JOHN ALBANO is a name familiar to anyone who grew up reading DC Comics in the late 1960s and 1970s. He did a ton of humor work for the company and the Academy of Comic Book Arts awarded him a Shazam Award in 1971 (Best Writer: Humor Division) and 1972 (Best Individual Short Story - Dramatic) for “The Demon Within,” that was illustrated by the great Jim Aparo, and published in DC Comics’ House of Mystery #201. He also co-created (with artist Tony Dezuniga) the legendary Jonah Hex, the scarfaced cowboy who just will not die. Albano died in 2005 and Mark Evanier has more about his life here.

JOHN COSTANZA is primarily known as a letterer (on titles like Alan Moore and Steve Bissette’s run on Swamp Thing) and cartoonist especially on Warner Bros. cartoon characters (though he’s also worked on The Simpsons comic books as well as Roger Rabbit). He got his start as Joe Kubert’s assistant on the newspaper strip, Tales of the Green Berets. He also won a Shazam Award from the ACBA in 1974 (Best Letterer), and in 1986 and 1987 won Comic Buyer’s Guide Fan Awards for Favorite Letterer for his work on Swamp Thing.

In 1984, John and John teamed up with Little Golden Books for this short easy-reader gem: Ronald McDonald And The Tale of the Talking Plant. In the story, Ronald and Grimace help two children find a place where a beautiful talking plant can be appreciated by adoring fans. (And no, cynical reader of licensed tie-in projects, they don’t take it to a McDonald’s restaurant.)

If you’re an Albano/Costanza/Ronald McDonald collector, you should be able to snag a copy of this relatively inexpensively. I got mine at a library book sale for less than a buck.

(artwork © 1984 McDonald’s Corporation)