Welcome to Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Comics. On this blog, we'll be taking a look at the overlooked side career of the Warner Bros. cartoon characters. Though beloved and celebrated on theater and TV screens for generations of fans, Bugs Bunny and his cartoon cohorts have also had an equally lengthy career in print.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
"Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies" (Dell) #99, January 1950: "Sylvester the Caddy"
Poor Elmer Fudd. If there was ever a character who existed for the sole purpose of getting picked on by others, it's Elmer. One of his most persistent tormentors in the comics as well as a handful of cartoons is Sylvester. In this story from 1950, Sylvester offers to be Fudd's caddy on the golf course, and the predictable hilarity ensues. One thing that's notable about Sylvester in his earlier comic book appearances is his dialect. Rather than the iconic "listhp" from the cartoons, he addresses people as "gov'ner", suggesting a British Cockney accent. This was eventually dropped, and Sylvester alternated between the lisp or simply no dialect at all, a practice that continues in comics to this day.
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Sylvester's profile, with that large muzzle and bulbous snoot, looks a lot like the model used in cartoons around this period, esp. in his Jones-borne spooky outings with Porky and his McKimson-directed encounters with Hippety Hopper.
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