Category: Jimmy Acorn and His Forest Friends
Jimmie Acorn’s FIRST Episode!
Howdy Folks, I found the March, 1953 issue of Children’s Activities and it contained the very FIRST episode of Jimmie Acorn. It was created by Edith Forbush and illustrated by Ruth Van Tellingen, featuring Jimmie’s Forest Friends “Downy” Woodpecker and “Thumpy” Rabbit et famille. The main way you can tell this is the first story in the series, is that the origin of Jimmie is told in the first two paragraphs without the italics, and that a boy named “Peter” was Jimmie’s creator. “Peter” isn’t mentioned after this first episode. I like the unblinking attitude of Jimmie when he meets Thumpy and Mrs. Thumpy Rabbit’s baby bunnies. No uncomfortable questions about where the little rabbits came from, Jimmie just strokes their soft fur. Edith Forbush is quite the naturalist, and gently spoon-feeds little facts about bird and animal behavior to her readers in each of her Jimmie Acorn tales. Downy Woodpecker explains to Jimmie that he eats “hundreds and hundreds” of insects, and that “The trees and bushes and plants would be eaten up by the insects and caterpillars if we birds didn’t get rid of them!” The balance of nature is laid out for the edification of a “make-believe” little acorn man. I’ll always have a warm spot for characters like Jimmie Acorn. I hope you are enjoying them too, and perhaps remember him from the early 1950s. See you soon! Mark
Jimmie Visits the Frog Twins
Hi Readers once again, Here’s a very early episode of Jimmy Acorn from Children’s Activities June and July 1953, featuring Jimmy’s visit to Croakie and Hoppie, the Frog Twins. The Twins get a big laugh out of Jimmy’s attempt to hop like a frog. Mollie Snail comes along in the second page and Jimmy is fascinated by her shell, a home she carries around with her. Jimmy invites Mollie to nest in the cracks in his Old Oak Tree home. I hope to find the first episode of Jimmy Acorn one of these days. I found this one on Ebay. Enjoy! Your bloggin’ pal, Mark
Jimmie Acorn Meets the Deer Family
June 16, 2026
Childhood Nostalgia, Comic Strips, Jimmy Acorn and His Forest Friends
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Mark
Here’s another Jimmie Acorn adventure from Children’s Activities of December, 1953. This time Jimmie and Thumpy Rabbit meet Brown Eyes the Fawn and his Mom and Dad, Mother Deer and Big Buck. Just as they are beginning to know the family, Big Buck starts a training course in running and hiding for his son, Brown Eyes, and the whole Deer family disappears into the deep woods. Edith Forbush, the author, teaches the children a lesson about Deer antlers and how they grow. This story should make you all feel cooler with the hot weather coming on this summer. A beloved beach of ours, Crystal Cove, near Newport beach is becoming a victim of Climate change. A horrifying video posted June 12th on Facebook, showed the charming little cottages that line the beach in danger from the rising sea. The entire “front yards” of the cottages are being wiped out by water. My wife Cathy and I have done oil painting and watercolor sketching in Crystal Cove many times. We met the great cartoonist Roger Armstrong there as we painted one day. He took us on a tour of his cottage with a blue roof in Crystal Cove. He had some of his “Napoleon and Uncle Elby” comic strip originals in the cottage. Roger was a great comic book and comic strip artist (Napoleon and Uncle Elby, Ella Cinders, Scamp, Little Lulu, Bugs Bunny and more) who also did beautiful watercolor paintings by “pouring” color on to the paper and then pushing the colors in to shapes. Great man to meet, he also animated for Walter Lantz and Walt Disney.
I am certainly lucky to be alive to post and write on the old Catblog. I and our beloved old 1989 Camry were involved in a “T-Bone” accident in Glendale about a week ago. The Camry was totaled, but I was far enough ahead of the collision in the driver’s seat that I wasn’t physically injured. I don’t remember running a red light at the intersection, but the two guys who hit me are maintaining that I did. I’m thankful that no one died as a result of the crash. I am renting a car while this case is decided by the Insurance companies. So all I can say to you readers is BE CAREFUL! Driving is a hard job, don’t have your iphone turned on in the car, and watch out for traffic coming toward you in the intersections. Be safe, play safe, love and live. Your comics pal, Mark.