Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Comics #51
Published in January 1946, this issue of Dell's long-running Warner Bros. anthology lands at a historically charged crossroads: Chuck Jones retired Sniffles from animation that very same year with 'Hush My Mouse,' meaning the Dell comic book was rapidly becoming the character's primary — and soon only — ongoing home. That transition gave the Sniffles-and-Mary-Jane feature a cultural importance beyond its modest animated origins, anchoring a domestic-fantasy strip that would outlast the theatrical shorts by fifteen years. The issue also reflects the mid-1940s moment when second-tier Looney Tunes players such as Beaky Buzzard and Henery Hawk were at peak comic-book popularity, appearing in the Dell title far more frequently than they ever would on screen.
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The series was produced by Western Printing and Lithography and published under the Dell imprint, with Chase Craig — a former Warner Bros. story-unit animator who had worked under Tex Avery — serving as its founding writer and architect. Craig invented the Sniffles-and-Mary-Jane pairing from scratch, naming the girl character after his wife; Roger Armstrong became the principal artist on that feature throughout the 1940s. By issue #51, the anthology format was a stable, editorially mature monthly: stories ran without bylines, scripts and art were divided among a small stable of Western Publishing freelancers, and the 52-page full-color format had been consistent since the series launched in 1941.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover-dated January 1946; published by Dell (produced by Western Printing and Lithography); 52 pages, full color; features a Christmas-themed cover.
- Sniffles the mouse — created by Chuck Jones in 1939 — was retired from theatrical animation in 1946 (his last cartoon being 'Hush My Mouse'), making this issue contemporaneous with that transition and the Dell comic his primary surviving showcase.
- The Sniffles-and-Mary-Jane feature was invented by writer-cartoonist Chase Craig, who named the human girl character after his wife; Roger Armstrong served as the feature's principal artist throughout the 1940s before Al Hubbard took over in the 1950s.
- Henery Hawk, created by Chuck Jones and debuting on screen in 'The Squawkin' Hawk' (1942), made his comic-book debut in issue #25 of this same series (November 1943); by issue #51 he was an established monthly feature, appearing in nearly every issue through the mid-1950s.
- Beaky Buzzard, who first appeared on screen in Bob Clampett's 'Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid' (1942), was a regular Dell comic presence from early 1943 onward, often paired with Henery Hawk; by the period of this issue he was transitioning into supporting roles alongside Bugs and Porky.
- The issue assembles an unusually large cross-section of the Dell Looney Tunes roster — Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Petunia Pig, Cicero Pig, Sniffles, Mary Jane, Henery Hawk, Beaky Buzzard, and Ollie Owl — reflecting the anthology's strategy of using secondary and tertiary Warner characters to fill its generous page count.
- The Sniffles-and-Mary-Jane strip that runs in this issue was part of a nearly 20-year comics run, lasting until October 1961 and later revived by DC Comics in 2006 (issue #140 of their Looney Tunes series).
- Chase Craig, the series' founding creative force, had direct roots at Warner Bros. — he worked in the story unit under Tex Avery before turning to comics, giving the Dell adaptations an unusual degree of insider familiarity with the characters.