Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Comics #4
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freePublished in February 1942, just weeks after the United States entered World War II, issue #4 of Dell's Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Comics captures Warner Bros.' animated stable at a pivotal cultural moment, with Bugs Bunny already being written into a wartime story where he single-handedly captures the officers of an enemy vessel — one of the earliest examples of the character being deployed as a patriotic symbol in print. The issue also preserves a snapshot of Hollywood celebrity culture through its 'Porky's Hollywood Sketchbook' feature, which depicted real film and radio stars — including Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, and Roy Rogers — alongside anthropomorphic Looney Tunes characters, an editorial choice that underscores how deeply woven into mainstream American popular culture Warner Bros.' cartoon output had become by the early 1940s. As one of only the fourth issues in a series that would eventually span 246 installments and anchor Dell's licensed-character publishing for two decades, this issue sits squarely in the formative period of the Looney Tunes comic book universe, when the anthology format was still finding its stable roster of recurring features.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The series launched in 1941 as a Dell/Western Publishing co-production under license from Leon Schlesinger Productions, the studio behind the Warner Bros. theatrical shorts, and issue #4 reflects the collaborative creative team that defined the anthology's early run: Roger Armstrong, George Storm, Hal Bitner, and Walt Kelly all contributed art. Kelly had left Disney's animation staff in 1941 and landed at Dell, where editor Oskar Lebeck recognized his talent and deployed him across multiple titles simultaneously — his Looney Tunes contributions during this period predate the Animal Comics work that would eventually give the world Pogo. The Leon Schlesinger credit appearing on the masthead/credits served partly as a studio branding device, as Schlesinger's name appeared in connection with the licensed Looney Tunes material in addition to his role as the animated shorts' producer.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published February 1942 by Dell Publishing, making it the fourth issue of what would become a 246-issue run spanning 1941–1962 under the Dell imprint.
- Art and story contributions from Roger Armstrong, Walt Kelly, George Storm, Hal Bitner, and Leon Schlesinger (per multiple source listings).
- Walt Kelly — who would later create Pogo — contributed to this issue during his prolific early Dell period after leaving the Disney studio in 1941; his 'Kandi the Cave Kid' feature appears in this run of issues.
- Contains a Bugs Bunny story (art by George Storm) in which Bugs single-handedly captures the officers of an enemy vessel — one of the character's earliest wartime-themed comic adventures.
- A 'Porky's Hollywood Sketchbook' feature depicts real contemporary celebrities including Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Roy Rogers, Roddy McDowall, Deanna Durbin, and Rochester (Eddie Anderson) alongside the Looney Tunes cast.
- A Mary Jane and Sniffles story appears in which the pair seek information on Columbus and end up beneath the sea with a school of fish, continuing the underwater-fantasy format established in the series.
- The cover features Porky Pig and Bugs Bunny — a pairing that defined the visual identity of the series' earliest covers.
- The Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Comics series was produced by Dell in partnership with Western Publishing, which actually held the Looney Tunes license; after Dell and Western parted ways in 1962, Western continued publishing the characters under the Gold Key imprint.
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