The Best Tune That is Looney!

 Well, I guess I asked for it...

Now that the voting is closed in our Gottfredson Guessing Game, and the results will be posted soon, I volunteered, as a lead-in to the Big Event, to offer up "My Favorite Looney Tunes Short", followed by "My Favorite Carl Barks Story"...

...So, here they are!  Looney Tunes today, Barks maybe in another day or three, and finally the glory of Gottfredson!  

As I mentioned in the previous Comments Section, these things often come grouped in "Top Threes", and Looney Tunes and Barks are no exception. I'll run 'em all down with explanations as to why they fall where they do.  Good fodder for your comments too!  

FAVORITE LOONEY TUNES SHORT: "Rabbit Seasoning"! Chuck Jones, Michael Maltese, and Mel Blanc are ALL at the top of their game in this one!  With Bugs, Daffy, and Elmer as the most perfect, textbook versions of the characters as we know them best!  

This is the second of the "Duck Season, Rabbit Season Trilogy" and far and away the best, in terms of  character design, character movement, witty dialogue (...which you all know that I LOVE), and voice performances! 

But for me, as a writer, what REALLY sets "Rabbit Seasoning" apart from its predecessor "Rabbit Fire", and its successor "Duck! Rabbit, Duck!", is that it has the strongest ending of the three, paying off a gag bit expertly laid earlier in the cartoon by Michael Maltese!  The now-immortal "Would you like to shoot me now, or wait 'till you get home?"

In comparison, the "Elmer Season" closing gag of "Rabbit Fire", and the "Baseball Season" closing gag of "Duck! Rabbit, Duck!", despite these cartoons' other fine moments, cannot help but fall flat!  

Those who know me in real-life know that "Rabbit Seasoning" is chock full of go-to quotes for me:

"You keep outta dis, he doesn't have to shoot you now!" (from Bugs). 

"Let's run through that again!" (lisping like Daffy Duck).

"Pronoun trouble!" (from Daffy). 

"Well I say he DOES have to shoot me now - so SHOOT ME NOW!" (from Daffy)

"Yaess?" (from Bugs). 

"Ohhh no you don't! Not again! Sorry!" (from Daffy). 

"Yeah, you're so smart! If I was a rabbit, what WOULD you do?" (from Daffy). 

"Right-o!" (from Daffy).

"No more for me, thanks! I'm drivin'!" (from a dazed Daffy).  

David, Thad K., and Jonathan Gray, for instance, have heard most, if not all, of these at random moments in different and unrelated conversations! 

And, while not a quote, I must also cite Elmer's "hat-erection" when kissed by Bugs in drag! 

.........................

Rounding out my "Top Three" at #2 is something as opposite from "Rabbit Seasoning" as a Warner/Schlesinger short can get... "Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur" (1939, Chuck Jones). 

In the stone age, a primitive, manically wild version of Daffy Duck, heckles a put-upon Jack Benny-inspired caveman and his clumsy pet dinosaur literally to death!  And it IS that unexpected death of our three main characters that makes this one of my three favorite endings in cartoons!  (I'll exclude modern things like "Rick and Morty" - Thanks, Thad! - from this list, because the "unexpected ending" has become more of a norm!) 

Daffy has "died" at the end of at least two other cartoons, "Draftee Daffy" and "Show-Biz Bugs", but the novelty and execution of the triple-demise makes this one the best!  

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Daffy has the honor of appearing in ALL THREE of my favorite Looney Tunes shorts... and this one just happens to have my *second-favorite* ending in all of cartoons... #3 is "Yankee Doodle Daffy" (1943, Friz Freleng).  

Talent agent Daffy mercilessly hounds theatrical empresario Porky Pig into giving the lollipop-licking, almost silent, diminutive duck, Sleepy Lagoon, an audition. 

 Notice Friz Freleng (as Porky Pig!) in the portrait adorning Porky's office! 

What wins it a place in my "Top Three" is the ending of Sleepy not just unexpectedly demonstrating a shockingly beautiful operatic voice - that's great enough!  But, what REALLY puts it over the top is the last-second addition of Sleepy CHOKING as he sings his last line!!!

It's that "going back for one more gag, once you think it's over" that truly appeals to me as a writer!  Not seeing the originals of many of the stories I translate, you may not notice this, but adding an extra gag to compliment the one that precedes it is something I try to do whenever possible! ...and it just might have been this cartoon that would eventually inspire me to do so!  

.........................

Something I just realized at this writing... While Bugs Bunny is my favorite Looney Tunes character, it is Daffy Duck who stars in all three of my favorite shorts! 

And a DIFFERENT VERSION of Daffy in each one, to boot!  Primitive Manic Daffy, Obnoxious Huckster Daffy, and Jealous and Resentful Daffy!  I'd say the duck has had quite an evolution over the years!  

Drop some comments on us, and let us know what you think!  

I’m Not an Artist (...or Colorist), But… WHAT Massive Fist?!

I am not an artist, nor am I a colorist.  If I WERE a colorist, I would be a worse colorist than I would be as an artist.  

It's not just a matter of specific skills of art and coloring that I have never possessed, it's also my admitted lack of creative imagination in those two areas!  

Oh, I have an almost limitless creative imagination in the area of WRITING!  This Blog, my many APA and fanzine writings of yore, and my professional comics work bear testament to that.  But, even if I had sufficient skills in the areas of art and coloring, my work would at best rank as pedestrian, as I have scant (all together now) creative imagination to apply to said work. 

Art is, of course, a matter of subjective taste.  Meaning that while I (and, presumably, most of you) really like things like THIS...

 ...Or THIS...

 ...Or THIS...

...I do allow for the possibility, remote as it may be, that there COULD BE some folks who actually like THIS...

...Even if it's only the artist himself, and possibly his editor!  

But, when COLORING fails, it's pretty much universal!  For instance, take the cover of HAWKMAN #6 (DC Comics, Cover Date: February-March, 1965) and its titanic struggle between Hawkman and a great winged-gorilla. 

Hawkman says: "Got to bring my mace UP -- before that massive fist comes crashing DOWN!" 

MASSIVE FIST?!  WHAT MASSIVE FIST?!  Without squint-staring really hard, do you see any massive fist?  

Quick aside: It has nothing to do with the quality of the digital image used above.  I have the actual comic here beside me as I write this, and the "real thing" looks exactly the same!  

It would seem to be a matter of too much dark brown concentrated in what should be a critical area of the illustration!  

Let's assume there was insufficient room for artist [The Great] Murphy Anderson to position the gorilla's arm and fist elsewhere on the cover, as the dramatic focus of the piece is the gorilla about to smash Hawkman into a fine Hawk-puree! (Sorry, but my keyboard doesn't allow for the accent mark, and spell-checker isn't offering it either!) 

But, perhaps just the slightest bit of gradation in the dark brown might have made a difference, or maybe a better-defined outline of the gorilla's arm and fist to separate it in depth relative to the  gorilla's wing! 

Then again, the coloring techniques of the Silver Age were far more limited than they would be beginning in the 1980s, so I don't have a definitive solution to offer.  

But, that's why I’m Not an Artist (...or Colorist), But… I'm still left to ask "Massive fist? WHAT massive fist?!"

Oh, and for a "massive fist" that you actually CAN see clearly, try this on for massive-size!  

Oh, THAT massive fist! Got it!  

No, actually Superman got it... right in the super-breadbasket! 

Separated at Mirth: Pick Your Poison(ed Water)!

If faced with a choice of soapy bath water as in POPEYE #50 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: October-December, 1959), or soapy wash water as in YOSEMITE SAM #27 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: April, 1975), what would YOU do to keep from dying of thirst?   

 

The oddball thing about poor Sam's predicament is that Bugs Bunny DOESN'T WEAR ANY CLOTHES, so what is he washing?  

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: The Case of the Migrating Penguin!

When it comes to PENGUINS, Warner Bros. Looney Tunes has a pretty memorable one that twice co-starred with Bugs Bunny...

Walter Lantz had a pretty memorable one of his own... CHILLY WILLY! 

But there must have been a brief period during Chilly's tenure at Lantz when he may have become dissatisfied with his contract... and briefly defected to Warner Bros.

Otherwise, how would you explain THIS?!    

WALTER LANTZ NEW FUNNIES #278 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: July-August, 1960) 

...Yes, really! Let's dolly in for a closer look... 

Maybe he was tired of working with SMEDLEY?  

...Or lower-tier players like Homer Pigeon?  

...And taking SECOND BILLING, NO LESS!  The unhappiness of that experience even caused him to put on TOO MUCH WEIGHT!   

The GOOD SCRIPTS, like "The Legend of Rockabye Point" (possibly the single funniest cartoon of all time)... 

...And "I'm Cold" stopped coming, much to the little guy's displeasure.  

Or maybe he just wanted to work with "that Oscar-Winning Rabbit, Bugs Bunny!" Or the rabbit's renowned animation director Chuck Jones?  

Ya, know... like that OTHER penguin did!  

But, alas, Chilly's experiences at Warner Bros. were not good... 

...Being a PENGUIN and all, they cast him in a BATMAN movie, as a "hench-peng" to THIS GUY!  

Chilly didn't like that AT ALL!  

Coincidently, at that time, Walter Lantz decided to lure him back with the promise of working with THEIR top star, Woody Woodpecker...

...And so, he once again became "Walter Lantz Chilly Willy"! 

...And remained happily so (though still "chilly") ever after! 

...OR... COULD IT HAVE BEEN MUCH SIMPLER THAN ALL THAT?  

Could it have possibly been nothing more than a... PRINTING ERROR?!  

Could THIS...

...Have been erroneously run in place of... THIS?   

                                         

...Eeeh, COULD BE!  

TIAHBlog at 16 Presents 16 Covers -- Number Sixteen: AT LAST!!!

Staggering winded and achy across the finish line of this sixteen-post marathon, it's time to keep a semi-promise I made earlier in this (gasp!) sixteen-count-series... TOP THREE COVERS, finally  - naming a THIRD cover to join THIS ONE...

...Which shared co-honors with the one below, both by Bugs-master Tom McKimson (... and both counting as a single-occupant of one of those precious three slots - yes, I'm doing TWO-INTO-ONE here, but I was never very good at math)! 

And, of course, THIS magnificent Batman cover by Neal Adams! 

An image so strong, so powerful, so awesome, that you don't even bother to question why Batman remains masked... and "pants-ed" for that matter!  

And, while all of these had great stories backing those covers, they were primarily selected on the sheer brilliance of the covers themselves!   

But for that final slot, I find myself looking beyond strictly images, getting into the story it illustrates and the significance of said story - simultaneously noting that the cover is great in and of itself!  

So, without further ado (and "further a-don't", even) my list of  TOP THREE COVERS - in no particular order - is rounded out by (...pause for effect, while we cue the drumroll)...

DONALD DUCK in LOST IN THE ANDES by the great Carl Barks (originally published in 1949 by Dell Comics, as part of their unparalleled-in-comics-history FOUR COLOR SERIES!) 

...But, NOT the original printing as seen above!  No, the one that means much more to me is its first American reprint in THE BEST OF DONALD DUCK #1 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: 1965)!

While it has a little less detail than the original FOUR COLOR cover, I feel the BLUE background served the illustration far better than the garish orange of the Dell version!  You can take your pick! 

But, as I indicated, it was what this version REPRESENTS that makes it special!  

Walking up the corner street to the nearest soda fountain store that carried comics with my aunt (not the one with the nice house - but the "more fun" one who lived off-and-on with us) on a Friday early evening (knowing there was no school for two whole glorious days) and finding this on the rack!  I was so excited, I didn't even WANT a fountain soda!  I just wanted to get this baby home, and leap into it!  

...And finding it to be (what *still is*) my choice for THE SINGLE GREATEST COMIC BOOK STORY OF ALL TIME!  THIS POST can tell you why, and spare me the additional marathon-depleted-effort!   

And so we name THE BEST OF DONALD DUCK #1 our well-deserved and final (whew!) cover number sixteen! 

Now, if you'll excuse your exhausted and beleaguered host, I'm going to completely self-dissolve in a pail of liquid human-goo!  If any portion of me remains, those parts (once congealed) will be back soon!  

TIAHBlog at 16 Presents 16 Covers -- Number Nine: Another Top Three Cover(s?)!

Okay, I thought about it! Perhaps longer and harder than I even had the time for today, but in THIS POST I named BATMAN #244 (DC Comics, Cover Date: September, 1972) as one of my TOP THREE FAVORITE COVERS!  

 ...And deservedly so!  

And, to be perfectly honest, I never, at any time, gave any real thought to what the others might be!  

Sure, I made a TOP TEN STORIES list in the late '90s which, if I weren't so (all together now) Horrifically Busy all the time, I'd probably update for the 2020s!  Not at all sure what would change, and what would remain, from the original list - but I KNOW Casty's "Night of the Living Text", to which I contributed its "George Romero Tribute Title", would displace SOMETHING among those ten precious slots!  

...But, I began to wonder today, WHAT WOULD THE OTHER TWO COVERS BE? (See, this series has me THINKING, in addition to going stark raving DAFFY!)  

 AW, C'MON! WE DID THIS GAG TO DEATH YESTERDAY! 

 YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BE ONE OF THE TOP THREE COVERS! 

...AND DON'T BOTHER STUFFING THE BALLOT BOX  WITH REPRINTS, IT WON'T HELP!

Anyway, I began thinking about what other covers might rival BATMAN # 244 for sheer awesomeness and, I must admit, there aren't many!  

...And, ironically, it was BEING PESTERED BY DAFFY yesterday, which led me to tonight's answer! 

Oh, Daffy, sometimes you can be your own worst enemy, because it was thinking of YOU that brought me to... ("Oh-no!" says Daffy plaintively, as a pit begins forming in his stomach!)...BUGS BUNNY! 

And, as always, BUGS BUNNY delivers the goods... with a pair of covers that DO INDEED rival BATMAN # 244 for sheer awesomeness! 

Just look at these Rabbit-Rific covers for FOUR COLOR #123 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: October, 1946)... 

...And FOUR COLOR #142 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: April, 1947)... 

...Both by the great Tom McKimson, and tell me they don't run with Neal Adams' BATMAN # 244! 

Of course they do!  And so, the honors for Cover Number Nine are shared by FOUR COLOR #123 and FOUR COLOR #142! 

...But, if you'd prefer to stick with Batman's "desert and sword motif", we've got one for that as well - FOUR COLOR #298 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: October, 1950)!  

 They kinda go together too!  

Can't say when, but I'll probably round out my TOP THREE FAVORITE COVERS sometime before this series is over... 

...Or, maybe I'll just pick something at RANDOM, like this!  When it gets to be this late at night, there's just no telling what I might do!