Looney Tunes: May 1998
Cover
In the kitchen, an angry Hector holds a frazzled Sylvester up by the neck and is about to punch him, despite the waving of a white flag.
Credits
Synopsis
Granny, Sylvester, and Tweety are spending a free trial weekend at the Shirley McLooney Meditation Center, to Sylvester's dismay. While Granny and Tweety are eager to try the various 'New Age' ideas, the cat just wants to get away from all the weirdos.
Granny starts off with aura readings of her pets. Surprisingly the aura is read with the aid of Acme technical gadgetry. Tweety checks out fine, in great shape. When Sylvester's aura is read we see the result of ignoring warning labels, and Sylvester sees a life used up.
As the week progresses the cat's luck fails to improve as he's done in by falling crystals, cobras, falling branches, settling statuary, defective bungee cord, and a few things we don't get to see, which leaves him living his ninth and last life. By the end of the stay Sylvester is a nervous wreck insisting on staying indoors where it is safe. The trip home, after being dragged out by Granny, is no comfort as things seem to conspire to remind the cat of his mortality.
Trying to raise Sylvester's spirits, Tweety offers the use of a good luck suit. Unfortunately it attracts dogs and restricts arm movement. A second attempt seems more sensible, a bubble suit to protect against the germs Sylvester fears. The consolation doesn't last very long as misunderstandings about gas pressure first choke the cat and then launch him into an even more painful situation.
Finally Sylvester's outrage overcomes his fears and he goes after what he sees as the source of his troubles: Tweety. This results in a chase with various painful incidents. The last panel shows Tweety, with a large pin, entering Sylvester's mouth with him unaware. As for what exactly the ending really is, the reader is left guessing.
Did You Notice...
Page 1: References to 'New Age' items abound both in the dialog and in the scenery with the signs and with people hugging and even one levitating.- Page 1: Shirley McLoonie is of course Shirley McLaine, the actress with some reputation for taking to 'New Age' spiritualist ideas.
- Page 1: Tweety refers to the R.E.M. song Shiny Happy People from their Out of Time album.
- Page 2: Mitch, who first appeared in the Animaniacs short Drive Insane-y, appears as the swami, although now he seems more competent.
- Page 3: Maybe that tree didn't appreciate being hugged?
- Page 4: The Easter Island heads are used as mystic symbols here. (EC)
- Page 6: There are two ways to take Tweety's comment about helping Sylvester "confront his mortality," aren't there?
- Page 6: Sam the Sheepdog is on one of the gravestones. (EC)
- Page 7: Tweety has quite a collection of things in that cage, with him tossing out a paper bag of something, a ball, and of course an anvil, before finding the item he was looking for.
- Page 7: Spike and Chester, the little baby Bulldog from Freleng's "Pappy's Puppy", and possibly Charlie Dog, can be seen in the crowd of dogs. (EC)
- Page 9: The bubble suit is similar to germ-free suit and bubble environments as in The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. (SC)
- Page 10: The tire ad referred to can only be one with the Michelin Man who looks, or looked before a makeover, rather like a stack of very overinflated tires.
- Page 11: I had my suspicions about those exercise machines...
Technical Nits
No credits are listed for this story.- The lettering for this story is just plain too small which makes the story hard to read.
- Page 2: Wouldn't Mitch's nameplate face the other way and shouldn't we see his name on it? Then again with Mitch maybe he needs the reminder more himself.
- Page 3: Quite an interesting problem the Aura Analyzer has as it zaps Sylvester but leaves Mitch, who is wearing the thing, unharmed as far as we can see.
- Page 3: While rattlesnakes rattle, cobras do not. (You may be asking where those crystals mentioned earlier on the page were falling from. Quite simply, the same place as all those anvils and pianos and ocean liners have been falling from for some time...PN)
- Page 6: Coloring flaw with one of Sylvester's rear paws, which should be white, not brown, in the third panel. (EC)
- Page 7: Sylvester isn't noted for his brilliance, but is he really so stupid as to put on that suit without noticing the resemblance to a bone, or the lack of arms?
- Page 9: While oxygen can be a fire hazard, it is not itself flammable. The hazard is that it is, naturally, an oxidizer and makes it easier for other things to burn.
- Page 12: The letter R is missing from the word 'reps' in the first panel.
- Page 12: Sylvester gets paint spilled on his head early in the third panel yet isn't covered with any paint at all even in the rest of the panel.
- Page 12: I admit it. I just plain don't get the ending of this story. Is Tweety about to give Sylvester a rude awaking or is he moving into a very questionable piece of nonliving real estate?
Credits
Synopsis
It's New Year's Eve and Wile E. has a cannon disguised as a giant bottle of sparkling grape soda. Signs guide Road Runner to the toasting of the new year, where the coyote is surprised when the cork pops and grape soda pours.
Road Runner drinks up and is on his way. When Wile E. tries to pour himself a glass of soda, the cannon fires. The coyote makes light of it by sign, indicating he likes "to start the New Year off with a bang!"
For the new year, Wile E. has a resolution. He's decided to stop chasing Road Runner and concentrate on other things. Bird watching is immediately rejected. Painting is tried, as is building model ships in bottles, butterfly collecting, and assembling truly huge jigsaw puzzles. All of which are somehow ruined by Road Runner just being himself. Interestingly, when Wile E. isn't trying to catch Road Runner he gets closer than usual to successfully doing so.
All this is more than the coyote can take and he starts after Road Runner again. Again we're informed by sign, this time of a loophole in Wile E.'s resolution that permits this.
Did You Notice...
- The WB production code number for this story, 544, is rather low for recent issues. This story, like the next, must have been completed a couple years before publication.
- Page 14: The signs are in the style of the old roadside Burma Shave! advertising signs.
- Page 15: Road Runner's beep beep changes appropriately for the situation.
- Page 19: The name on the ship, HMS Jonesy, refers to Chuck Jones. And is that a certain nurse we know from another series decorating that vessel?
- Page 21: Note the markings of the Crowned Monarch.
- Page 23: That jigsaw puzzle certainly has a large number of pieces, almost infinite one might say.
Technical Nits
- Throughout the story, Wile E. Coyote's eyes aren't colored in.
- Page 14: Road Runner's eyes are colored purple rather than left white in the bottom panel. (EC)
- Page 19: The ship's wheel isn't colored in the last panel. (EC)
- Signs are overused, while Wile E. Coyote may use a sign or two, here he's doing his own narration.
Credits
Synopsis
In Sniffle Snafu Taz chases Bugs, who deftly swings over a branch and sends the Tasmanian Devil into a patch of flowers. Taz sneezes, and disappears from the story through a rip.
Meanwhile, in House Pest, Daffy is trying to move into Elmer's place only to be interrupted by Taz blowing in throw the wall. Bugs enters their story as Daffy and Elmer consult the script.
The duck starts ranting about the mess, even as the rabbit tries to figure it out. Taz sneezes away more and more of the scenery but remains in the wrong story. Bugs, who was gone for a while, climbs back into a panel carrying a flower: a Sterneckius Painintheneckius.
Bugs suspects Taz is quite allergic to that flower and subjects the Devil to it. The results are explosive. The treatment for the problem is provided by the destroyed scenery and the stories resume, just in time to end.
Did You Notice...
- The WB production code number for this story, 553, is rather low for recent issues. This story was, I am told, completed "a couple years ago" which explains the numbering.
- Page 27: That moose head on the wall looks very like Bullwinkle. Elmer, being the not so great hunter we know, must have acquired it by means other than his hunting skills.
- Page 27: Notice that Daffy must have ripped that newspaper away from Elmer. (EC)
- Page 31: While the author isn't credited, the name of the flower gives him away. Who but Sternecky could name it Sterneckius Painintheneckius?
- Page 32: That last sneeze was indeed powerful; It knocked Elmer's socks off.
Technical Nits
- Page 31: "Page one" must refer to to the first page of this story rather than the first page of this issue.
NOTE: The first story was originally published overseas, as I suspect the other two were, so this entire issue was made from stories that were ready to go, rather than made specifically for this issue. The Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain comics each skipped a month in 1998. It would seem that this issue of Looney Tunes would have been skipped had all new stories been required for it.
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Last updated 15 December 2003