- Script
- Michael Maltese
- Pencils
- Phil De Lara
- Inks
- Phil De Lara
- Colors
- Western Publishing Production Shop
- Letters
- Bill Spicer
- First Line of Dialogue or Text
- Ah, there’s a likely prospect for my wares! What better place than a dental office?
- Feature Logo
- Genre
- humor; anthropomorphic-funny animals
- Characters
- Bugs Bunny; dentist’s receptionist; Elmer Fudd; Dr. Drill (dentist)
- Synopsis
- Magazine salesman Bugs calls on a dentist’s office to peddle his wares. There he finds a nervous Elmer Fudd waiting in the dentist chair, and dons a white coat and surgical mask simply to heckle and bedevil him! “I know I shouldn’t do this, but I just can’t resist an opportunity to bug that guy!” …Ain’t he a stinker?
- Keywords
- change in artist’s style; dentist; heckling; imposter; return of writer
This story presents a pair of “firsts". It is the first Bugs Bunny comic book story to be written by animation writer Michael Maltese, after his long and prolific career at Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera had wound down. The “heckling attitude” and humorous dialogue was of the type not seen in the Western Publishing Bugs Bunny comics of the time – but was a hallmark of the animation scripts of Maltese, who was one of the creators who literally shaped Bugs Bunny into a cartoon icon.
It is also a first example of artist Phil De Lara, himself a Warner Bros. animation veteran, employing what may best be described as his “DePatie/Freleng style” – presumably developed for drawing Western’s new Pink Panther title (1971) – for a story featuring characters born of classic-era theatrical animation. All characters, other than Bugs and Elmer, are “simplified” and the backgrounds are “minimalist”, compared with De Lara’s work on funny-animal comics up to this point. Dr. Drill, the dentist, actually looks as if he stepped out of a Pink Panther cartoon – protruding big nose, one-eyed side profile and all. De Lara would occasionally work in this new style on characters such as Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, and others, along with his work on The Pink Panther. Readers can compare this new artistic style of De Lara’s with his more classic style of the reprinted Beep Beep the Road Runner story seen later in this issue.
- Script
- ?
- Pencils
- Massimo Fecchi
- Inks
- Massimo Fecchi
- Colors
- Western Publishing Production Shop
- Letters
- ?
- First Line of Dialogue or Text
- Package for Bugs Bunny!
- Feature Logo
- Genre
- humor; anthropomorphic-funny animals
- Characters
- Bugs Bunny; butler; Antone (chef); Count of Fargonia
- Synopsis
- Bugs receives an invitation to a dinner given in his honor, in the far off country of Fargonia. Once there he finds that he is to be the dinner for the Count of Fargonia, who has never tasted rabbit stew – and would never dine upon an “ordinary rabbit”, but only one like Bugs, whose name and address is in “Who’s Who” under “famous rabbits”.
- Keywords
- chef; dinner; invitation; one-character-desiring-another-as-a-meal; rabbit stew; royalty
Another first for this issue… the first story published by Western to be drawn by Italian artist Massimo Fecchi, known for drawing European stories of Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge, Mickey Mouse, and Goofy. For Western, Fecchi worked primarily with Warner Bros. and MGM characters, rather than Disney. He brought a unique visual style to these comics, to the point where the expressive character of Antone the chef, could easily have been an adversary in a Bugs Bunny theatrical short.
- Script
- ?
- Pencils
- ?
- Inks
- ?
- Colors
- Western Publishing Production Shop
- Letters
- typeset
- First Line of Dialogue or Text
- Chimpanzee, the most intelligent and advanced of all the animals, is an African ape, which is related to the gorilla family.
- Genre
- non-fiction; nature
- Synopsis
- Illustrated text feature on the chimpanzee.
- Keywords
- chimpanzee; educational feature
Five illustrations of chimpanzees with accompanying text. © 1971, Western Publishing Company, Inc.
- Script
- ?
- Pencils
- Phil De Lara
- Inks
- Phil De Lara
- Colors
- Western Publishing Production Shop
- Letters
- Rome Siemon
- First Line of Dialogue or Text
- Pop, we have an idea! If you don’t think it’s strange! Instead of him chasing us, let’s chase him for a change!
- Genre
- humor; anthropomorphic-funny animals
- Characters
- Beep Beep the Road Runner; Beep Beep's three sons; Wile E. Coyote; tunnel construction crew
- Synopsis
- Beep Beep and the boys turn the tables on Wile E. Coyote, by arranging things so that they wind up chasing him.
- Reprints
- Keywords
- chase; desert setting; one-character-desiring-another-as-a-meal; tunnel; turning the tables
See notes on Phil De Lara above.
- Script
- ?
- Pencils
- Massimo Fecchi
- Inks
- Massimo Fecchi
- Colors
- Western Publishing Production Shop
- Letters
- ?
- First Line of Dialogue or Text
- Hey, Elmer! What’s that crazy rig?
- Feature Logo
- Genre
- humor; anthropomorphic-funny animals
- Characters
- Bugs Bunny; Elmer Fudd; little snowbird; Abominable Snowman
- Synopsis
- Bugs and Elmer are off to the Himalayas to capture the legendary Abominable Snowman, and bring him back alive.
- Reprints
- Keywords
- Abominable Snowman; capture; Himalaya Mountains; hunt
See notes on Massimo Fecchi above.