Robert McKimson developed into one of the most gifted animators during his career at Warner Bros. In 1943, McKimson created the definitive portrait of Bugs Bunny leaning against a tree smiling and eating a carrot. He was an animator for all the major Warner Bros. directors, including, Friz Freleng, Frank Tashlin, Chuck Jones, Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. With Clampett’s supervision, McKimson’s drawing talents truly began to flourish. McKimson created the Foghorn Leghorn, Tasmanian Devil and Speedy Gonzales.

Devil May Hare – 1954, Directed by Robert McKimson

“Hare Devil Hare,” is the debut of the Tasmanian Devil. A stampede of animals, fleeing from the Tasmanian Devil, run past Bugs Bunny’s hole. Tas enters Bug’s home and gets ready to devour our hero. Bugs stalls Tas by offering to help him find a menagerie of creatures to consume. Bugs constructs a chicken for the Devil out of bubble gum and bicarbonate of soda (so he hiccups a huge bubble), then he makes a little pig out of a life raft (which inflates within the Devil). The cartoon ends with Bugs phoning in a personal ad to the Tasmanian Post Dispatch, “Lonely Tasmanian Devil would like to meet a lonely lady Devil. Object: Matrimony.” A plane arrives with a she-Devil in a bridal veil. Rabbi Bugs marries them and says, “All the world loves a lover. But in this case we’ll make an exception.”