Looney Tunes: October 2001
Cover
Yosemite Sam bursts through the cover and yells, "Ya lily-livered, flea-bit, knee-knockin' Momma's baby! Where ya think you're goin'? Git back here and buy this 'fore I lose my temper!"
Credits
Synopsis
Yosemite Sam, leader of Sammyland, is having his portrait painted when Bugs Bunny burrows in and emerges from the ground, knocking Sam through the canvas. Bugs has yet again not taken the left turn in Albuquerque and this time he missed Battle Creek, Michigan. Upon realizing he's not at the Krunchy Karrot Cereal Company, Bugs plans to ask for directions and addresses Sam as "Corporal." Sam explodes, angrily explaining that he's Strongman Sam, dictator of Sammyland. He also accuses the rabbit of being a spy.
Before Bugs can explain anything, Sam chases him with a tank. The rabbit plays the part of a parking valet and switches place with Sam and uses his tank on him. After a bullet-ridden tantrum, Sam corners Bugs with several other tanks and heavy weapons under his command. Asking for a last request, Bugs gets a blindfold, a carrot, and a barcalounger. Sam demands and end, asking for any last words. The now relaxed rabbit manages to get the tanks to fire... at Sam.
An enraged Sam unleashed his secret weapon: the mother of all bombs. Bugs makes light of the name, until he sees the size of the shell that comes after him. An impressive and improbable chase ensues. It only ends when Bugs dresses up as a smaller shell, addresses the larger shell as "mother" and tells her that Sam is bothering him.
Bugs takes cover as the resulting blast obliterates Sammyland. The rabbit remarks that some people never learn. Sam was the twelfth dictator he devastated this week.
Did You Notice...
While this issue is dated October 2001, it was published well before the events of September 11, 2001 and therefore also before subsequent events in Afghanistan.- Page 1: The person painting Sam's portrait is a caricature of penciller Walter Carzon. Consider that Carzon is Argentine and that Argentina had a military dictatorship during the late 1970s and early 1980s, up to the Falkland Islands War. One wonders if the end result to the dictators in this story gave Carzon a certain level of grim satisfaction. (EC)
- Page 2: The red star on the tank suggests it is of Russian (or Soviet) original. While many African and Asian dictatorships made use of Soviet tanks, Argentina did not, thus Sammyland is not Argentina. See above DYN for why this was brought up.
- Page 6: This story predates the Massive Ordnance Air Burst (MOAB) weapon which due to its size and initials has been dubbed the Mother Of All Bombs. The shell that Sam uses is not a Massive Ordnance Air Burst weapon.
- Page 6: The name "The Mother of all bombs" is a twist of Saddam Hussein's boast that the impending Gulf War of 1991 would be "the Mother of all battles" which would end in the defeat of the forces opposing Iraq's occupation of Kuwait.
- Page 7: Note the numerous pictures of Sam.
- Page 7: Note also how the various levels and odd breaks in them resemble a video game.
- Page 9: One of the picture of Sam seems to express concern about its, and Sammyland's, demise.
- Complete identification of the twelve dictators provided by Eric Costello:
- Top Row 1: Peter Lorre caricature from Hair Raising Hare
- Top Row 2: Mad scientist from Water Water Every Hare
- Top Row 3: Marvin
- Top Row 4: Sheriff of Nottingham from Rabbit Hood
- Middle Row 1: Rocky
- Middle Row 2: Baby Face Finster from Baby Buggy Bunny
- Middle Row 3: Either Crusher from Bunny Hugged or the Champ from Rabbit Punch
- Middle Row 4: Cigar and baseball hat mark this as a Gashouse Gorilla from Baseball Bugs
- Bottom Row 1: Elmer J. Fudd, not in this guise as a millionaire who owns a mansion and a yacht
- Bottom Row 2: Edward G. Robinson caricature, Rocky, from Racketeer Rabbit
- Bottom Row 3: Sam
- Bottom Row 4: Hassan ("Hassan Chop!") from Ali Baba Bunny
Technical Nits
Bugs' footpads are sometimes not colored in, yet at other times they are colored in. Some of the times they are colored, they're smaller than when not so it's not a matter of only coloring them when they appear large.
Credits
Synopsis
Porky looks forward to the arrival of a parcel and sits and waits for the mailman into the evening. When the mail finally does arrive, there is no parcel and what is there is mangled. A fuming Porky makes his way to the Post Office to complain, but there is a very long line of people ahead of him. The pig ends up waiting into the night again.
In the morning, Porky is finally at the head of the line. He's given a long complaint form to fill out and told to wait in another line. Porky gets to the clerk to file his complaint and the clerk tosses it in the trash after spattering it with bits of the sandwich he's eating. The pig is directed to another desk where he encounters Daffy Duck who gives him another form to fill out.
After another wait in another line to see another clerk, he gets another denial. Furious, Porky erupts at Daffy, who takes him to right to the top, to the Postmaster General. Daffy hopes that will end his own troubles. Porky emerges from the Postmaster General's office with medals and such, but still no satisfaction regarding his mail. The pig demands his parcel and Daffy eventually takes him to a large pile of parcels where Porky's parcel is found surprisingly quickly. Daffy makes the mistake of asking if the effort was worthwhile. Porky replies that it was and repeatedly uses the contents of the parcel, a baseball bat, on the aggravating duck.
Did You Notice...
- Page 3: Yosemite Sam is on a wanted poster.
- Page 5: Daffy's playing what appears to be a violent video game. It's certainly a video game and the image suggests one person is holding a large knife. There is a violent video game "Postal" which has nothing to do with the post office beyond using the name that has come to mean going violently mad. Judging by the reviews, however, any image from that game would not be even remotely suitable for this comic book.
- Page 6: The pile of parcels includes a chest or trunk, a coffin, a sink, and a canoe. Note the height of the pile, as indicated in the third panel.
- The nature of this story, portraying the United States Postal Service as slow, incompetent, and aggravating is a departure from earlier stories involving USPS. Those earlier stories, however, were made for USPS special issues such as the Stampers and Bugs Bunny Stamp special issues. At least one other story was intended for another USPS special issue, for the Sylvester and Tweety stamp. That special issue didn't happen and the story was published in the regular Looney Tunes series.
Technical Nits
- The medals Porky wears on page five have disappeared on page six.
Credits
Synopsis
Elmer Fudd welcomes viewers to his Acme-sponsored show, Elmer's Home Impairment. His project this time is a somewhat fancy birdhouse. As he's talking about it, Daffy zips into the finished model. Forgetting he's on the air, Fudd tries to throw Daffy out. upon realizing he's on, Elmer gets back to the show and goes over the design, with Daffy suggesting additions and generally getting in Elmer's way.
Construction is about to start, with Elmer making use of a nail gun and hoping to nail Daffy with it. The duck tricks Elmer into thinking the thing is defective and then lets it work right when Elmer tries to figure out what's wrong. Fudd fares no better when Daffy gets hold of a tape measure. His pain continues with Daffy abusing a vice, a sander, a hot glue gun, and a hammer.
When Daffy's done, he has a sloppily made wreck of a half-painted birdhouse. Elmer has collapsed in a pained confusion. The duck notices he hasn't made an ideal birdhouse and sets out to correct that - with a chainsaw. The result is that he destroys Elmer's home as well as the poorly made birdhouse.
Did You Notice...
- The title Bye-Bye Birdhouse could be punning either the 1960 musical Bye, Bye Birdie or the 1926 Ray Henderson and Mort Dixon tune Bye, Bye Blackbird which was owned by Warner Bros. and appeared in cartoon titles such as Davis' Bye, Bye Bluebeard. (EC)
- The title of Elmer's show parodies the real television show Home Improvement, about a person who hosted a home improvement show.
- Elmer's Home Impairment has appeared before,in the July 2001 story All Decked Out and appears again in the March 2002 story Tool Duel.
- Page 3: While blueprints have been replaced with plots of computer aided drafting, they are readily understood as well as having some history of appearing in Looney Tunes animated cartoons.
Technical Nits
- Page 2: The artistic design on the front of the completed birdhouse disappears in the last two panels and doesn't show up again on the next page.
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Last updated 17 August 2004