Manic Monday Bonus--This Post Exists Solely To Make My Readers Go "Awwwwwwwwwwwww!"

Life is funny sometimes. It turns out that there WAS a real Smokey Bear-but he was named after the fictional one!

In 1950 a huge wildfire tore through Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico. Some troops were sent in from Fort Bliss in Texas to assist in firefighting efforts.

They ended up trapped behind the fire, but managed to survive...

But they weren't the only survivors:

Aw!

Aww!!

Awwwww!!!!

Aaawwwwww!!!!!

AWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, enough of that for awhile...

But he is so damned cute...

Awwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aawwwwwwwwww!!!

AWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!

And then...

He's all grown up now? Not so cute? Ah, to hell with him!!

True fact: Smokey was so popular that he received as many as 13,000 letters a week, and the Post Office gave him his own ZIP code. In other words, almost 700,000 Americans per year could not tell the difference between a fictional mascot and a real bear named after him. Which explains so much about us...

From The True Story Of Smokey Bear (1969)

Manic Monday--Finally, A Reason To Agree With Smokey Bear

Oh, great, another PSA comic from the quarter bin...

All, right, Bear...I'm a hard-boiled cynic. Convince me why forest fires are a bad thing!!

Oh, phooey. We'd just eat those critters anyway. What else do you got?

That's why I rent, Bear. Plus, in this market? Used housing is cheap. Next?

OMG, furniture? Please. That's why we have steel, plastic, particle board and IKEA.

Is that the best you've got? No other reason I should care about your precious forest fires???

OK, you got me, Bear. Nicely done.

Now if only fighting forest fires could eliminate the $3.99 comic book...

From The True Story Of Smokey Bear (1969)

Manic Monday--Only Marty Can Prevent Forest Fires

Nothing against comic book PSAs...
 

...but I'm not sure that a goofy pose by Oscar-winner Ernest Borgnine is going to make me suddenly remember to put out my campfire.

Meanwhile, if you actually read the copy...

You guys do know that Smokey Bear is fictional, right?  "He does it for no other reason than to save our forests"?? Dudes, he does because his writers have him do it...

From Space: 1999 (Magazine) #7 (1976)