Same Story, Different Artist - Saving Trees

Written by Adam

I've come across this every now and then--some of Ranger Rick's adventure stories are repeats. I've seen it happen in the 1990s issues I have, but I recently came across a more interesting find. This has also occurred during the 1980s when the two Ranger Rick artists, Lorin Thompson and Alton Langford were drawing the images for the stories. The story titled, "Trees in Trouble" by Bonnie Bisbee was originally written for the July 1981 issue. It also made an appearance in the August 1989 issue, but by then Langford had taken over the artistry duties. Its interesting to compare the difference in pictures for the same story.

Below is the main picture for the story, from each artist:

The image to the left is how Lorin Thompson depicted Becky saving a baby squirrel. To the right, how Alton Langford saw the same scene. (Yes, I did remove the text from the images so we can focus on the image only.) If we just look at the images, its apparent both Thompson and Langford had the same idea for the story--show the part where Becky saves the squirrel. That is the big action piece of the adventure. One thing I have noticed, having uploaded multiple images from both artists, Thompson is more comfortable with drawing over the chacter, as in from above. Langford usually will draw from the side. If you just look at Becky, both of these strengths are present.

I'm sure some are thinking it....given the fact one story came eight years after the other, could Langford have copied the idea from Thompson to have Becky diving to save the squirrel? Its eerily similar, but I don't believe plagiarism was at work here. Given a past interview online with Alton Langford, he would be given the story and then he would think about what way he best could design what was going on. I'm willing to take that at face value--he saw that part of the adventure as the most sensible to draw--it just happens to be that the artist before him had the exact same thing in mind. That does not make it wrong.