Monday, December 21, 2009

Mary Jane and Sniffles in -
"The Restless Reindeer"

Mary Jane and Sniffles the Mouse were best friends. So the two could have adventures, Mary Jane had the ability to make herself small. Once tiny, Mary Jane was impetuous and got the pair into trouble, while Sniffles was the voice of conservative reason – an awfully fun formula!

This tale of an ambitious and hard-working reindeer was most likely done by Al Hubbard and comes from Dell Giant Bugs Bunny’s Christmas Funnies No. 7, December 1956. All scans from my own comic.

27 comments:

  1. Thanks for this little gem; I keep trying the 'Poof, poof, piffles' spell, but I'm still stuck in this world, with traffic jams and bills to pay. Must be doing something wrong.

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  2. Robert: Thanks! I keep trying myelf! no luck yet. -- Mykal

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  3. I always liked the way they drew this one. It's very appealing ink-wise.

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  4. i've been having trouble keeping up Mykal but i just happened to pop in at the right moment, this is great, what an awesome concept!

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  5. "Poof, poof, piffles, make me just as small as Sniffles!"
    No. Doesn't work! Damn!

    I didn't know these characters, Mykal. Love Sniffles character design with that a little bit Milt Stein big feet in yellow. I like a lot how he smiles in the penultimate panel of page 6. A warm and open grin to go through the nippy winter--

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  6. Great to see Sniffles again~! Haven't seen the lil bugger since he had a run-in with bats in a belfry in an old Warner Bros. animated toon~!

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  7. Prof.: I'm about to pop over for the 4th installment of that great Barks classic you have running! Thanks for the comments - I love the concept as well - who wouldn't love shrinking down and being pals with a mouse?

    Gabriel: Very Milt Stein, which is what I love about it. Hubbard (and I am pretty sure it was Al Hubbard) was one of the greats that often worked for Dell.

    Lysdexicuss: I had forgotten about that cartoon! It's a great one. I have it in that great Looney Tune Warner collection. I will have to give it a re-visit!


    Thanks, gentlemen! Merry Christmas! -- Mykal

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  8. I got over here late, for this story, but it was worth it. I had never heard of Mary Jane and Sniffles before now. I love that little Mouse..."with the unerring instinct of a homing pigeon"
    Thanks Mykal, and Merry Christmas to you and yours
    r/e

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  9. No worries, R/E and merry christmas to you!

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  10. Nice story. Al Hubbard is one of those forgotten greats of comic book artists. He has a wonderful brush stroke on his inks and draws those cute characters the stories he did required. I loved his Scamp stories.
    Good choice.

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  11. Thanks, Gary, and thanks for stopping by! -- Mykal

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  12. Takes me back to the barber shop where Mary Jane & Sniffles entertained me while I waited my turn on the barber chair...say about 1943 to 1950!

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  13. Takes me back to the barber shop in the 1940s where Mary Jane & Sniffles entertained me while I awaited my turn on the barber chair!

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  14. Bob: what a cool memory. Thanks!

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  15. I just ran across this... This was my favorite comic book growing up... Read in Spanish translation growing up in Uruguay... It was called "Mari Juana y Sifo"~~ Thanks for the memories!

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  16. Garciela: You are more than welcome! I always love it when I can bring back such fond memories.

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  17. I actually grew up with Mary Jane and Sniffles,having been born in Jan.1941.My neighborhood fortunately had a paper collection warehouse close by.As kids we would load up our Radio Flyer wagon or whatever we could make,with old newspapers(wet the ones on bottom).We could earn Show fare.On our exit we would sneak back thru a side door,run and dive into a huge mountain of old Newspapers,magazines and comic books(all taken from store shelves in mint condition).Sometimes we might leave with 20 to 80 Comic books(we would swap our duplicates).This was why I learned to read well before the First grade.Life was good.

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  18. mrgrandaddy: That does sound like a wonderful life! Thanks for dropping by.

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  19. This was one of my favorite cartoons! I always kept a lookour for new Mary Jane and Sniffles comic books. Haven't tried the formula in years, but tried it as a child. Thanks so much for bringing them back.

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  20. MezzoKat: The pleasure is all mine!

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  21. Love this, my Mom used to tell us these stories when we were young as she remembered them from her childhood!
    Thank you!

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  22. Quilt Mom: My pleasure. I am glad you enjoyed it!

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  23. a lot of us have tried to shrink to mouse size and also:

    "In Brightest Day, in darkest night no evil shall escape my sight, let all who worship evils might beware my power Green Lanterns light" never turned me into Green Lantern either...but I kept on trying and even had a green ring to help.

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  24. I LOVE Mary Jane and Sniffles. I didn't know they were in a comic book. When I was in 4th grade in the early 50's, we had a hardbound text book that was all Mary Jane and Sniffles...different stories. I remember one was about the circus coming to town:) I would love to find any of those books, but can't find them anywhere:(

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  25. Twin tears tentatively found forgotten trails to the mounds of her cheeks and paused, as if they had forgotten the way; what to do next. It has been years since she allowed her shields down and wholeheartedly sobbed from her ocean of tears. Maybe she had been too busy with life adventures and simply hadn't been sad enough to give in. Being a lively sort of person, she was seldom bored; hated when the party or the holiday joy was over; hated being out of touch with so many people she had shared life enriching moments with.

    A memory from childhood kept edging into her thoughts. It happened when it was her turn to walk down the blacktop road to the post office and bring back the little box of comic books to the country general store her parents operated. After sorting them into stacks in the display case, she was allowed to select one of each for her personal reading pleasure. Hard cover books were her companions when she climbed up a favorite tree, but comics had to be returned in pristine condition. So the front porch swing would do in nice weather. The comic book she had just read was "Mary Jane and Sniffles."

    Mary Jane was a little girl about her own age. Sniffles was her friend, who happened to be a mouse. When their situation required it, Mary Jane would open her little drawstring pouch of magic sand. Sprinkling a bit over her head, she chanted, "Magic sand of poof poof piffles, make me just as small as Sniffles." The adventure she had just read had taken the tiny twosome into an deserted city. It seemed everyone had dropped everything and left. They roamed fearlessly through department stores and homes at will. And then she thought the thought that has come back to haunt her 67 years later. "I want to be alone like that. Free to go wherever I please"

    By now her tears have dried where they stopped. She sprinkles some imaginary sand on a shadow of a self-blaming thought lurking above her right eye. Poof, it is banished as she lectures; "You know I have worked valiantly to fill my space with connections that invite me to wonderful places and spaces, not this recurring experience of being alone!" Then the magic sand worked and the silence was shattered by one phone text after another. She had inadvertently turned off her ringer at some point. Now, brushing off the tiny grains of magic sand, it had come back to life!

    Oh, thank you MJ and S! You taught me to think outside the box and never give up or give in!

    True story! The store, the comic books, the tree reading... all happened. I am B Gayle Dailey, who just turned 75 years old. Growing up in West Virginia, my world allowed children incredible freedom. We only had to be wary of the occasional poisonous snake we might encounter while roaming the mountains and country roads. I decided to google my old friends and there they are! 1-06-2015

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  26. I was four when Mom was reading comic books to me including Disneyland,Popeye and Looney Tunes. One of the stories she read was a Mary Jane and Sniffles story and I always remembered how Mom chanted Mary Jane's magic rhyme.

    At roughly the same time I was seeing the old(1935-1947)Warner Brothers cartoons on TV and I saw a few cartoons with Sniffles in them-and I realized that these were apart from the comic book series.

    I read few Mary Jane & Sniffles stories but I always remembered the stories.

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