Comics-Daffy Duck TB

This travel bug has the modest goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by at least 25 cachers.  That is a rate of five drops per year for five years.  As of 23-Jan-20 it had survived for 2.9 years and had been moved by 8 cachers.

Please drop it in rural OR Premiu13 Member Only caches.  Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event where there is no security.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take the travel bug anywhere you wish.  No permission is needed to leave the U.S.

Travel bug photos are appreciated and will be re-posted here.

My youth was in the late 1940s and early 1950s.  Drawing from that period, this is one of a series of travel bugs made to commemorate favorite characters from comic books, comic strips, movie cartoons, B-movies and animated feature-length movies.  Some of the characters had only a brief existence, some survived as radio and early TV programs and some have been digitally-modernized into some of the blockbuster movies of today.  There were many other characters, but these are the ones on which I was willing to spend my dimes (comic books) and quarters (movie and popcorn).  However, I didn’t pay for the daily comic strips or Sunday funnies that came with the newspaper.

Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character produced by Warner Bros. Styled as an anthropomorphic black duck, the character has appeared in cartoon series such as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, where he usually has been depicted as the best friend and occasional arch-rival of Bugs Bunny. Daffy was one of the first of the new "screwball" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to replace traditional everyman characters that were more popular earlier in the decade, such as Mickey Mouse and Popeye.

The early Daffy is less anthropomorphic and resembles a "normal" black duck. In fact, the only aspects of the character that have remained consistent through the years are his voice characterization by Mel Blanc and his black feathers with a white neck ring.  Blanc's characterization of Daffy holds the world record for the longest characterization of one animated character by his or her original actor--52 years.

Daffy's slobbery, exaggerated lisp was developed over time, and it is barely noticeable in the early cartoons.   The origin of Daffy's voice is a matter of some debate.  One often-repeated "official" story is that it was modeled after producer Leon Schlesinger's tendency to lisp.  However, in Mel Blanc's autobiography, That's Not All Folks!, he contradicts that conventional belief, writing, "It seemed to me that such an extended mandible would hinder his speech, particularly on words containing an s sound. Thus 'despicable' became ‘desthpicable.’