Sylvester Pussycat

Few characters capture the eternal optimism of a born loser quite like Sylvester Pussycat, the lisping, tuxedo-furred feline who made his comic book debut in Dell's Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Comics #87 in 1949 — a Golden Age entry into one of the most beloved funny-animal universes in print. Over an impressive 67-year run stretching all the way to 2016, Sylvester graced the pages alongside the cream of the Looney Tunes crop: Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, and the rest of that iconic ensemble. His natural habitat is the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies and Bugs Bunny titles, where Dell's warm, all-ages sensibility gave these characters a wonderfully charming comic-page life. If you love classic cartoon-to-comics history and the golden era of Dell's funny-animal publishing, Sylvester is an irresistible piece of that legacy.