According to Chase Craig, who wrote and drew the first Bugs Bunny comic Sunday pages and
the first Bugs comic book, "Bugs was not the creation of any one man; however, he rather
represented the creative talents of perhaps five or six directors and many cartoon writers. In those
days, the stories were often the work of a group who suggested various gags, bounced them
around and finalized them in a joint story conference."[9] A rabbit with some of the personality of
Bugs, though looking very different, was originally featured in the film Porky's Hare Hunt,
released on April 30, 1938. It was co-directed by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway and an uncredited Cal
Dalton (who was responsible for the initial design of the rabbit). This cartoon has an almost
identical plot to Avery's Porky's Duck Hunt (1937), which had introduced Daffy Duck. Porky Pig
is again cast as a hunter tracking a silly prey who is more interested in driving his pursuer insane
and less interested in escaping. Hare Hunt replaces the little black duck with a small white
rabbit. The rabbit introduces himself with the odd expression "Jiggers, fellers," and Mel Blanc
gave the character a voice and laugh much like those he later used for Woody Woodpecker. The
rabbit character was popular enough with audiences that the Termite Terrace staff decided to use
it again.[10] According to Friz Freleng, Hardaway and Dalton had decided to dress the duck in a
rabbit suit.[11] The white rabbit had an oval head and a shapeless body. In characterization, he was
"a rural buffoon". He was loud, zany with a goofy, guttural laugh. Blanc provided him with a
hayseed voice.[12]
The rabbit comes back in Prest-O Change-O (1939), directed by Chuck Jones, where he is the
pet rabbit of unseen character Sham-Fu the Magician. Two dogs, fleeing the local dogcatcher,
enter his absent master's house. The rabbit harasses them but is ultimately bested by the bigger of
the two dogs. This version of the rabbit was cool, graceful, and controlled. He retained the
guttural laugh but was otherwise silent.[12]
The rabbit's third appearance comes in Hare-um Scare-um (1939), directed again by Dalton and
Hardaway. This cartoon—the first in which he is depicted as a gray bunny instead of a white one
—is also notable as the rabbit's first singing role. Charlie Thorson, lead animator on the film,
gave the character a name. He had written "Bugs' Bunny" on the model sheet that he drew for
Hardaway.[10][13] In promotional material for the cartoon, including a surviving 1939 presskit, the
name on the model sheet was altered to become the rabbit's own name: "Bugs" Bunny (quotation
marks only used, on and off, until 1944).[14]
In his autobiography, Blanc claimed that another proposed name for the character was "Happy
Rabbit."[15] In the actual cartoons and publicity, however, the name "Happy" only seems to have
been used in reference to Bugs Hardaway. In Hare-um Scare-um, a newspaper headline reads,
"Happy Hardaway."[16] Animation historian David Gerstein disputes that "Happy Rabbit" was
ever used as an official name, arguing that the only usage of the term came from Mel Blanc
himself in humorous and fanciful tales he told about the character's development in the 1970s
and 1980s; the name "Bugs Bunny" was used as early as August 1939, in the Motion Picture
Herald, in a review for the short Hare-um Scare-um.[17]
Thorson had been approached by Tedd Pierce, head of the story department, and asked to design
a better rabbit. The decision was influenced by Thorson's experience in designing hares. He had
designed Max Hare in Toby Tortoise Returns (Disney, 1936). For Hardaway, Thorson created the
model sheet previously mentioned, with six different rabbit poses. Thorson's model sheet is "a
comic rendition of the stereotypical fuzzy bunny". He had a pear-shaped body with a protruding
rear end. His face was flat and had large expressive eyes. He had an exaggerated long neck,
gloved hands with three fingers, oversized feet, and a "smart aleck" grin. The end result was
influenced by Walt Disney Animation Studios' tendency to draw animals in the style of cute
infants.[11] He had an obvious Disney influence, but looked like an awkward merger of the lean
and streamlined Max Hare from The Tortoise and the Hare (1935) and the round, soft bunnies
from Little Hiawatha (1937).[12]
In Jones' Elmer's Candid Camera (1940), the rabbit first meets Elmer Fudd. This time the rabbit
looks more like the present-day Bugs, taller and with a similar face—but retaining the more
primitive voice. Candid Camera's Elmer character design is also different: taller and chubbier in
the face than the modern model, though Arthur Q. Bryan's character voice is already established.
