September 1960: The Cat Who Looked Like a Bat

Almost all funny animal superheroes from the 1940s through the 1960s were inspired by the most popular hero of the day, Superman. 

But not this one. He was clearly Batcat.

Comics historian Joseph Lenius quipped, “Bob Kane retrofits Batman and Robin into a cat and a mouse (and knowing him, maybe it’s really Bill Finger who does that), and then gives himself a big pat on the back.”

Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse debuted Sept. 14, 1960, as a cartoon on The Tommy Seven Show on NYC’s WABC Channel 7.

“Titled Disguise the Limit, (the first episode) opened with Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse roaring out of the Cat Cave — its mouth is shaped like a cat’s head — in their fire engine-red Catmobile, which is equipped with supercharger coils 30 years out-of-date at the time the show aired,” popular culture historian Will Murray noted.

“Like the Batmobile, the Catmobile has a huge stylized head mounted in front. Instead of a bat’s black head, it’s a black cat-head with green feline eyes. The difference is hard to distinguish. They forgot to draw whiskers.”

Unlike the hyper-competent Robin, Minute Mouse was designed to be inept. “Minute Mouse was his clumsy little helper who always bungled the case just when Courageous Cat was about to solve it,” Kane wrote.

“Whenever fighting bad guys, Courageous Cat would use his all-purpose Cat Gun or a vast variety of different deus ex machina ‘trick guns’ he pulls out of his cape that (like the Green Arrow's trick arrows) fire whatever the situation requires like a rope, some water, a parachute, cages, boxing gloves, lightning-like magnetic rays or even more bizarre ammunition, and even the occasional actual bullet,” Wikipedia observed. 

“In case of emergency, Courageous also has extra pre-James Bond secret gadgets hidden in his belt buckle and the star emblem on his chest.”

“In many ways, Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse presages the camp aspects of the later Batman live action series.”

June 1957: Of Supermice and Supermen

As a child, I ran into what seemed to me to be a surprising number of super-rodents.

We had the multimedia marvel Mighty Mouse, of course — that ubiquitous cat-slapping champion of the CBS Saturday morning cartoon lineup.

A conceptual combination of Mickey Mouse and Superman, Mighty Mouse was also featured in or on a Dell comic book, View-Master disks, punching bags, etc. In the late 1950s, Mighty Mouse was at least as popular as Superman.

And that’s undoubtedly why Charlton Comics offered us Atomic Mouse and more. He shared his black, caped super-costume design with Atom the Cat and two out of Charlton’s three super-rabbits (Atomic Rabbit, Atomic Bunny and Happy the Magic Bunny, who had been Hoppy the Marvel Bunny in another life).

Liking them all, I probably would have called that crowd a sufficiency of anthropomorphic super-animals, had anyone asked. So I was surprised to discover the existence of yet another super-rodent, Pines’ Comics Supermouse. I assumed this was just some inferior rip-off of Mighty Mouse.

Never assume, as they say in journalism school. Because Supermouse was arguably the original, not Mighty Mouse.

Artist Kin Platt’s Supermouse debuted in the first issue of Coo Coo Comics, cover-dated Oct. 1942, while Terrytoons’ Mighty Mouse — then also named “Super Mouse” — first appeared that same month in the first of his 80 theatrical cartoons, The Mouse of Tomorrow. He was originally to have been “Super Fly,” a name that would later be immortalized in 1970s cinema.

To avoid confusion with Supermouse, Terrytoons retroactively changed the name of its character to “Mighty Mouse.”

“Between them, these mice were the first two ongoing funny animal superheroes,” observed Markstein. “Since normal publishing lead times caused comic books to appear on the stands a couple of months before their cover dates, the edge goes to (Supermouse) as the very first to appear before the public — the precursor to DC’s Terrific Whatzit, Marvel’s Super Rabbit, Fox’s Cosmo Cat and all the rest.”

August 1955: All My Atomic Bunnies

Charlton Comics, which rarely failed to copy any popular trend or character (The Lone Ranger, Casper the Friendly Ghost, etc.), offered multiple Mighty Mouse knock-offs that interested me as a child.

All were caped, black-clad funny animal heroes who — in one of those derangements peculiar to the nuclear-nervous 1950s — used the word “Atomic” as a synonym for “Super” in their names.

So we had Atomic Mouse, Atom the Cat (a Tom Cat, get it?) and two atomic Leporidae, along with one magical one.

In 1955, Atomic Rabbit gained the powers of flight and super strength by eating irradiated carrots.

The talented artist Al Fago “…handled Atomic Rabbit from his first appearance, dated Aug. 1955, through the end of the series under that name — #11, dated March, 1958. As of #12, it was changed to Atomic Bunny, and it’s not certain they’re the same character,” comics historian Don Markstein noted. “Bunny looked like Rabbit in the first issue, (although) drawn by Charlton’s editor, Pat Masulli, but his appearance changed radically after that. Then, he was back to his former appearance with the last issue (Dec. 1959).”

 “Funny animal superheroes have been a part of the animation and comic book scenes since the days of Mighty Mouse and Supermouse, respectively — almost as long as human superheroes have been around, in fact,” Markstein noted. “Marvel had Super Rabbit, DC had The Terrific Whatzit, Fox had Cosmo Cat etc. But the biggest concentration of the sub-genre was at Charlton Comics during the 1950s, which had Happy the Magic Bunny, Atom the Cat, and several others — in fact, its longest-lasting superhero title ever was Atomic Mouse.”

Happy the Magic Bunny was Charlton’s barely retooled version of Fawcett’s Hoppy the Marvel Bunny, who’d debuted in 1942, the same year as Mighty Mouse.

When Captain Marvel and his pals were legally hounded out of business by Superman, Hoppy/Happy remained quietly on Charlton’s back pages, the last surviving member of the once million-selling Marvels.

December 1942: The Rabbit Who Said ‘Shazam!’

Fawcett’s Captain Marvel was one early superhero who swiftly evolved into a franchise. Debuting in 1940, he was joined by Captain Marvel Jr. in 1941 and Mary Marvel in 1942.

“The other addition this year to what eventually came to be known as the Marvel Family was far and away the strangest,” observed Kurt F. Mitchell in American Comic Book Chronicles. “‘Hoppy the Marvel Bunny’ was the star of Fawcett’s Funny Animals, a new monthly.

“Meek, clumsy Hoppy, distressed over being snubbed by his girl Millie, took comfort with the latest issue of Captain Marvel Adventures. When he read aloud the magic word, Hoppy, too, became a Captain Marvel just in time to save the city of Funny Animalville from ‘der bearers uf der New Order:’ a dachshund named Hermann, a chimp named Muss and a mouse named Zero. Subtle it wasn’t. 

“The Marvel Bunny wasn’t the first funny animal super-hero, but the expressive art of Chad Grothkopf, perfect for depicting the slapstick action that made the new strip so much fun, and the cachet of the Captain Marvel brand translated into superior sales.”

“Funny animal comics were a strong staple of the industry in the early decades of the art form, and before animal sidekicks became more of a presence in DC’s books, Fawcett introduced their lead hero’s animal counterpart in his own title in 1945,” recalled artist Alex Ross. “Just like Captain Marvel, Hoppy said ‘Shazam!’ and had all of the same abilities. The Marvel Bunny also enjoyed merchandising along with the other Marvel Family members.”

Unlike Captain Marvel, Hoppy even survived the very collapse of his comic book universe when Fawcett stopped publishing superheroes. 

Charlton Comics took over the character in 1955, ultimately changing his name to Happy and his costume from red to blue. 

Happy the Magic Bunny had plenty of super-anthropomorphic company at Charlton — Atomic Mouse, Atom the Cat, Atomic Rabbit and Atomic Bunny were also published there during the 1950s.