Tom & Jerry: Sweet Temptation

1992. Cover price £2.99.
52 pages. Full colour.
Ravette Books Limited.

ISBN-10: 1 85304 433 4.

Cover by UNKNOWN (uncredited).

Contents:

 3 Tom & Jerry - Sweet Temptation

 4 Indicia

 5 Cleaning Up w: UNKNOWN (uncredited); a: UNKNOWN (uncredited).

r: UNKNOWN.

12 UNTITLED [Mousecatcher Needed - Apply Bravo's Circus] w: UNKNOWN (uncredited); a: UNKNOWN (uncredited).

r: UNKNOWN.

25 Show Time w: UNKNOWN (uncredited); a: UNKNOWN (uncredited).

r: UNKNOWN.

35 New Mouser! w: UNKNOWN (uncredited); a: UNKNOWN (uncredited).

r: UNKNOWN.

50 Other Titles in This Series in-house advertisement.

52 More cat 'n' mouse tales w: UNKNOWN (uncredited); a: UNKNOWN (uncredited).

r: partial page from New Mouser!.

Noting that the house is a mess, Tom decides to start cleaning up. A loose floorboard soon hits him in the face while he's gathering cleaning supplies together, but he eventually manages to get things spotless - only for Jerry and Tuffy to arrive, soaked through thanks to the weather. Berating the mice for making a mess, Tom is determined to throw them out. His attempts to prevent them creating a greater mess leads to... a messier house than he had to begin with.

A clothed Tom isn't, somehow, as amusing as the original character design. This is another strip in which humour is mined from the bad behaviour of the mice, for which they receive no comeuppance, and which struggles to make them likable. It isn't a particularly original story, and the minor moments of entertainment are thanks, in large part, to the attractive artwork.

Having been on the receiving end of Jerry's tricks once more, Tom decides to run away to join the circus. Jerry and Tuffy go looking for him, after finding Tom's newspaper, which has an advert for the circus. Tom chases the mice into the big top, where they use the trapeze to get away, their antics moving through several routines in front of a crowd. Delighted with the "performance" they give, the ringmaster offers them a contract to replicate the chase three times a day.

It is odd to see a conclusion in which a truce is declared, as here, without some final action to ruin the momentary peace. While the story is, now, extremely dated, there were still a few traditional circuses touring in the time period in which this collection was published. The art is, again, very polished and professional, though there's no heart and soul to the strip, as if it has been produced to order - a disappointing read, overall.

Tom rehearses his role in Romeo and Juliet as the stage is being prepared for the play, though Jerry isn't impressed with the cat's acting. When Tom retreats to his dressing room, the mice follow, determined to spoil things for him. As a dress rehearsal is called, Tom sees Mr. Ziegfeld, the famous agent, sitting in the theatre, and gets stage fright.

Jerry nabs his script, and Tom is ushered onto the stage before he can retrieve it - Tom decides to improvise dialogue despite a prompter being available, much to the amusement of the mice. When Jerry taunts him some more, Tom loses his cool and begins concentrating on revenge rather than his lines. As he retreats back to his dressing room to prepare for the next scene, Jerry puts make-up remover in his drink. When he returns to the stage, Tom finds that his lips are stuck together.

Tom's furious reaction, and capture of the mice, greatly amuse Ziegfeld, who offers them a contract.

The main problem with strips which conclude on a chance of the status quo, as this strip does, is that the consequences of these alterations are never developed. Had a follow-up strip been included, depicting their subsequent falling out, and abandoning the life of fame which has (briefly) been obtained, then there wouldn't be so much of a disconnect with the remainder of this collection, but as a stand-alone story it changes too much in the lives of the characters to be accepted as a simple story.

What we don't get to see between the strips is probably funnier than what we are presented with.

New Mouser! is a throwback to the earlier cartoons, with Mammy Two Shoes angered at Tom's constant sleeping. He responds to her outburst by setting after the mice, though is tricked into running face-first at a door, knocking himself out. When Mammy sees Jerry and Tuffy in her shopping bag she sets out to find Tom - and assumes that the unconscious cat is asleep once more.

Kicked out of the house for his presumed narcolepsy, Jerry and Tuffy celebrate their good fortune. Until, that is, they encounter Mammy's replacement cat - who is much, much worse than Tom. After knocking the mice out with a chunk of cheese dosed with sleeping potion, the new mouser begins hiring them out to other cats in order to appear better mousers in front of their owners. Tom gets wind of the scam when he sees Jerry, rented out to another cat, and sets out to rescue his 'friends.'

By gathering together such a disparate set of strips for presentation here, with no connecting theme or stylistic continuity, any possible enjoyment is hampered by the knowledge that we are missing connective fibres tying everything together beautifully. How the cat and mice go from living alone (in the first strip) to being feted by a noted agent, to living in the home of Tom's mistress of old (in New Mouser!) isn't addressed, nor is the reason why Tom adopts and abandons human clothing so regularly.

Speaking of Mammy Two Shoes, her presence here - during a period in which a new batch of animation was being heavily promoted - is something of an anachronism for the strip, which had already seen numerous changes applied, and would continue to be tweaked through the decade. Is her depiction racist? Not here, at least, for which we can be thankful, though it certainly isn't a role in the story which could be described as a positive portrayal.

It is incredibly difficult to recommend this collection.

For characters who have such a rich tradition, on screen and page alike, there ought to be more reverence when bringing the strips to (hopefully) new audiences, though if this was someone's first impression, there is little doubt about it being a negative one. From the poor choice of reprints, through the lacklustre packaging, there is nothing here which represents the height of creativity and artistic excellence which has been represented in prior appearances.

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