I never cease to be amazed at how different comic books can be outside of the USA! But this German edition of THE PINK PANTHER (Der Rosarote Panther #65), takes the Bavarian Chocolate Cake!
Mighty Mouse AND The Pink Panther??! ...And for 100 Seiten... er, pages?
Golly, has The Commissioner ever looked so happy when in the presence of The Inspector?
I guess he figures that, however badly The Inspector messes up, Mighty Mouse will be there to save the day!
Either that or, after so many years of The Inspector's incompetence, The Commissioner has finally gone batty!
As another DePatie-Freleng character would say, "Very interesting..." I can only assume this publisher had the rights to publish both DePatie-Freleng and Terrytoons stories? Even if this was the case, I don't think I've ever seen characters owned by different entities mixed together in the same volume, excepting some fairly recent crossovers such as Batman and the Green Hornet.
ReplyDeleteSergio:
ReplyDeleteAs you know, things like Batman/Green Hornet are done with the cooperation of the two IP owners – or, at the very least, their respective publishers. I can’t imagine such a thing having been done in this case!
The publisher *would* have to have had separate licenses from DePatie-Freleng and Terrytoons, but I’d be very surprised if those licenses explicitly allowed their respective properties to be published together like one of those “Catch-All Cartoon Shows” that proliferated on local TV during the ‘70s and ‘80s, which were often titled something like “Bugs Bunny and Friends” or “Popeye and Friends” with the “Friends” usually being a product of a different studio entirely.
Of course, that sort of thing occurring in comics could be more common in Germany, for all I know. Maybe both properties are handled by the same agency/corporate entity for German publication? Anything’s possible in that wild and wacky world of licensing!
I just found out that DC’s Looney Tunes comic is ending, which means this is the first time since 1940 that the LTs didn’t have a consistent appearances in comic book (or for a few years after Western Publishing stopped publishing comics in 1984, I’m not entirely sure because I mostly am familiar with the Dells, Gold Keys, & DCs)
ReplyDeleteAnon:
ReplyDeleteI was unaware of that sad news about DC’s Looney Tunes! Like DC’s remaining Scooby-Doo title (where once there were several), it was half-reprints every issue for a very long time, so I figured both would hang around indefinitely. I hope Scooby isn’t next. I’ll have to look into this.
Yes, since 1940 thru 1984 – through Dell, Gold Key, and Whitman – there has been a Looney Tunes title or titles for the individual Warner Bros. characters, produced by such great talents as Tom McKimson, Roger Armstrong, Vivie Risto, Carl Buettner, Don R. Christensen, Tony Strobl, Phil DeLara, Michael Maltese, Al Hubbard, Pete Alvarado, Fred Abranz, Vic Lockman, Mark Evanier, Jack Manning, John Costanza, Massimo Fecchi, and more which I’m certain I’m leaving out. Many of these names are recognizable from credits on the actual cartoons.
DC Published a three-issue Bugs Bunny series in 1990, and another one in 1994, with its Looney Tunes title beginning that same year… and running until now. Lots of great talents in the 1994 series as well, led by writers Sholly Fisch and Dan Slott and artists Dave Alvarez and Walter Carzon – and too many others to name.
…Sad to see it go!
Oh, that is sad news about the Looney Tunes title! In the last several years, I've bought issues that featured stories by Sholly Fisch and always enjoyed them.
DeleteElaine:
ReplyDeleteAs you probably know, Sholly Fisch just may be my favorite American comics writer at this point, with runners-up being the writers of Mad Cave’s Dick Tracy and Dynamite’s Jonny Quest. And anything that means less Sholly Fisch is not a good thing!
I’ll confess that I did give up DC’s Looney Tunes for some while, strictly because half it’s contents consists of reprints of earlier stories I already have. The same is true for DC’s Scooby-Doo Where Are You. Not wanting to buy TWO titles that are half-reprint, I opted to continue only Scooby and largely because (in my opinion) Sholly does his best work with those characters – over the runs of Scooby-Doo Where Are You, the late and much-lamented Scooby-Doo Team-Up, and the late and equally lamented Batman and Scooby Doo Mysteries!
What with Diamond Distributing's (self-inflicted?) woes and coming tariffs on, and trade wars against, the countries that print comic books, it's become a bad - or at least a very uncertain - time for all involved. Especially for the smaller publishers whose work outshines the so-called “Big-Two” by, as Averi says, “Infinity times Infinity – plus one”!
For me that would include Dick Tracy from Mad Cave, the various Rick and Morty titles from Oni Press, Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, and The Herculoids from Dynamite (the jury’s still out on their DuckTales – liked #1, disliked #2, and just got #3 this afternoon and have more favored-reads to put before it), Eye-Lie Popeye from Massive Publishing… and anything to emerge from “New Gold Key”. This current state of affairs – made far worse by the… er, um… “instability” emanating from the heads of our government – cannot be good for any of these noble publishers and others of their ilk!
…Alas, it won’t even be logged as collateral damage!