Looney Tunes: Stampers Special Issue
Cover
A big stamp, denomination 24 carrots, featuring Daffy Duck flying an open cockpit airplane upside down. Daffy looks worried and for good reason, he's holding the control stick which is no longer connected to the aircraft but just has cables hanging from the end. The airplane's fuselage has it's model name; it's a Jenny. Pointing at the scene from an oval in the lower right corner, Bugs states, "What a maroon!"
In the upper left there is only the WB logo, no DC Comics logo. The upper right has the eagle emblem of the United States Postal Service, while the bottom has ovals for the number 24 and for Bugs. The border is black with the white edge detail around the main picture done to look like the perforated edge of a stamp.
Credits
Synopsis
Bugs is waiting at the post office, a ranting Daffy ahead of him berating the clerk for not having any endangered species stamps showing ducks. When Daffy finally stops spouting, Bugs steps up to the counter to purchase a stamp. The sharp eyed rabbit spots that the picture on the stamp isn't quite right; an airplane is upside down.
On hearing that, Daffy is suddenly very interested in the stamp, knowing it's the very rare upside-down "Jenny" stamp. The duck offers to trade stamps, but Bugs, suspecting something is up, refuses. Daffy lets it slip that the stamp is very valuable. While they argue over the unpurchased stamp, Elmer Fudd walks in and buys it, leaving them both stunned.
Walking down the street, Elmer is tripped by Daffy who is acting as a street performer and juggling chickens! Elmer is about to give Daffy money when he's interrupted; Daffy only takes stamps. Elmer is reluctant and Daffy annoys him into leaving. Daffy calls him back, asking for a stamp and Elmer gives him a stamp. He uses a large handstamp to do it.
As Elmer continues on his way, the Prize Patrol van pulls up to him, with Daffy playing Ed McMahon. A fast talk later, Daffy has the stamp and Fudd has a bunch of magazine subscription cards as he's not a grand prize winner; a little old lady in Yuba City is the winner. Just as Daffy is about to get away, Bugs shows up as Dick Clark and pulls a similar scam on the duck. However they've taxed Elmer's patience and he takes back his stamp.
Next Daffy tries playing the part of an old lady who needs a stamp to mail a mortgage payment to prevent a foreclosure on an orphanage. Just as Elmer is about to hand over the stamp he's distracted by Bugs, who is now disguised as an aspiring starlet who needs to send her photos to her agent. The enthralled Fudd is still reluctant to hand over the stamp, but willingly trades it for what he wanted all along: a Captain Radio decoder ring. He even gets the fancy one.
The story ends back at Bugs' place, with a twist on a classic Bugs line and his advice to keep stamps away from water - and waterfowl. Also, the closing features a drawing of the real upside down Jenny stamp.
Did You Notice...
Page 1: The box explaining the location paraphrases the promotion for Disneyland, "The Happiest Place On Earth." (The line about it being "The Second Happiest Place..." has an added impact in your friendly neighborhood COLT maintainer's case. Some time ago, you see, he worked for USPS...PN)- Page 1: Daffy could have been mailed, if he was young enough. It's not unusual for live chicks to be sent via the United States Postal Service.
- Page 3: Captain Radio is derived from the Captain Video television show. But more than that, one of the writers also had a comedy radio series Hub City Spoke Repair in which a Captain Radio character appeared a few times. The premise was that nobody listens to that kind of program so no decoder rings would ever be ordered and why did he bother?
- Page 3: The items shown on the paper Elmer is reading are the Trilon and Perisphere from the New York World's Fair of 1939.
- Page 4: Appropriately it's a WB stamp that Elmer uses on Daffy.
- Page 5: Daffy's "Yeeesss! You are correct, sir!" is one of Ed McMahon's lines from his days as Johny Carson's sidekick on the Tonight Show.
- Page 5: The consolation prize of magazine subscription cards is appropriate as that's what the contest is really doing: selling magazines. The titles that can be seen are: True Security Guard Story, Trailer Park Confessions, Crying Clown Digest.
- Page 5: Dick Clark is, of course, Ed McMahon's partner in the American Family Publishers contest promotions.
- Page 5: The winner residing in Yuba City is not a coincidence. See the DYNs in Modem Operandi in the regular issue for December 1996.
- Page 6: The rigmarole Bugs has Daffy go through to fill out the prize form is quite appropriate. Have you ever tried filling out one of the contest forms without ordering anything? It feels similar.
- Page 7: The foreclosure on an orphanage unless payment is made, in this case postmarked, that night is a standard plot for many older, lesser films. It's odd that Daffy doesn't claim to be a widow as well.
Technical Nits
Page 2: You wouldn't get a rare Jenny stamp from a clerk today. For one, the stamp is well out of circulation, which is what makes it valuable. And two, it's not the denomination for postcards which is twenty cents, not twenty-four, as of this entry (1997). But this purchase is needed for the story to work, so can be chalked up to creative license.- Page 4: How does a fiver consist of two bills?
- Page 8: Bugs' pearl bracelet moves from his left wrist to right down the page.
Other items
A special issue for the United States Postal Service's Stampers Program which promotes stamp collection, philately if you insist on being fancy, this comic has no outside advertising. The inside front cover, inside back cover and back cover all have advertising for the movie Space Jam and related merchandise. Also, in the center of the comic is an envelope for subscribing to Looney Tunes.
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Last update 17 October 1998