Bugs Bunny, December 10, 1944

Bugs Bunny, December 10, 1944

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Leon Schlesinger, who founded what would become Warner Bros. Animation Studios, was never an animator or artist himself, so it's odd that he's credited as the creator of the Bugs Bunny newspaper comic. It ran from 1942 to 1990, under a number of different artists. Eventually, the actual artists would be credited and have their signatures allowed on the page, but in the early days only Schlesinger's name could be seen. Roger Armstrong, who worked on a number of comic strips and comic books for various Disney and Warner Bros. properties, does the artwork here.

The comic strip was very different from the cartoons. While it seems that cartoon Bugs is always able to come out on top and outwit all his foes, here he's the one being duped. We can only assume that the final panel shows him plotting some kind of clever revenge.