#248

• First cover art by long-time 'SAD SACK' cartoonist Fred Rhoads for Sad Sack Comics (Harvey, 1949 series). • After brief try-out as a 'SAD SACK' cartoonist in late 1953, Fred Rhoads negotiated an oral agreement with Harvey Publications founder and president Alfred Harvey wherein Rhoads was considered, given vacation bonuses, paid, referred to, and treated as an employee* from 1954 to 1977. • Fred Rhoads was denied unemployment benefits by the Arizona Employment Department upon losing his source of steady income from Harvey Publications, Inc. when it stopped purchasing his 'Sad Sack' artwork in September 1977. Believing---based upon good faith representations, an oral contract, and prior full-time work schedule---that he was a legitimate "employee," Rhoads hired the Tucson, Arizona law firm of Lovallo & Stirton to file suit against Harvey Publications on May 26, 1978 for payment of unemployment compensation and unpaid royalties to which a jury trial agreed and awarded him 2,580,000.00 USD inclusive of punitive damages. • Harvey Publications, Inc., however, replaced their prior legal team, then hired Messing & Glicksman, P.C. of Tucson to litigate an appeal in which Harvey Publications, Inc. ultimately overturned the lower court's jury verdict based on a technicality† on December 2, 1981.

* Rhoads v. Harvey Publications, Inc. [1981] Exhibit 2A, 131 Ariz. 267 (1981) (Superior Court of the State of Arizona).

† Rhoads v. Harvey Publications, Inc. [1984] 700 P.2D 840 (1984) (Court of Appeals of Arizona, Division 2) [8 microfiche totaling 513 pages of court proceedings].

On sale date sourced from Library of Congress, Periodicals 1975 and publisher's promo on page 4 of Sad Sack #248.