Wednesday, December 5, 2012

"Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies"(Dell) # 99, January 1950: ""Bugs in Toyland"

In this strange Christmas tale from 1950, Bugs Bunny buys a carrot as a gift for his girlfriend Lula Belle, but when he sees her buying an expensive watch, he assumes it's for him and decides he needs to come up with a better present. He stumbles upon two scientists who need a test subject for their rocket launch to the moon. Their offer to pay entices Bugs to agree, but the rocket doesn't make it to the moon. Instead, it crashes at the North Pole, where the rabbit discovers Santa Claus in a bit of a conundrum. It gets weirder from there.

























Monday, December 3, 2012

"Bugs Bunny's Christmas Funnies"(Dell) # 2, 1951: "Sylvester and Tweety"

Dell often produced thick, jam-packed annual Christmas specials featuring their various comics properties. For the Warner stuff, it was "Bugs Bunny's Christmas Funnies". In this story from the second of those, Sylvester thinks he's got a free meal ticket for the entire holiday season. His scheme? Ordering food at a restaurant, and, just before finishing, placing a tack in it and blaming the waiter, thus getting his meal comped. It all goes according to plan, until Tweety causes him to lose his box of tacks! There are some wonderfully expressive drawings of Sylvester in this one. Oddly enough, he seems so focused on his scheme, and distraught when it goes awry, that he never thinks of eating Tweety.

















Saturday, December 1, 2012

"Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies" (Dell) # 39, January 1945: "Christmas Tree Feud"

The Dell/Western Publishing comics, not just the Looney Tunes series, had tons of Christmas-themed stories and specials. This month, after taking a break from this blog for a while, I plan to showcase some of my favorites featuring the Looney Tunes characters. Some are funny, some are sweet, and some are just plain bizarre.

In this one, from 1945, Mary Jane and Sniffles enter the fantasy world of Christmas trees. All is not well in this world, because the natural green trees and the fake-snow flocked trees are feuding. As bizarre as it sounds, it has a good message, and is really an appealing Christmas fantasy worth the 11-page read.