How the Pink Panther celebrated the Bicentennial

A pink icon celebrated the red, white and blue in 1976.

Yes, you'd never know it from this garishly colored and off-model cover image, but issue 35 of the Pink Panther comic book series (cover-dated June 1976) featured a Bicentennial-themed story called "Pink Spirit of '76." (Okay, you could tell that if you read the small text, but who ever does that?)

Our little six-page tale starts with our titular panther strolling beneath the cherry trees in Washington, DC, while remarking on how it brings him into the spirit of the Bicentennial season:
 

See that little "poof" on the side of the panel? Well, that's one of Pink's ancestors (another pink panther, naturally) popping into the future to share how (of course) he was present at just about every important event during the Revolutionary War.

Events such as Paul Revere's famous midnight ride...

 ...the crossing of the Delaware...

 ...and, obviously, the sewing of our brand-new flag (which he felt needed a better symbol):

Older pink isn't welcome at any of these events -- he's more than a bit obnoxious -- and at the end of the story George Washington leaves him freezing on top of a mountain, where the technicolor feline ends up becoming the foundation for another national symbol to come:

It's all pretty amusing stuff, with some great cartooning. The story is uncredited, both in the issue (as was typical of the time) and the Great Comics Database. Previous issues of this series listed in the GCD are all drawn by Warren Tufts, so it seems likely that he drew this one, too.

What's totally odd here -- at least to me -- is seeing the Pink Panther talk. He never did that in the cartoons, right? I guess they couldn't have done an entire comic book series in pantomime, but still, it's pretty jarring to a guy like me who is used to the old animated cartoons.

The rest of this issue moves away from the Bicentennial. It includes a story of the Inspector tracking down a purse thief, another Pink Panther story about piracy, and a final story that ends with the panther getting thrown off a plane after saying "Hi, Jack" to a passing celebrity. You'd never get away a joke like that these days, that's for sure.

This particular entry into the comics of 1976 doesn't come across as all that noteworthy -- too many other comics took the "let's have our characters participate in the Revolution" route -- but it's still a fun entry into the genre.