This contribution wraps up my production with Woody Woodpecker. There is a double meaning to this, since it includes the first story as well as the last story I did. The four episodes were printed in the Scandinavian magazine between 1978 and 1985.
It was the first story that made the Interpresse publisher let me write and draw the two first albums with Woody. In Denmark the albums were becoming an article of increased interest at the time, and it took two albums before they found out that it was not a worthwhile venture after all.
Later on the Swedish editor of the magazines, Ulf Granberg, wanted to improve the quality of the monthly magazine with some new production, and I was called in.
By that time I had made the manuscripts for the third and fourth album but I managed to divide them into separate chapters, so they could be published as comic book premieres. Alongside these installments I also started my Gnuff-series following the same pattern.
The two first Gnuff albums were already made but they had not been published due to some difficulty getting a co-printing arranged. It eventually happened, but the market for albums was not so big in the rest of Scandinavia, so with a few exceptions it lingered on as a less profitable Danish affair.
By the time the first Gnuff albums appeared the Swedish Semic had found out that even the magazine sales could not generate enough profit, so they decided to cancel publishing totally.
This happened in 1985. The last Christmas issue was an expanded issue on 52 pages and they managed to present what they had left of my new production. I took up almost the entire final issue.