Wednesday, September 5, 2012

"Bugs Bunny" (Whitman) # 213, October 1979: "A Helping Hand"


The 1970's and early 1980's Looney Tunes comics were largely terrible, and that's my assessment of them that doesn't include profanity. Actually, "assessment" includes the word "ass", so that's not entirely true. This story from 1979 is pretty lousy, but I think it's interesting for one reason: it has Beaky Buzzard in it. Somehow, despite disappearing from cartoons by the mid 1950's, Bob Clampett's ultimate simpleton managed to stay alive in merchandise and comics for *that* long. That alone makes this story worth a look.








1 comment:

  1. I may have said this before, but this art is wonderful, compared to that in the concurrent new material in the Disney Duck titles! And, truth to tell, this art really isn’t all that bad period – given how dreadful WB animation art looked like in those ‘70s and ‘80s TV specials, etc.

    The story, too, is not far out of line with many of the ‘40s tales where Bugs (sometimes in spite of himself) is just a general nuisance and creator of havoc. Though, it IS brought down somewhat by the “Catch the Crook Syndrome” that eventually pervaded so many Gold Key / Whitman stories.

    Ages ago, when we corresponded, Mark Evanier told me that he revived Beaky Buzzard at Gold Key when Mark was writing WB / Looney Tunes titles in the early-mid ‘70s. He also revived The Phantom Blot in their Disney comics! We have lots to be grateful to him for!

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