Introduced in the pages of The Saturday Evening Post in a story written by Eric Knight on December 17, 1938 Lassie would next appear in a film co-staring Elizabeth Taylor in 1943.
Four years later on June8, 1947 she got her own radio series which eventually segued into a television series in 1954 that ran until 1973.
On an odd note, in between the radio show that started in 1947 and the change into a TV series in 1954 there was a little known comic book series titled M.G.M’s Lassie, which had nothing to do with the radio / TV series. Running for 36 issues it had pained covers and related Lassie and her master’s adventures after they had crashed on a tropical island.
Lassie’s next comic book series would of course be based on the TV series and feature covers made up of publicity shots of Lassie and Timmy.