Captain Marvel gives him a send-off on the cover and everything! Given the success of the Big Red Cheese, the Small Blue Cheese and, uhm, Mary Marvel, Fawcett decided to put one of the Marvels in their new funny animals comic. It's not just a case of making a bunny say Shazam as a gag either. He actually does fight Nazis (well, Ratzis) and is a proper superhero in his universe (Earth-S's Earth-C? Or is it just the Golden Age Earth-C? Where does Roy Thomas fall on this?).
Grothkopf's art is very pleasant and looks like animation and his creation would go on to star not only in almost every issue of Funny Animals (reverting to just Hoppy in 1951 when superheroes fell out of favor), but his own series a few years down the line as well. When Charlton bought out Funny Animals and continued the comic, it featured reprints of Hoppy, but removed its Shazamness by erasing his thunderbolt, changing his magic word, and calling him Happy.
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