Pinky and the Brain: November 1996

Cover

Drawn by: Walter Carzon and Mike DeCarlo

The Brain is standing in the middle of the main street of a Western town. He's got a mean look on his face, and the outfit Clint Eastwood wore in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. He challenges his unseen opponent, with "I know what you're thinking: Did I fire five shots, or was it six?" Pinky is behind him, in typical Western sidekick outfit (what we can see of it), and ruins the Brain's challenge: "Oh, it was definitely six, Brain."

The Brain's line is, of course, a classic Clint Eastwood line, though it comes from the movie Dirty Harry.

Oil's Well that Ends Well

Credits

• Writer: Bobbi JG Weiss and David Cody Weiss
• Penciller: Walter Carzon
• Inker: Mike DeCarlo
• Letterer: John Costanza
• Colorist: Jahrome Youngker

Synopsis

It's the Old West, and we join our favorite mice in the booming metropolis of Didliskuat, Oklahoma. They are returning from 48 straight hours serving as living gas alarms in a mine shaft, surrounded by hot, sweaty miners - all in the quest for vanilla extract ore. The Brain has noticed something much more valuable than vanilla extract in the mine: a deposit of oil-bearing shale, which means that there's oil nearby. He has arranged to be he only one around to know how valuable oil has become, and so he has his plan: he will corner the world oil market.

The Brain must first take over the town of Didliskuat. He sets out to become the town sheriff, but his ruse to force the current sheriff out of the job proves unnecessary, as the previous sheriff is only too happy to hand it over. It turns out that he has received a telegram that says that a gang of outlaws is coming to rob the bank, and that he'd better not be present when they do. The Brain takes this as a challenge, and goes out to confront the robbers, with his trusty aide, Deputy Pinkalong.

The robbers don't think muck of Pinky because he's so little. The Brain shows them that size helps, as he draws a revolver with a barrel as long as his leg - and then promptly throws it away as he loses control of his mechanical arms. The mice retreat as the robbers blast away at them, and the townsfolk quickly think that they have been thoroughly killed. Pinky makes a comment about their ghosts, and the Brain seizes upon that as an alternate plan to take over the town: they will return as their own ghosts and scare the townspeople into running away, leaving them in control.

They go down into the mine, which has been dug underneath the town, and dig enough additional tunnels - stopping along the way to discover the vanilla extract ore motherlode - to allow them to get under every building in town. The Brain builds some image enhancement devices, and they begin haunting the town's buildings, starting small with hammering on floorboards, then adding strange voices and sound effects as they proceed from house to house. By just after midnight, every house has been haunted, and the townspeople are fleeing in terror.

Unfortunately, the Brain's plan has a rather spectacular flaw: There is not enough earth left underneath the town to support the buildings, and they all crash into the tunnels. The mice start to escape before they are crushed by a falling building, but they are instead blown free, as the oil gushes from beneath the surface, triggered when their lantern explodes the methane gas leaking from below. The townsfolk discover the magazine that the Brain has hidden, realize that they will become rich from the oil, and rebuild instead of leaving, thus thwarting the Brain's plan.

Did You Notice...

• "Diddley squat" is colorful Western slang for "nothing"; more than that, it implies a complete lack of worth.
• The "big classic Western icon", as well as the name Clint Brainwood, refer to that icon of Western films, Clint Eastwood. "The Man with No Name" is the character Eastwood played in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
• Posters in the sheriff's office: "Reward: Carzon", and "Wanted: DeCarlo".
• The residences they haunt are all owned by famous Western icons, as well: Matt Dillon, sheriff of Gunsmoke; Jed Clampett and Granny, from The Beverly Hillbillies; the Cartwright family, from Bonanza; Lucas McCain, from The Rifleman; and Maverick, from the show of the same name. In each case, the character depicted is a recognizable caricature of the actor who played him on TV.
• Hoss Cartwright has, among his teddy bears, a Garfield doll.
• Signs on buildings in the town: Didliskuat Sundries and Laboratory Supplies; Didliskuat Espresso House; McDonald's Cowbugers - Over 3 Sold!; and Mongo's Skule of Horse Punching (a reference to the movie Blazing Saddles, itself a classic sendup of the Western genre).

Technical nits

• One of the stores on page 1 has a blank sign, as do several others in other shots; in each case, it appears that something was supposed to be put there, but wasn't.
• Page 3: "I noticed a strata of oil-bearing shale": "Strata" should be "stratum"; "strata" is plural.
• McCain's rifle is leaning against the wall in the corner in the first shot, but disappears two panels later when he looks for it.
• The mice put on, and take off, leather work gloves several times during the haunting sequence.