Looney Tunes: October 1995
Cover
It's the Hip Fab Fun cover. The four stars, top to bottom, are occupied by Yosemite Sam, a lion, Elmer Fudd, and Crusher. All are wearing the same things they wear in the first story, which is set in ancient Rome.
A day at the races in the Coliseum and while his opponent has a two horse chariot with two horses, Bugs Bunny is in the lead with only a ramshackle street sweeper's can, complete with brush and scoop, and a single panicked and straining horse.
Credits
Synopsis
An opening page evokes the feeling of supposedly epic movies and introduces the cast, showing Bugs Bunny as the hero Ben Hare, Elmer as the Emperor Nero, Yosemite Sam as charioteer Hibernian Sam, Crasher as Crusher, a cast of Thousands which is composed of Leo D. Thousands, as well as lions and tigers and bears. The story begins with Bug, or rather, with Ben Hare lost after a left turn in Albuquerqulum. Hearing applause and cheers, he goes to see what's happening and hears Emperor Nero's poorly rhyming poetry as he passes by. Not knowing who he is, Bugs makes a quip about him. Nero has Ben sent to the Circus Maximus.
While waiting, Ben Hare helps a lion by removing the thorn of a giant man-eating flytrap from its paw. After that, he rushes out in hopes of getting a good seat, only to find he's the show. He's up against the lion and the giant flytrap. Unlike the lion Androcles helped, this one doesn't express his gratitude by not going after Ben. Fortunately for the rabbit, the plant is grateful for the earlier help and tosses the lion out.
Nero sends his champion, Crusher, in to take care of Ben Hare. The rabbit does a neat escape involving burrowing and trapping Crusher in the net that was trap himself. An irked Nero claims he's rewarding Ben Hare by giving him a place in the chariot races. It's no reward as while the other charioteers have proper chariots and teams of fast horses, all Ben gets is a beat up streetsweeper's can and one tired old horse.
Hibernian Sam takes out one of his competitors by using blades attached to his axle to cut up his opponent's chariot wheel. Sam tries to repeat that with the rabbit, but he jams the streetsweeper's shovel into the blades and Sam gets clobbered by the handle. Sam tries to remove Ben from the race by oiling his path. Instead, the oil ends up lubricating the bearing of the can's wheels.
Trying again to remove the rabbit from the race, Sam catapults balls of flame at him. Bugs uses the can's lid as a shield, deflecting the fireballs to Nero. His robes on fire and his surroundings aflame, Nero jumps onto Sam's chariot. The emperor orders Sam to head for water and they both exit the race. Meanwhile Ben Hare wins the race. Now he gets treated well, and has a rhyme of his own which also isn't quite right.
Did You Notice...
The title refers to Ben Hur the most memorable movie adaption being the 1959 Charlton Heston version, and also to the 1951 movie Quo Vadis. - Status Quo Vadis is the nonsense result of joing Status Quo which means the current state of affairs and Quo Vadis which means "Where are you going?" (ARM)
- Hibernia is the island that now consists of Ireland and Northen Ireland.
- Page 1: "Lions and tigers and bears! Oh, my!" is a line from the 1939 movie adaptation of The Wizard of Oz.
- Page 2: The Appian Way is an ancient Roman road in Italy from Rome to Brindisi. The Giddy-Appian Way is the Looney version emphasing the presence of horse traffic.
- Page 9: Bugs' or Ben's calling the horse "Gluepot" refers to notion of sending old, broekn down horses to rendering plants where animal connective tissues (hoofve, bones, tendons, ligaments, and cartilage) are converted into various things, including glues. Modern glues are either synthetic or derived from plants.
Technical Nits
Page 3: In the second panel, Bugs' footpads are not colored in.- Page 10: It seems odd for a Hibernian (Hibernia being the Ireland of today) to be wearing a horned helmet. Is it, however, not out of character for Sam.
Credits
Synopsis
Delegates to the Pan-Cosmic Peace Conference are annoyed when they sit down and find that Duck Dodgers has places whoopee cushion on all their seats. Dodgers is kicked out of the conference. He complains to Porky that with the universe at peace, there isn't work or adventure for him. The pig suggests that perhaps Dodgers was born too late.
Porky has been working on an old time machine. When Dodgers finds out what it is, he grabs the pig and runs into the machine without giving him time to set its destination. The pair winds up in the middle of one of Elmer Fudd's hunting trips. After getting blasted, Dodgers changes a sign to read "Rabbit Season" rather than "Duck Season" and then relaxes in a holographic projection of a beach scene.
The illusion is shattered when Bugs runs into it. Dodgers admits changing the sign as Elmer approaches. The duck tries to point out the rabbit just as Bugs changes the sign back to reading "Duck Season" again. The sign gets switched a couple more times, then Bugs appears as a game warden, which doesn't help much. More sign switching follows.
Daffy, who has been watching, find the goings on amusing. Dodgers is not amused and transforms Fudd's gun into a futuristic blaster. Elmer is about to use it on Daffy when the sign changes to read "Open Season." Everyone runs from Elmer, who is ready to blast them all. The all run to the time machine. The resulting collision leaves Bugs, Dodgers, and Porky knocked out and Daffy gone along with the time machine.
Elmer couldn't find how to fire the blaster so he took it apart, but can't get it back together. Dodgers tries to re-assemble the blaster but he and Elmer argue. Porky asks Bugs to show him the culture of his time period to get away from the bickering. Meanwhile Daffy has arrived at the peace conference and figures some whoopee cushions would liven things up...
Did You Notice...
- Page 29: Bazooka Joe is a comic character featured in the comic wrappers of Bazooka Bubble gum.
Technical Nits
- Page 20: Porky says that they've travelled back to the 24th century rather than the 20th century.
Other items:
There are two one-page fillers.
- Looney Tunes
- Charlie Dog finds the last donut, but without milk in which to dunk it, he improvises. This annoys Porky as the donut gets dunked in his bath.
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- The Last Laugh
- Four three-panel cartoon strips featuring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.
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- Daffy has trouble with a mirror with a moustache drawn on it.
- Daffy has lost a mirror, and doesn't have a useful description of it.
- Daffy's mirror broke, but it's Daffy that's broken up.
- Bugs gets a letter that clanks. He figures it's a chain letter.
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Last updated 30 September 2004