Looney Tunes #240

History

The issue was produced through Western Publishing's established Dell Comics pipeline, which had been adapting Warner Bros. animated characters for the newsstand since 1941. The lead story, 'A Battle of Wits,' was scripted by Don R. Christensen — a veteran who had previously written actual Warner Bros. cartoon shorts in the early 1940s before spending decades as one of Dell and Western Publishing's most prolific funny-animal scripters — and drawn by Phil De Lara, a former Warner Bros. animator who had worked directly under directors including Chuck Jones on the theatrical Looney Tunes shorts before transitioning to comics work for Dell/Western around 1950. The cover art was handled by Fred Abranz, another regular Dell contributor. The issue ran 36 pages in full color at a cover price consistent with the late-period Dell anthology format.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published October 1961 by Dell Comics as part of the long-running anthology series formally titled 'Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies' (later shortened to 'Looney Tunes'), which ran consecutively from issue #1 (1941) through #246 (1962).
• Identified by Key Collector Comics as the first appearance of Pepé Le Pew in a standard U.S. comic book.
• The Pepé Le Pew story is titled 'A Battle of Wits' — scripted by Don R. Christensen and drawn by Phil De Lara — in which Pepé invades Bugs Bunny's home as an unwanted houseguest, is ejected, and then stumbles upon a flying saucer crewed by 'super-rabbits from Mars.'
• Cover art on the issue was provided by Fred Abranz, a regular Dell/Western Publishing artist.
• Pepé Le Pew was created by director Chuck Jones and first appeared on screen in the 1945 theatrical short 'Odor-able Kitty'; the character won an Academy Award via the 1949 short 'For Scent-imental Reasons' — making his comic-book debut in this issue a full 16 years after his animated introduction.
• Don R. Christensen, the scripter, had direct ties to the Warner Bros. animation studio, having written actual Looney Tunes theatrical shorts in the early 1940s before becoming one of Dell's leading cartoon comics writers across multiple decades.
• Phil De Lara, the artist, was a former Warner Bros. animator who had worked on theatrical Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and other Looney Tunes shorts under Jones and other directors before joining Dell/Western Publishing's comics roster around 1950.
• Issue #240 falls in the penultimate year of Dell's Looney Tunes run; the series ended with issue #246 in 1962, after which the license moved to Gold Key Comics.

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