Krazy Komics (1942) 1

Nothing about the comic book featured or title of the book offers a clue as today being International Day of the Seal, but it is.

Unlike so many of our featured non-holidays, International Day of the Seal has an origin we can trace. In 1982, the United States Congress declared an International Day of the Seal to draw attention to the cruelty of seal hunts and to halt the extinction of the species.

On a lighter note, our seal of honor made his public debut in 1942 as a back-up feature in Krazy Komics issue one. Silly Seal began as a solo act along with Super Rabbit, Toughy Cat and soon-to-be cohort Ziggy Pig.

Silly Seal was part of a new bred of personality, originating in the fresh comic book medium rather than bouncing there from a newspaper strip or cartoon. Silly was the creation of Al Jaffee for Timely Comics. Timely would-be rechristened Marvel Comics two decades later.

Krazy Komics (1942) 1

Jaffee would later be better known as one of the original mad men of Mad Magazine. His career began with Seal and would earn him the title of longest-ever career comic book artist running to 2020. In his half century of work with Mad, only one issue would be published without his material.

Silly proved popular enough he would be teamed with Ziggy and the two received their own book in 1944. They would share the title for six issues, through September 1946.

Prior, they had already appeared as a team on the cover of Krazy Komics since January of 1943. They would continue as the featured characters on the cover through the final issue, 26, in 1946.

They would also be featured in Animated Funny Comic-Tunes and Silly Tunes while sharing star status in Ideal Comics and in All Surprise Comics as well as Comic Capers.

They would make one final Golden Age appearance in Animal Fun 3-D in 1953.

Silly would be revived briefly in 2009 for a guest shot in Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four and, again in 2018 and 2019 in Deadpool’s ongoing series.

As for International Day of the Seal, celebrate with some fun facts about the pinnipeds:

A group are called a raft, there are 33 species of seals, their whiskers help them detect prey in murky water, they can live 25 to 30 years and can weigh over 7,000 pounds.

Seals have been hunted for centuries for their meat, blubber and fur coats. Due to the unsupervised slaughter, some species have become endangered including Saimaa of Finland, Ungva of Quebec, Mediterranean monk seals and Hawaiian monk seals.

Take time to reflect on the genocide of a species before enjoying more fun aspects of the day like an animated feature or four-color fantasy.