Groin Injury Saturday: Ziggy Pig

I was going to display a few panels from the recent Runaways, where an alien gets it in the skrulljones by a little girl, but that title is really bugging me and is too similar to the Ragdoll scene. So I'm going to show a cover from the long-forgotten Marvel comics book Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal.



Ziggy Pig is skiing downhill with his pal Silly Seal when he slams at full speed into a tree, ramming himself face and groin into the trunk. Laughing at his friend's situation, Silly Seal continues on around both sides of a nearby tree in an act impossible outside of a comic.

Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal was created and drawn by Al Jaffee, an artist that many might recognize as a cartoonist and artist for MAD magazine and as the inventor of the MAD Fold-in. Though folding puzzles that reveal a new picture had existed for years, he really popularized them with their politically satirical content.

Ziggy Pig first appeared way back in 1942 in Krazy Komics and the feature was popular enough to spread into multiple titles and served as a strong mainstay of the Marvel funny animal line. Except for a 1953 one-shot and 1950's pirated reprints from a publisher who didn't bother securing permission to reprint old comics this comedy duos' last regular appearance was in 1947.

The ski tracks diverging around a tree schtick is an old, old sight gag that was pretty much originated and made famous by the Charles Adams cartoon Downhill Skier, which he drew in 1940 for the New Yorker. Since then the concept appeared in hundreds of cartoons and animated scenes.