THE OLD WOODY WOODPECKER CRACKED
THE OLD WOODY WOODPECKER SERIES

By 1952 he was in his own regularly-published comic, which continued until 1984. In 1947 Dell started devoting a few issues of Four Color Comics to Woody. Within a couple of years, he was its star. In 1942, he started making a few guest appearances with Andy Panda or Oswald the Rabbit in Dell's New Funnies, an anthology title that featured the Lantz characters. Like most cartoon characters of the time, Woody also appeared in comic books. The last one was Bye Bye Blackboard (1972) - a total of approximately 200 cartoons.

THE OLD WOODY WOODPECKER SERIES

There were virtually no highlights from the late 1940s on and yet, the series continued far beyond the heyday of Hollywood cartoons. (Like Droopy, Chip'n'Dale and many other cartoon stars, Woody was not named until his second outing.) That series included two Oscar nominees for Best Cartoon - The Dizzy Acrobat (1943) and Musical Moments from Chopin (1947, where he shared billing with Andy Panda) - and one nomination for Best Song, the one he sang in Wet Blanket Policy (1948).

THE OLD WOODY WOODPECKER CRACKED

The Cracked Nut, a 1941 Lantz Studio production, kicked off Woody's own series - and, incidentally, was the film in which he received his name.

His unique laugh, created by voice actor Mel Blanc (and later adopted by Blanc's successors in the role, including Hardaway himself and Lantz's wife, Grace Stafford), provided an easily recognizable trademark, and was enough to ensure the character's return. The script was written by Ben 'Bugs' Hardaway, who, at Warner Bros., had co-directed the first cartoon featuring the embryonic Bugs Bunny and in fact, Woody owes much of his personality to Bugs. The Woodpecker's first appearance was as a supporting character in an Andy Panda cartoon, Knock Knock (1940). The only thing wrong with this story is that when the honeymoon took place, Woody had already been a cartoon star for a year. Drawing inspiration from adversity, Lantz decided to turn the woodpecker into a cartoon character. As annoying as the bird was, however, they also found him kind of amusing - until it rained, and they discovered he'd pecked holes in their roof. During his honeymoon in a lakeside cabin, he and his wife wereД¬onstantly bedeviled by a very loud woodpecker. Walter Lantz used to tell a wonderful story about the creation of Woody Woodpecker. Please contribute to its necessary financial support. If this site is enjoyable or useful to you, WOODY WOODPECKER Original Medium: Theatrical Animation

The old woody woodpecker