COMIC BOOK STORY: "Thanksgiving Turkeys" (Barney Bear) (Patreon)

Happy holidays! Here's a Thanksgiving feud with Barney Bear and his grouchy neighbor Mooseface McElk for the occasion... 

Barney Bear starred in his own series of cartoons for MGM during the early 1940s, and a burro was his supporting player in The Prospecting Bear (1941). The burro starred in a solo appearance (and redesigned) in Little Gravel Voice (1942). After the 1942 cartoon, the donkey appeared in the Our Gang line of comic book stories as Benny, “the Lonesome Burro,” along with other animated MGM characters.

Starring with issue #11 (May-June 1944), Benny was paired with Barney Bear in a series of stories by Carl Barks. Soon, Barks became more disinterested in the characters over the next three years, so he accepted scripts from Gil Turner. In issue #31 (February 1947), Turner introduced Barney’s combative next-door neighbor Mooseface McElk. After issue #36 (July 1947), Barks withdrew from the series, and Turner took over, both writing and drawing. 

In the 1950s, Benny appeared in another animated film—again as Barney's sidekick in Dick Lundy's Half-Pint Palomino (1953), in which Barney calls him by name, making it clear that it's the same character. 

From Our Gang with Tom and Jerry #41 (December 1947)—written, drawn, and lettered by Gil Turner.