Happy Comics #29

Happy Hare promises to take Bonnie to the dance tonight, but he's short on cash—so when Bruno Bear desperately needs someone to watch his niece and nephew and cook dinner, Happy jumps at the chance to earn five bucks. What follows is a comedic kitchen catastrophe as Happy's cooking ambitions spiral hilariously out of control, forcing him to think fast when disaster strikes in the household.

Francois the Feline is desperate—his rival Murgatroyd, a mouse-catching dog, has made him so nervous and insecure that he can barely sleep. In a scheme to turn the tables, Francois decides to give Murgatroyd a taste of his own anxiety, cooking up increasingly elaborate ways to rattle the confident canine. The results are hilariously unexpected, and Francois discovers that worry has a funny way of catching up with you, no matter whose side you're on.

Happy wants to prove his Uncle Fuzzy is a wealthy eccentric, not the broke hobo his friends saw in the newspaper—so he invites the old fellow to visit and attempts to demonstrate his riches. But as Uncle Fuzzy arrives with a homeless entourage and keeps getting distracted by trivial finds instead of showing off cash, Happy's schemes to win over his skeptical friends keep backfiring in hilarious ways. Will Happy finally convince anyone that his uncle has real money to spare?

Bruno Bear volunteers to help Judge Growl's campaign to get the town's boys interested in sports, only to discover that his glory days as a baseball star are well behind him—and his well-intentioned attempt to retrieve a ball hit into a nearby house lands him in hot water with the law. Between his fumbling fieldwork and a run-in with a suspicious officer, Bruno's got some humble pie to eat before he can truly be a positive influence on the youth of the town.

When Dr. Whitey reveals a scientific formula that makes mice lose their appetite for food and crave wood instead, two scheming rodents see their way of life disappearing—so they kidnap the good doctor and impersonate him to sabotage his discovery. But their plan to distribute the serum to humans backfires spectacularly, turning the entire nation into wood-eaters and sending society into chaos. Now Dr. Whitey must save the day, and the mice who started this mess find themselves on the wrong side of an angry mob.

When Mrs. Sippi and Sammy inherit an old houseboat from Uncle Sidewinder, they set out to turn their floating home into a proper motorboat—with the unexpected help of a wisecracking talking crow named Conrad. As one scheme after another lands them in wild trouble, from an artillery range to a giant fish that nearly drags them under, Mrs. Sippi discovers an oddly fortunate path to finally getting into the business she's always wanted.

Oliver Owl needs to run errands before the boys get home from school, but his dog Alfred keeps following him despite being told to stay put—so Oliver decides he needs to teach the pup a lesson about obedience. What follows is a three-page lesson in determination as Alfred proves just how hard a dog's will can be to break.