Maltese Comicwork - Flippity & Flop

In addition to writing several dozen of the best cartoons ever made at Warners (and a few hundred inane ones at Hanna-Barbera), Mike Maltese also wrote for funny animal comics. He's actually credited on a few non-film character titles (Barnyard Comics), but for the most part, his comic work is uncredited.

Here's a story I believe to be written by Maltese from Real Screen Comics #7 (1946). The Flippity & Flop stories always tended to be based on psychological warfare, and these earliest stories play almost like a Jones Hubie & Bertie cartoon (there is one in RS #10 which is just "Roughly Squeaking"). Flippity, Flop, and Sam (the dog, not in this story) all seem to be obligately filling in their roles as canary, cat, and dog too, reminiscent of Jones' Ralph Wolf and Sam (!) Sheepdog cartoons.

I'd love to know who the artist here is, he has a nice style (it's definitely not Bob Wickersham).