Although only a back-up in the long-running Dell LOONEY TUNES title, the MARY JANE & SNIFFLES series has been spread as a secret treat amongst the comics cognoscenti for decades. I first heard of it when Maggie Thompson wrote of the strip's gentle pleasures and inventiveness in CBG back in the eighties. Sniffles, of course, was the annoying Warner Brothers mouse whose only real claim to fame is as a stepping stone in the career of cartoon director/genius Chuck Jones. Mary Jane was a little girl added for this strip in the early forties. Together, the pair appeared for 20 years straight in the comics in clever, whimsical flights of fancy such as the one we have here today. Although there are no exact credits to be found, many of the strips were written by editor Chase Craig and much of the Chuck Jones-like art from this late period was by Al Hubbard.
10 comments:
in the 1940s ...living in L.A. (actually in El Monte, WATTS area...during WWII. Every Saturday, we guys swapped comic books on the street corner...traded Captain Marvel for Flash Gordon, Superman for Donald Duck, etc...Mary Jane was a fairly popular comic-even for boys, because they used typical "throw-away" objects and goods creatively and turned them into constructive new uses during their adventures of "sprinkling magic dust" on Mary Jane so she was sized closer to Sniffles. Street corner comic trading was our "Wall Street", When roller skates broke, we made scooters with an apple box and sets of skate wheels beneath a 2 x 4. After the War...we got Fleer's Bubble Gum back in stores...and got rid of the "Ration Stamps" we had to trade in to buy things like sugar, shoes, gasoline...'Twas Americana with good memories...
I loved Mary Jane and Sniffles (late forties, early fifties)! Thanks so much for posting!
I was a kid in the late 50s and early 60s and some of my most fond memories are of the Mary Jane and Sniffles cartoons
I loved Mary Jane and Sniffles (40s & 50s), too, and am delighted to revisit it. Thx.
In 1953 I was 6, and in Trinity Lutheran Hospital in KC, MO. for an "operation". During my recovery I got a kid size wheel chair to zip around in. A kind lady in a room several doors down had a large stack of comic books which she let me borrow 3 at a time. I went through all of them, but Mary Jane & Sniffles is the only one I remember. I often think of the kind lady and Mary Jane & Sniffles magical adventures.
From what issue of LOONEY TUNES is this story? I have loved Hubbard's work for 60 years! Is there a complete, accurate index to his Warner work out there, somewhere? Forget GCD.
It's from issue 213, July of '59. Seems like I recall a detailed fan-published Hubbard checklist from the pre-Internet days but I'm drawing a blank as to where or by whom. Sorry.
Today it has been exactly one year since your reply to my question about Allan Hubbard. You motivated me. In the past 12 months, I gathered and indexed all of Hubbard's "Mary Jane & Sniffles" and "Suzanne" stories. What a joy they are! Someday, some publisher is going to rediscover these lost gems. Thanks again for the inspiration!
Me Too !
Rose
It was when Mom was first reading comic books to me when I was four that I remember the Mary Jane and Sniffles stories and I will always associate Mary Jane's little poem with my Mom because she was the first one I heard recite it!
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