Genre: humor; anthropomorphic-funny animals
Created in: 1945
- Notes:
- Mean, short-tempered, impulsive, and the ultimate patsy for Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam first appeared in the 1945 Bugs Bunny theatrical short "Hare Trigger" as a western bad guy and train robber. Over the ensuing years Sam appeared as a pirate, bank robber, desert bandit; Roman centurion, evil knight, castaway; horn-helmeted invader, king's cook, mountain climber; broke laird of a castle, and even an alien ("Yosemite Sam of Outer Space"). Most often in animation he was a western bad guy or a pirate.
Primarily handled by Warner Bros. animation director Friz Freleng, Yosemite Sam is said to be a caricature of his director - short and fiery.
In comic books, Yosemite Sam is usually portrayed as a pirate (or retired pirate) and, to a lesser extent, a westerner.
After many years of guesting in Dell and Gold Key's Looney Tunes, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig titles, Yosemite Sam was given his own Gold Key/Whitman title in 1970 running for 81 issues thru 1983.
Since then, he has appeared in DC Comics' Looney Tunes title, and shared a "genre-crossover" title with Jonah Hex in 2017.
First comic book appearance: Four Color (Dell, 1942 Series) #187 – Bugs Bunny and the Dreadful Dragon
(April 1948) where he appears both as a pirate and a western gunslinger in separate stories.
- Keywords
- animation 1945; Bugs Bunny; comic books 1948; Warner Bros.