Book Review: Chuck Jones: The Dream that Never Was edited by Dean Mullaney & Kurtis Findlay

In the world of animation, there are very few names that loom as large as that of Chuck Jones (1912 - 2002). While at Warner Bros., Mr. Jones was responsible for some of the most memorable cartoon characters ever created. These include The Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Pepe Le Pew, and Marvin The Martian - among many others. His work was nominated for eight Academy Awards, which he wound up winning three times - plus a fourth Honorary Academy Award in 1996 for "the creation of classic cartoons and cartoon characters whose animated lives have brought joy to our real ones for more than half a century," as the official statement read.

To put it simply, Chuck Jones was a legend in his field. He had one spectacular failure, however, which is almost never discussed. In the new IDW book Chuck Jones: The Dream That Never Was, edited by Dean Mullaney & Kurtis Findlay, we are introduced to Crawford - a character Chuck worked on in various formats for a period of 27 years. In the end, the legacy of Crawford was as a daily comic strip run in a few newspapers from January to May of 1978.

The nine-year old Crawford was semi-autobiographical in nature, although Jones added and subtracted personality traits over the years. He was initially to be introduced to the public in 1962, on the first Road Runner TV series. The character did not quite fit the tone of the show and wound up on the cutting room floor. This was to be the case time and again during the 1960s and ‘70s, until one day the opportunity arose for Crawford to become a syndicated newspaper comic strip.

By this time, Crawford had been refined numerous times. Jones had developed various proposals for a TV show starring Crawford, and during this time had fleshed out the character considerably. For various reasons though, much of it simply bad luck - the proposals were never picked up. So when the opportunity arose to bring Crawford to life in the newspapers, Chuck went for it.

Article Author: Greg Barbrick

Greg Barbrick is an old time "music biz" groupie/writer. He thinks that nothing good has been recorded since 1978.

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