with Santi in animation or the comics maybe they could tell us what they know.

As you can see by the artwork on this feature, Santi was a superb funny animal illustrator. The details and effort he poured into every panel is awe-inspiring. He probably could not have been paid enough for the work he put into "The Three Mouseketeers." I have more early issues of Funny Stuff, and in the future will be featuring more of this artist's work. As a caution, knowing how I am, and my scheduling, no one should hold their breath while waiting.

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Number 557


Bulldog Drumhead


Bulldog Drumhead was a take-off on--surprise--then-popular literary detective Bulldog Drummond. Does anyone even remember that character?

Ron Santi did the fine artwork for this strip from All-American's Funny Stuff #6, Fall, 1945. He also did the artwork on another well-drawn strip I showed you in Pappy's #212. I have no information on Santi, who seems as forgotten as Bulldog Drummond.

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Number 466


The Terrific Whatzit


McSnurtle the Turtle, also known as The Terrific Whatzit, was a feature in DC/AA's Funny Stuff title for the first 17 issues. Drawn by Martin Nadle (who sometimes signed his name as Naydel to distinguish himself from his brother, DC editor Larry Nadle) the Whatzit was sort of a...sort of...well, I don't know exactly what he was. I guess that's why he was the Whatzit. If you follow the link above you can read about him in Don Markstein's Toonopedia.

In this particular story, from Funny Stuff #6, Fall 1945, McSnurtle is duped by a cross-dressing guy posing as a woman. In a funny animal comic book! Maybe that's the part that's "funny."

The reason the colophons at the top of the pages say AA All-American Comics is because DC and All-American were conjoined companies, owned by different people. All-American was owned by Max Gaines, publishing under the DC imprint. Max Gaines split off from DC at one point, then sold out to them, coming back into the field with EC Comics. And the rest, they say, is history. The Terrific Whatzit made up a very small piece of that history.

I'm including a couple of ads from that issue of Funny Stuff, which was published just as World War II ended. The ads have a war theme. The Thom McAn ad especially so, with wartime racist caricatures of Japanese. The Captain Tootsie ad is not only a candy ad, but a public service announcement. Don't play with hand grenades. Gee, I think that'd be self-evident, and I don't know how many hand grenades were lying around for kids to pick up, but knowing kids, I'm sure if a kid found one he'd pick it up. Maybe the ad saved some lives.

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Number 448


"...a smarter moron..."


Dodo and the Frog was a popular feature for DC Comics during the heyday of funny animal comics, the 1940s and '50s. It was drawn by animator Otto Feuer, born in 1907 in Germany, who died in the U.S. at age 91.

Where would funny animal comics have been without animators who moonlighted? They understood pacing, storytelling, gags. Feuer had a very attractive style. He kept his layouts and panels simple and instantly readable, and understood the use of white space. His characters were silly, as are the stories. They're fun!

These two strips come from a coverless copy of DC's Funny Stuff. I don't know the issue number, so I've included an in-house ad with other comics from DC's funny animal line. Grand Comics Database doesn't have this issue indexed. Maybe someone out there can identify the issue for me.

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