Looney Tunes #279 (Family Comic Friday)

With just a week until the beginning of the 2024 Oylmpics, I've discovered another major franchise is getting into the spirit of things. In the latest issue of DC's Looney Tunes (which dropped just last Wednesday), Bugs Bunny hosts The Looney Games. Everyone from Michigan J. Frog to Taz, Lola Bunny to Foghorn Leghorn is completing in hopes of winning a medal in the games. Of course, the ever too over-confident Daffy Duck thinks he's going to sweep all the categories. But when Bugs fires the starting gun for the first race, causing Daffy to panic that duck hunting season has begun early this year, you know things are in trouble for the wisecracking mallard. 

This summer has also seen several major soccer championships taking place all over the globe. So it's only fitting that the back-up feature involves the world's most popular sport. Bugs answers an ad for a soccer tournament, which instead turns out to be a trap for some of the Looney Tunes' most dastardly characters to scare up some victims for a host of mad experiments. It looks like Bugs' goose is cooked. That is until he demands his foes challenge him in a match or- horror of horrors- the rascally rabbit will get his lawyers involved! 

Featuring Witch Hazel, Gossamer and a character I didn't know even existed, the Looney Tunes version of Dracula: Count Bloodcount! You know Bugs will play dirty against this squad of villains and we all love it!

It's rare when I think that the second story is better than the cover feature. Yet, that's how I felt with this issue and the soccer story was a reprint from like 10 years ago! I felt that the Olympic themed story was just too jammed packed. Derek Fridolfs along with Robert Pope crafted some great gags. But would it have been a bad thing to have let these two take over the whole issue with the Looney Games story? Less is not always more when it's a rapid fire of joke-joke-gag-joke-pun!

Plus, poor Wile E. Coyote! There's a scene where he's given a baton in the relay race and right before he's sent to claim victory, an anvil smashes him flat. In typical fashion, he lifts a placard that bemoans 'Why can't I win?' That just broke my heart. Why can't the Coyote win a race? He's not trying to eat anyone. I demand justice! I want a rematch!

For the parents out there, this issue has the typical amount of violence using dynamite, bear traps and mallets. Nobody stays hurt. But of course, some of the youngest of readers might not understand that sort of misadventure has long-term consequences of injury. If Looney Tunes is something you allow the little ones in your life to watch on TV, then there's nothing offensive here in this comic. As usual, it's up to the level of maturity in the readers as to whether your family can enjoy this sports themed comic this year or will have to wait until the Olympics of 2028 for a read!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Smurfs Olympic Special (Family Comic Friday)

The Olympic games in Paris are less than 3 weeks away and I'm absolutely thrilled that Papercutz is celebrating with this Smurftastic special. Reprinting the story 'The Smurf Olympics' from 1979, the torch is passed to the next generation of Smurf fans with this one-shot floppy.

Hefty Smurf is unhappy with how lazy his fellow Smurfs are. In order to help get them into better shape, he proposes a series of games in which the winners get medals. Oh, and a kiss from Smurfette!

The village splits into 2 teams. Sadly, nobody wants fragile Weakling Smurf on their squad, so he becomes a team of one! 

This yarn becomes two stories at this point. Hefty is engulfed in a comedy of errors as he can't get any of his fellow Smurfs to act serious. Meanwhile Weakling Smurf is starring in his own version of the Tortoise and the Hare as he tries so very hard to train (in vain) for the forthcoming Smurf Olympics. Add in Brainy Smurf driving everyone crazy as the official referee of the competition and the wisdom of Poppa Smurf and you've got yourself about as perfect as a Smurf adventure as you can get without the presence of Gargamel and his cat Azrael!

I had debated on whether or not to pre-order a copy of this book from my favorite local comic shop. I'm trying to scale back my collection a bit. Plus I read about this book a week late because I was on vacation when the Previews for this special dropped. I figured if I tried to order it later, I probably wouldn't get my hands on a copy until AFTER the Olympics had passed. So I was content to miss out on a copy. Imagine my surprise when I went to my favorite store just yesterday and they had a couple of copies available on the shelves at the checkout. I figured this is kinda a holiday special and since they went to the trouble of ordering this, I happily made it a part of my collection.

Now this isn't the story's first time in print. There's the original version in France which a year later was serialized in a couple European mags. Just a couple of years ago, Papercutz released the story as part of their Smurfs 3-in-1 anthology series in volume 4. There have also been countless adaptations of the story in the 40 years in-between publishing. I don't want to dissuade anyone from buying a comic book, especially if it's one I review for Family Comic Friday. However, as there isn't any new material in the Smurfs Olympic Special, if the young reader in your life already owns Smurfs 3-in-1, Volume 4 already, save your money. OR... buy a copy for another deserving young reader who might be thinking about getting into comics. 

Lastly, for those of you parents and guardians who like me heard the myth growing up that the Smurfs are demonic. There's no magic in this story. Except for a couple exploding tricks from Jokey Smurf, this isn't even a violent tale. From what I can tell, it was the Jehovah's Witnesses who declared the Smurfs to be Satanic. As with every family friendly book I review, I leave it up to the parents to ultimately decide. However, if this book ends up being a hit in your home, check out the Smurfs official channel on Youtube where they've got the 1983 hour-long animated Smurf Olympic Special ready for viewing! It could be a lot of fun and cool way to beat the Summer heat as you prepare for the real games later this month!

Nostalgic with a heart-warming ending. A very liberal use of the word 'Smurf' as a substitute for other words that can get a little confusing and annoying. But something multiple generations of readers can enjoy!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

The Best Political Cartoons of the Year 2005 (2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

The political cartoon. It's an institution as American as mom, apple pie, and baseball. For the year that was 2004, it was a banner year to be an editorial artist.

2004 was a presidential election year. The candidates the American people had to choose from were the incumbent, George W. Bush vs. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. The roller coaster economy, traditional home values and the war on terror were deciding factors in an election that was too close to call until election day.

Iraq was a frequent topic for political cartoonists. Saddam Hussein's war trail occurred in 2004. With his capture, the debate raged as to not only should America continue to have a presence in the Middle Eastern nation, but also as to why we were there in the first place. A scandal involving the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison by US soldiers took over the editorial page for a while. And the commencement of the 2004 Olympics in Athens had everyone on the edge of their seats. Not because of gold medal fervor; but to see if the global event was going to be the next target of terrorists. 

There was more to 2004 than the election, Irag and the war on terror. The Boston Red Sox broke the Curse of the Bambino and finally won the World Series for the first time since 1918. DIY guru Martha Stewart went to prison for insider stock trading. A series of hurricanes targeted Florida. And several big time celebs passed away including Superman's Marlon Brando and his on-screen son, the man of steel himself, Christopher Reeve. There's also a special section at editorial cartoons from around the world, with the focus being how other countries view American policy.

This book is titled as The Best Political Cartoons of 2005. But all of the material within the covers are from 2004. Editor Daryl Cagle did it this way because both the Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Cartooning and several other similar awards are now presented for the year prior but in the when it wasp physically awarded. So Herblock winner Matt Davies, whose winning portfolio is presented in this volume, won the 2005 award for his work done in 2004.

I didn't choose this compendium of cartoons to be political. I choose this collection as I am down to just 2 tasks on my 2022 reading challenge and it's been darn near impossible to find a comic book or graphic novel with an index inside it. This book was placed in the used graphic novel section of my favorite LCS. And this book promises an index, of which there is! So, I am counting it. 

An interesting look by at 2004. I recall a lot of the events that happened in this year. I just can't believe it's been 16 years since it all happened!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Completing this review completes Task #30 (With an Index) of the 2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.