Ziggy Pig - Silly Seal Comics v2 #1

[Clive_Reston]

Welp. One-shot, out this week. Seems... largely congruent with the Marvel universe as we know it, aside from the relatively large number of talking animals. Deadpool appears, as do Brute Force, Wundarr the Aquarian, the Fact Channel, Dr. Strange, Dr. Doom, etc. Appears to be one of those maddening edge cases; if someone with better eyes than mine can point out something that makes it incompatible with 616, I'd be oddly grateful.

I do appreciate that it involves a polar bear TV talk show host named "Stephen Cold Bear."

Worth noting that versions of Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal also appeared in Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four #46 about ten years ago. That whole Marvel Adventures continuity seems under-indexed (and some of it is quite good).

[MarvelBoy2002]

Timely talking animals are confirmed to exist on Earth-616 by Deadpool v7 #8. It's... very strange.

[Col_Fury]

I haven't read either one of these yet, but it's been established (by Forbush Man, Spider-Ham and others) that the silly / cartoony characters can easily hop between realities / universes (for example, Forbush Man can step out of a panel and wind up in a different universe in the next panel).

For what it's worth.

[vanhornluke]

Wow, so should the Timely funny animal stories be considered 616? If so, then I would remind y'all that Stan Lee appears in one of the Timely funny animal stories, and so that should be added to his chronology, too: http://www.chronologyproject.com/phpbb2 ... =2&t=14458

[vanhornluke]

Deadpool appears, as do Brute Force, Wundarr the Aquarian, the Fact Channel, Dr. Strange, Dr. Doom, etc.

Combo Man appears, too!!!

[vanhornluke]

Maybe Silly Seal is one of the Seal People that Namor encountered? https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Seal_People

[vanhornluke]

This seems to settle it that the new Ziggy/Silly issue is 616: https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/ ... -interview

[Col_Fury]

The interview says the story takes place in the Marvel Universe, but doesn't say that Ziggy and Silly are Marvel Universe characters (that might just be semantics, but still). The interview also says that Forbush Man appears in this "Marvel Universe story" and we know he's not 616 (so maybe not semantics). The interview also points to Howard the Duck, but the only reason he's here is because he came through the Nexus of All Realities (he's "trapped in a world he never made!"). If Howard's their example, that might mean they're not from here.

An aside: Were Ziggy and Silly a comedy team in the '40s? In the comics? I have no idea, but the interview makes it sound like that's a new thing (or rather, a previously unrevealed thing).

[loki]

The interview says the story takes place in the Marvel Universe, but doesn't say that Ziggy and Silly are Marvel Universe characters (that might just be semantics, but still). The interview also says that Forbush Man appears in this "Marvel Universe story" and we know he's not 616 (so maybe not semantics). The interview also points to Howard the Duck, but the only reason he's here is because he came through the Nexus of All Realities (he's "trapped in a world he never made!"). If Howard's their example, that might mean they're not from here.

An aside: Were Ziggy and Silly a comedy team in the '40s? In the comics? I have no idea, but the interview makes it sound like that's a new thing (or rather, a previously unrevealed thing).

Since Hawk-Owl and Woody are present, and we know them to be Ultimate Universe characters, plus Obnoxio, who's from the Crazy Magazine reality (Earth-80360), plus Identity Girl from What Huh?! (Earth-9047 iirc), then I think there's strong evidence of either a LOT of 616 counterparts to alternate reality characters, or (more likely imo) a lot of reality-hoppers present.

[MarvelBoy2002]

In my headcanon, they are residents of Earth-47920.

[StrayLamb]

An aside: Were Ziggy and Silly a comedy team in the '40s? In the comics? I have no idea, but the interview makes it sound like that's a new thing (or rather, a previously unrevealed thing).

From Wikipedia: Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal were created by cartoonist Al Jaffee for Timely Comics, a predecessor of Marvel Comics, in the comedy anthology comic book Krazy Komics #1 (cover dated July 1942). Jaffee recalled in a 2004 interview, "I created Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal from scratch. [Editor-in-chief] Stan [Lee] said to me, 'Create an animated-type character. Something different, something new'. I searched around and thought, 'I’ve never seen anyone do anything about a seal', so I made him the lead character. So I created 'Silly Seal'. One day, Stan said to me, 'Why don’t you give him a little friend of some sort?' I had already created Ziggy Pig, who had his own little feature, so it was quite easy to combine them into one series. I said, 'How about Ziggy Pig?' Stan said, 'Okay!' I should add that, while I created Ziggy Pig, it was Stan who named him."

Aside from Jaffee, artists associated with the feature include Joe Calcagno, Harvey Eisenberg, Al Fago Al Genet, and Mike Sekowsky.

Following their individual debuts, Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal were teamed and became stars of Timely Comics' children's-comedy line. They first appeared together on a cover with Krazy Komics #5 (Jan. 1943), and continued as the cover feature through #24 (Sept. 1946), generally with their regular antagonist, Toughy Cat; they also appeared on the ensemble cover of the final issue, #26 (Fall 1946).

Ziggy and Silly became the cover stars of all eight issues of Animated Funny Comic-Tunes (#16-23, Summer 1944 - Fall 1946; Silly not on cover of #18), all seven issues of Silly Tunes (Fall 1945 - April 1947; as part of ensemble on last issue), on issues of Ideal Comics, and elsewhere. They appear on the Super Rabbit-dominated ensemble covers on all but issues #10 & 12 of the dozen-issue All Surprise Comics (Fall 1943 - Winter 1946), and in both the ensemble covers and their own covers on all six issues of Comic Capers (Fall 1944 - Fall 1946). Ziggy and Silly headlined their own six-issue Ziggy Pig-Silly Seal Comics (Jan. 1944 - Sept. 1946).

Silly Tunes #7 (April 1947) marked their final Golden Age appearance. After this era, they reappeared in the one-shot 3-D comic book, Animal Fun 3-D (Dec. 1953), from Premier Magazines. Ziggy and Silly also appeared in issues of the unauthorized reprint titles Billy And Buggy Bear, Wacky Duck, Super Rabbit, and Ziggy Pig from Israel Waldman's I. W. Publications / Super Comics, for a short time beginning in 1958.

Ziggy and Silly appear, along with other Timely funny animals, in a 2009 issue of Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four titled "A Timely Family Appearance". Previously Ziggy had appeared in a non-canonical Marvel novelty humor comic Marvel Fumetti Book #1 (April 1984), alongside artist Terry Austin in the two-page story "Inker-Dinker-Doo" by writer Mike Carlin, photographer Vince Colletta, and penciller-inker Austin.

In 2018, Ziggy (via a photo) and Silly appear in Deadpool (2018) #8 in a story where Silly hires Deadpool.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziggy_Pig_and_Silly_Seal

[Col_Fury]

I really need to read this thing, but the interview made it sound like they were a comedy team, and compared them to Laurel and Hardy.

Were they running around telling jokes to people? Doing stand-up routines? Or were they just two silly characters that appeared together a lot?

[StrayLamb]

There's a full copy of Ziggy Pig Silly Seal Comics #6 (Sept 1946) on YouTube which contains 4 Silly and Ziggy strips and one Creeper strip. Silly and Ziggy get into all kinds of hijinks together..

[link redacted]

There are a lot of 1940's and '50's Marvels in full on YouTube.. Suitable for anyone wanting to read or do an analysis..

[link redacted]

[MarvelBoy2002]

Ziggy also appeared in the virtual reality in Tony Stark: Iron Man #3.

[link redacted]

[vanhornluke]

I just learned that Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal are in a pin-up with Thor in Marvel Fanfare #18, for whatever that's worth, so it's not unprecedented to depict them alongside 616 characters.