Ever wonder what the “E” in “Wile E. Coyote” stands for? Yeah, me, neither, but Mark Evanier has an interesting answer nonetheless.

I loved Looney Tunes cartoons when I was a kid. (I still do, actually. I find that, like good literature, I see new things every time I watch one, and the dual-level jokes — slapstick gags for kids, sly innuendo for grown-ups — enables them to remain relevant to me as an adult viewer, rather than merely objects of nostalgia or curiosity. Oh, and they’re funny, too.)

Now I have them on DVD, of course, and can watch them whenever I want, but back in the day — “the day” being the 1970s — I got a daily Tunes fix from a couple of locally produced kid’s television shows (Hotel Balderdash on KTVX in the mornings and Lighthouse 20 in the afternoons on the original, pre-Fox KSTU). Once a week, I supplemented these meager rations with a big, mouth-watering, binge-scale serving of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show on Saturday mornings. And, in between those meals, I had the Western Publishing comic books that Evanier describes.

The Looney Tunes comics were pretty weird, in a number of ways. The characters were different than their on-screen versions. Evanier describes how the Road Runner acquired a family and a curious speech pattern in his print-media comics, while I recall that Bugs Bunny was frequently cast as some kind of freelance adventurer, usually with either Porky or Sylvester as a sidekick. And the plots were bizarre, too. I clearly remember one in which Bugs and Porky become the owners of a marshmallow mine and are sabotaged by a competitor who rigs a giant magnifying glass that shines into the mine and causes a floodtide of molten sugar to rush down into town. I also recall one in which Bugs and his girlfriend time-travel to the ancient “Rabtec” empire — think Tenochtitlan as built by anthropomorphized rabbits — and are mistaken for gods. Still, as freaky as these insane comics were, I loved them dearly. I remember hauling a valise full of them to California when my parents took me to Disneyland at the age of seven; we drove down, you see, and I needed something to read during the long ride.

I’m sure it won’t surprise anyone to hear that I still have a stack of them down in the Bennion Archives, as well as my own primitive attempts at recreating them on the backs of old grocery bags.

I don’t have much more of a point than what I’ve already said… just taking a little trip down memory lane, I suppose. Go have a look at what Mark has to say, though; it’s pretty interesting.

Oh, and for the record, I had plenty of Disney comics, too, even though I never really liked the Disney cartoons. Even as a child, I found them a little too cute, a little too sticky-sweet, for my tastes. On the printed page, however, Mickey was a cool guy who explored underwater cities and discovered the Loch Ness Monster, while Donald and his nephews were always globetrotting and fighting bad guys with their Uncle Scrooge. In other words, they were doing exactly the sorts of things that an overly imaginative only-child would’ve liked to be doing.

I think I’m going to go down to the Archive tonight and have a little reading party…