Pinky and the Brain: December 1996

Cover

Created by: Peter Tumminello

Pinky and the Brain are rising from the grave, as zombies ready to take over the world. The graveyard is dark and forbidding, with only the eerie light from a flying saucer to show the action. The Brain is fully unearthed, while Pinky is just rising from the grave, only his head visible.

Unusually for this series, the cover art is not a drawing, but rather a photograph - in black and white - of a sculpture. Tumminello's statues of the mice are dead on-model, and the overall effect is quite spooky. The actual sculpture is only a little bit larger than the cover itself, and sits in the offices of WBWP.

Plan Brain from Outer Space

Credits

• Writer: Jesse Leon McCann
• Penciller: Walter Carzon
• Inker: Mike DeCarlo
• Letterer: John Costanza
• Colorist: Demetrius Bassoukos

Synopsis

Pinky and the Brain are test subjects in Hollywoood subliminal message research in 1960. They're watching a bad science fiction movie, with messages added to entice them to eat popcorn and drink soda. As he watches (and munches), the Brain bemoans the fact that he's there instead of formulating the details of the night's plan: to force half of the human population to stop bathing, then demand the world surrender control to him as the price of stopping the scourge of unbearable body odor. After the movie, they're both stuffed as a result of seriously overeating. The Brain explains the concept of subliminal messages to Pinky, and as he does, he realizes that this will work for him as well, to turn mankind into his unwitting slaves. This provides the rest of his plan: he will make a bad science fiction movie of his own, and sprinkle his subliminal messages among it.

The Brain, with Pinky as his crew, will write and direct the film. He holds an open casting call and quickly acquires the necessary actors to tell his story: an aging horror star, an ex-boxer, a TV show hostess, and some out-of-work plumbers, with a special cameo appearance by Raymond Burr. With everything in readiness, filming begins.

The Brain is Commander Brain from Outer Space, wandering space in his saucer looking for a home. He decides to take over the Earth by using a zombie ray to persuade everyone to do his bidding, starting with the President of the US. Unfortunately, the parts he needs were left behind to make room for his Perry Como record collection. He decides to find the most intelligent scientist on Earth and have him build the ray gun. As the mice arrive, they discover that the scientist has beaten them to the punch and completed the ray gun without them. The Brain proposes that he turn the gun over to him, in return for New Jersey, but the scientist has other ideas: why settle for New Jersey when you can have it all? Their discussion at an end, Commander Brain sends in his robot, only to find that it's Raymond Burr instead. The day's filming ends on that note.

With the cast gone, the mice go to work on the subliminal messages. Pinky stands in while the Brain checks lighting, camera angles, and such, and then the actual images are recorded, all with the intent of convincing the viewer that the Brain should be their trusted leader. This takes all night. Pinky gets in a very short nap, then must get in costume to fill in for the boxer, who is sick because he hit his head on the scenery too many times. As he does so, he knocks the Brain into the sprinkler system, which makes the papier-mache scenery melt. The Brain decides it's special effects, and begins filming.

Commander Brain decides to steal the ray gun. He watches as the scientist as he tests the gun on a truck full of unsuspecting plumbers, who dutifully turn into zombies and go off to do his bidding. Commander Brain ponders how to seize control from the scientist, but the lighting does it for him by falling on the rest of the cast, forcing Pinky to fill in for them as well. They converge on the White House, where Commander Brain intends to turn the President into a zombie slave...but the mad scientist has other ideas. He sends his assistants, and the zombie plumbers, after the gun. They get away, and confront the President, played by Raymond Burr - but the gun malfunctions, frying them instead, and they go off to conquer some other world instead.

The filming is complete, but there's no time to edit before the premiere, so the Brain decides to edit as the movie runs. He edits in what he thinks are the subliminal messages he wants, only to find out the hard way after the end that what he spliced in were Pinky's test shots. Needless to say, the audience gets entirely the wrong message from them, and his plan fails.

Did You Notice...

• This story appeared the same week as the first airing of Pinky and the Brain episode 16, also titled Plan Brain from Outer Space. The plots of the two stories are completely different, and they were developed independently of each other, with neither writer knowing the other story was in progress. (Personally, I think the comic story was much better than the cartoon; that one was a stretched-out version of what was intended as a pilot for a possible spinoff series, and it showed in uneven writing and editing...JM)
• The plot of the Brain's movie follows the movie Plan 9 from Outer Space pretty closely.
• Subliminal messages were indeed researched during the early 60s by the film industry, and ones such as the mice were subjected to were indeed shown to increase consumption of snacks and drinks in test audiences. After an uproar, they were outlawed.
• While modern man would indeed be repulsed by his true aroma, this is a pretty recent phenomenon; regular bathing is an invention of the late 1800s, and deodorants even later than that. Even if the Brain were to succeed in this plan, mankind would likely adjust quickly.
• Bella Boyardee refers to horror film star Bela Lugosi, and Queenie Scream, Mistress of Mystery, refers to Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.
• Raymond Burr was spliced into American releases of the original Godzilla, in an attempt to make it more palatable to American audiences. This is not the first time that Animaniacs or Pinky and the Brain has referred to this bit; Sir Yaksalot, in Animaniacs episode 26, and Tokyo Grows, in Pinky and the Brain episode 3, both involving Godzilla-style monsters, also had Raymond Burr cameos.
• The Brain's robot-summoning phrase refers to the immortal line, "Klaatu barada nikto!", from the classic science-fiction movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. In that movie, though, the phrase was used to stop the robot, not summon it.
• Yes, the line about the girdle on page 15 really should point to Boyardee. He's quite a bit skinnier there than his initial appearance on page 5.
• The subliminal shots of the Brain are all references to various Orson Welles roles.
• Everything the plumbers say has to do with plumbing.
• Instead of birds or stars, Boyardee sees bats - which look suspiciously like the Batman logo.
• Affairs on the Fox TV series Melrose Place seldom last longer than one episode; they sometimes are short enough to include the inevitable nasty breakup and fight afterwards, in the same show.
• "Maybe if we throw water on them, they'll melt" refers to the ending of The Wizard of Oz.
• One of the angry filmgoers is wearing an Animaniacs shirt.

Technical nits

• The Brain's nose has a highlight through most of the book. This is nonstandard; normally, the rest of his face blocks the light from hitting it and creating one.
• The mad scientists's costume varies a bit through the story; sometimes it's a tuxedo, sometimes a plain jacket, sometimes with a white shirt, and sometimes no shirt can be seen in a shot that would call for it.
• The Brain hits just one sprinkler head; this should not set off the entire system. Normally, each sprinkler head is individually activated by a metal link melting at a known (and fairly high) temperature.