Looney Tunes #263 (Family Comic Friday)

If I was to quiz you as to what is currently the longest continuing running DC Comic what would you guess? Action Comics? Detective Comics? Would you believe it's Looney Tunes? Starting in 1994, DC Comics has captured the antics of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Taz, Tweety & Sylvester and countless others. In this issue, the focus is on Wile E. Coyote and Ralph The Wolf!

I didn't know this but Wile E. and Ralph are not the same character! I always thought that Ralph in the Ralph and Sam cartoons was always Wile E. Coyote and that Sam was calling him Ralph as a bit of a joke. But thanks to this issue, I've learned that Sam looks just like the coyote but with a couple of changes. Ralph's nose is red and he has a snaggle tooth. 

In the opening story, Ralph and Wile E. are laid up in the hospital after their most recent run-ins with the Road Runner and Sam the Sheepdog. Their doctor recommends a change of pace. So the two canine cousins decide to take on their other's domain. Thus it's Wile E. in the meadows trying to score one of Sam's sheep and Ralph has a vast inventory of Acme Co. products at his disposal! 

Wile. E Coyote also appears in feature #2. Here, Yosemite Sam is hosting a documentary on the hunting habits of the North American Coyote. Unfortunately, Sam has chosen Wile E. Coyote as his documentary subject and naturally, things are anything but textbook. 

Lastly, Sylvester and his son are trying to capture a mouse. This happens just as the local circus' Tasmanian Devil has escaped. Taz is just about to eat the mouse when a deal is struck. Don't eat the rodent and in return, the little squeaker will serve up a bigger meal- Sylvester the Cat!

Only the first story was all-new. But it didn't really matter to me. It was all great stuff. I would love to have the complete Looney Tunes run and having the reprints could help with that. Back issues are not cheap as many of them have been thrown out or destroyed by young readers as time goes by. 

This issue just debuted on shelves within the last couple of weeks. If you can find a LCS that offers kids comics, you should be able to find a copy no problem. You can also go to Amazon and eBay. But with shipping, you could have bought 2 or 3 extra comics for the young reader in your life at the comics shop.

A must for any fan of Looney Tunes!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Lobo/Road Runner Special #1

After years of failing to capture his nemesis The Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote takes to the stars to hire the baddest bastiche in the galaxy Lobo! But in order for Lobo to take the job, the Coyote has to fulfill a hit for the last Czarnian. Honestly, I don't know who's in it more over their head- Wile E. or Lobo? 

Bill Morrison's take on the Road Runner/ Wile E. Coyote mythos was quite interesting. The super-intelligence of both animals is due to genetic testing on a group of animals from the New Mexican desert. If you look closely, you'll see that a gray hare, black duck, and a canary are some of the test subjects as well. 

But where I got lost from Morrison's story is a scene in which one of the assistant's is talking to a scientist but then everybody acts like she's talking to thin air. That plot point wasn't clearly explored further and I read over that sequence like 5 or 6 times just trying to figure out what I was missing.

I liked Morrison's art. It was done in the gritty Lobo style that still allowed for reader to clearly understand who was who in of the Looney Tunes despite their new designs. Plus, the old 1940s style sci-fi slant used by Bill Morrison was perfect for this type of bizarre story.

The Warner Bros. style story in the back was also very good. It too had Lobo trying to exterminate the Road Runner. But with the addition of Bugs Bunny holding Lobo to the family friendly standards of a Looney Tunes cartoon, it was a laugh riot instead of the more series main feature. This is one story that I would have loved to see as an animated short.

For a gritty property like Lobo marketed younger readers, it could have gotten too sugary sweet. Instead, this was a very good crossover read that didn't lose it's essence nor was it overly shocking for a crowd used to it's characters surviving explosions and falls from enormous heights. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.