It only takes one
Finished model of a finishing weapon
Marvin Martian and fair but unacceptable offer of terms from Duck Dodgers
One of those delicate misunderstandings which often lead to serious consequences
Daffy (Duck Dodgers) Duck: “I claim this planet in the name of the Earth!”
Note that the “bit of dirt” that Daffy is now claiming for the Earth is about the size of a moth-eaten plum pudding
… and Porky wisely puts the whole picture and perhaps the whole world into perspective: “B-big deal!”
“It isn’t as though I haven’t lived up to my contract … goodneth knows I’ve done that…”
Inside view of Elmer’s skull
Art critics art critiquing
“I beg your pardon, sir, but could you direct me to the shortest route to the Coachella Valley and the Great Carrot Festival … pant! pant! … therein?”
Wile E. Coyote, looking surprisingly like Ken Harris in a Batman suit, heads for glory
Haute couture in RABBIT OF SEVILLE
Bugs’s diet includes clams, but only those raised solely on carrots: ALI BABA BUNNY
A rabbit’s turban is as good a refuge as any—if you’re an avaricious duck: ALI BABA BUNNY
Daffy (Robin Hood) Duck demonstrating the efficacy of a “buck and a quarter” quarterstaff over and off the rack to a skeptical Friar Porky
Daffy: “And perhaps I, foppish that I am—might be the Scarlet Pumpernickel?”
Bereft, bothered, and bemildred (Walt Kelly) Princess finds that she must marry the dethpicable Grand Duke
One can only suppose that the exquisite authenticity of this boudoir scene came from actual experience by Maurice Noble and Phil De Guard
In the twentieth century a singing frog equals $$$$ …
… likewise in the twenty-first century
Maurice Noble’s arming Elmer was a noble but fruitless gesture in this inspirational sketch for WHAT’S OPERA, DOC?
The giant shadow in our loving tribute to the majesty of Vladimir Tytla’s “Night on Bald Mountain”
Probably never in the entire history of cinema has anyone uttered the deathless lines of “I’ll kiww the wabbit!” with greater dramatic clarity. The sound you hear is Edwin Booth stirring jealously in his sepulcher
Missing the great pink, busty quality of the proverbial Wagnerian diva, we invested all the fat curves we owned in Brünnhilde’s charger
Tatiana Riabouchinska and David Lichine were unwitting contributors to the authenticity of this bit of terpsichore
NUDE DUCK DESCENDING A STAIRCASE
In the background our entire corps de ballet can be seen … Oh, we were big on joie de vivre! Toujour gai, etc., aussi!
You have to be a little crazy to paint like Van Gogh and you have to be a little crazier to try to paint like Van Gogh
ACCLAIM FOR CHUCK JONES AND CHUCK AMUCK
“Hilariouth … Chuck Amuck captures the lunacy that inspired the likes of Daffy, Bugs, Porky, Elmer, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, and Pepé Le Pew. But we also learn that the lunacy was tempered with a devotion to filmmaking, to expanding the medium, to all-around excellence.”
—Bill Ervolino, Vogue
“[Jones] and his rollicking colleagues … put pens to paper and magic came out. They started jokes that started the whole world laughing … and the laughter may simply never stop.”
—Tom Shales, The Washington Post
“Jones’ films brim with marvelous characters, precise timing, ironic humor, slapstick, warmth and fun, and it is a pleasure to report that his book does too … [A] delightfully informal literary achievement.”
—John Canemaker, Los Angeles Times Book Review
“The man who created the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, and put Bugs and Daffy through their paces, modestly claims, ‘I make cartoons for me.’ Thanks, Chuck, for being you.”
—Tom Wiener, USA Today
“Chuck Jones’ originality, his humor and his pacing still have no peer today. In my book, he is still the top toon in town.”
—Steven Spielberg
“Speaking of laughing out loud, anyone in need of that particular facial exercise would be well advised to rush out for a copy of Chuck Amuck.”
—Michele Slung, The Washington Post Book World
“Chuck Amuck … tells and shows you everything you ever wanted to know about how the Warner cartoons were made and about the people who made them.”
—Steve Johnson, Chicago Tribune
“Chuck Jones’ work remains, like all good fables, and only the best art, both timeless and universal.”
—Peter Bogdanovich
“If there were a National Museum of Laughter, Chuck Jones would be its curator.”
—The Boston Sunday Globe
“Jones does a remarkable job recapturing the infectiously screwy atmosphere in Warner Bros.’ animation unit. [He] is as graceful a writer as he is a draftsman.”
—Neil A. Grauer, San Jose Mercury News
“Pound for pound, [some] of the funniest … [writing] since Mark Twain was in his prime.”
—Robert Hurwitt, New York Press
“One beauty of Chuck Jones’ work is that it transcends generations. A 3-year-old, his parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents … can all sit down and watch Bugs Bunny, and all will find six minutes of happiness. Chuck Amuck is like that.”
—Mark Graham, Rocky Mountain News Sunday Magazine
“An informal, yet eloquent, autobiography.”
—Steven Rea, The Philadelphia Enquirer
“One of the year’s great books—at times laugh-out-loud funny and always as quirkishly, jauntily and hopelessly American as his idols and forebears, Twain and Thurber.”
—Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News
“The book is a delight, overflowing with Jones’ cockeyed view of life.”
—Bob Bloom, The Columbus Dispatch
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
19 Union Square West, New York 10003
Copyright © 1989 by Chuck Jones Enterprises, Inc.
Preface copyright © 1999 by Matt Groening
Foreword copyright © 1989 by Steven Spielberg
All rights reserved
First published in 1989 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
First Farrar, Straus and Giroux paperback edition, 1999
Illustrations depicting characters and scenes from Warner Bros. cartoons © Warner Bros. Inc. 1989
Photograph of Chuck Jones here © Scott L. Stenbroten
The following illustrations appear courtesy of the collection of Steve Ison: here; here, here, here
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jones, Chuck [date].
Chuck amuck : the life and
