Adventures of Rick Raccoon - 1959

Written by Adam.

Ranger Rick started back in the late 1950s when NWF wanted to find a role model that could appeal to children. J. Ashe Brownridge, former director of NWF, states that one of the first things they were doing to make kids more consciously aware of wildlife conservation was printing their own Christmas cards. The idea for written material came from a colleague who had visited Japan and saw a book of characters that resembled the cards that were being drawn. The book was a storybook with a small figurine in the middle that you could manually animate by turning a rod at the bottom of the book. It was then decided that a book should be created and it would be in the style of this Japanese story with a rotating character in the center.

The Adventures of Rick Raccoon was born.

The Cover of the 1959 Book

The inside of the cover.

The title page, with copyright and author information.

My copy of the book itself is in rough shape, but its to be expected having been in existence for so long, and still a full specimen (even though the cover is not attached). The crank at the bottom which turns Ranger Rick still is operational though the figure itself has had some of its paint worn off, and it looks a tad creepy. As Brownridge stated, you see Rick through each page in the center, so all writing and artwork had to work around this centerpiece. The story is written by John Morris. According to Robert Brownridge, son of former board director John A. Brownridge, the story is the same one as the first magazine issue. The difference in credits refers to the fact that John did not want people knowing he was the author because he was also the one trying to secure funds for NWF in its early days. The artist of the story is credited to Edward Bradford. Anyone who looks at these drawings will immediately recognize the resemblance to Lorin Thompson’s drawings in the magazine. Perhaps this is where Lorin got his inspiration from.

The gang is happy, then angry given the progression of the story.

The story itself is the familiar Benny Bass story where the gang offers to clean up Clear Creek. There are many characters drawn for the story, many of whom survived the transition to the magazine stories, rather than creating new characters. Perhaps one of the most striking things if you read deep enough into the story is that only one character is given any sort of real personality at all—Oliver Otter. You get a strong sense of his playful nature due to his comments in the story. Everyone else is just there and you don’t get a sense of any personality traits from anyone else. Rick is in the story, but outside of the mechanical figurine you never see him anywhere. So is Rick telling the story? Or is he supposed to be there with the rest of the gang?

A first look at one of the magazine's regular characters - Oliver Otter.

Overall, I thought the book was an interesting piece of Ranger Rick history. I thought it would be longer, or maybe a different story. The setup is essentially what carries over into the magazine--painted drawings wrapped around a story. Also, some characters transfer from this first story to the magazine:

Rick Raccoon

Oliver (Ollie) Otter

Wally Wolf

Pudgy Porcupine

Sammy Squirrel

Zelda Possum

Cubby Bear

Wise Old Owl (I believe he's male in this story)

Ranger Rick even gets a song. Not positive how well it plays--quarter notes and half notes when you should have eighth notes or triplets for some words is telling me that the notes won't match the words put to them. The first issue of the magazine had a song as well, but I think they actually got the notes right on that one.

So there you have it.....the true first adventure of Ranger Rick Raccoon and his friends of Deep Green Wood!

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