Fighting Crime and Washing Away

Bugs Bunny #68 (Dell, August-September 1959, 10 cents)
The main story in this issue is a 15-page Bugs Bunny story entitled "Bamboozling the Bool Bandits." In the uncredited piece, perhaps written by Don R. Christensen and drawn by Fred Abranz, Bugs and Elmer Fudd encounter some giant rabbits while on an expedition. A "stwange little plant" is "full of super vitamins or something" and affects the local fauna. A group of bandits uses the plant to enlarge bulls, which they then let loose in villages such as Rancho Gorez and Chilivania City to provide cover for their thievery. The two friends help put an end to the bandits' crime spree.



There are also two mid-length pieces, a four-page Tweety and Sylvester story titled "The Schemer and the Dreamer," and a 10-page Bugs piece called "The Rockin' Rabbit." In the former, Abranz-drawn piece, Sylvester conspires to spend the night inside the house, only to be spooked by Tweety's ghost. And in the latter, longer story, perhaps drawn by Phil de Lara, Bugs becomes a singing sensation, only to suffer a vocal ailment, which causes him to fall even more quickly than he rose. He then uses his new singing style to fight crime!

In several short one-page pieces (also perhaps drawn by Abranz)—which all seem to be water themed—Bugs uses a saxophone to get revenge on Elmer, improvises some impromptu water skis, and fixes a drip in Elmer's roof. There's also a one-page text piece featuring Foghorn Leghorn, "The Perfect Trap."

Availability: The stories in this issue were later reprinted in various issues of the Western Bug Bunny series (#113, #116, and #242). Several popular stories published in the more recent DC series Looney Tunes were collected in Looney Tunes: Greatest Hits Vol. 1: What's up Doc?.