W. Chase Craig (1910-2002) illustrated, wrote and produced comic books from the mid-1930s until his retirement from Western Printing and Lithography in 1975. Craig wrote and drew the first issues of Bugs Bunny, Looney Tunes, and Merrie Melodies for Western Printing and Lithography. Western's Los Angeles office issued comics based on Walt Disney Studios, Walter Lantz, MGM, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Hanna-Barbera characters, and popular TV shows of the 1950s and 1960s.

W. Chase Craig (1910-2002) illustrated, wrote, and produced comic books from the mid 1930s until his retirement from Western Printing and Lithography in 1975. He graduated from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1934, and soon started working for the Christian Science Monitor, where he drew the Little Chauncey cartoon. The following year he moved to Hollywood, California where he started as assistant animator on Oswald Rabbit for Walter Lantz. In the mid to late 1930s, Craig worked for Tex Avery, then moved to the Los Angeles Daily News to help on the Charlie McCarthy newspaper strip. He developed and sold the syndicated strip, Odd Bodkins, joining Western Publishing soon after. In 1942, Craig enlisted in the US Navy. During the war he worked at the Navy's "Vine Street Press" drawing illustrations for aviator training manuals. In 1950, he became an editor at Western Printing and Lithography, rising to Managing Editor and Executive Editor.

17.147 linear feet

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