The character was the creation an experienced artist who had worked for Disney. George Baker found himself in the army right before World War II broke out. Like many soldiers, he was not exactly happy. To keep himself amused, he started doing random drawings about a new recruit. For a lark, he entered one of them in a contest. That cartoon ended up seeing print in Life Magazine in 1941. When war broke out Baker found himself stationed stateside working for Yank Magazine. One of the editors had seen the cartoon in Life and had Baker do a series of drawings for the magazine. The early Sad Sack was no where near as clean as he became. The cartoon depicted the character having to deal with such regular parts of Army life as sexual hygiene films and other topics unsuitable for mixed company. Officers were not exactly pleased with the way they were portrayed, but the cartoon was very, very popular with the regular soldiers. When the war was over, the strips were collected in a series of popular books. There was even a daily, but they had moved the Sack to civilian life and that didn’t fly with readers. Harvey enters the picture because they are looking for licensed properties to publish. At the time they were doing Dick Tracy, Blondie and others. Sad Sack first saw publication in 1949. Eventually, as the years passed, Harvey bought the rights to the character from Baker. He continued to do the covers until he passed away in 1975. When Harvey bought the rights, they brought in an artist named Fred Rhodes. He had been working on Snuffy Smith and a few other daily strips. With Rhodes on board, the book really began to take off. Baker had never been comfortable with the younger reads that comics had attracted. In essence, he was uncomfortable taking the expected raunchiness out of Army life. Rhodes was perfect for the younger readers. He eventually built a whole world around Sack that allowed Harvey to create a lot of spin-off books for the character and his cast. When Rhodes left in the late seventies, the book went downhill. Sad Sack was one of two properties that Harvey kept when they sold the rights to all their characters. (The other was the Black Cat). Sad sack has no t been seen much since than. The early stories that Baker worked on are exceptionally funny. The later Rhodes stories are just as funny, but in a different way. Both artists were incredible at what they did and their work lives on today. The pages are off-white. This unrestored book is CGC-certified 9.2 (NM-). According to the CGC Census this copy is tied with one other as the second-highest graded copy they have seen. This copy comes directly from the files of Harvey Publishing.