A.C.M.E.

**A.C.M.E.**

## **History**

A.C.M.E. (alternatively spelled Acme or ACME) is probably one of the most unusual companies of all time. It was founded in 1886 in Minneapolis by the businessman and notorious prankster Marvin Acme. While at first it seems obvious that the company is named after its founder, in fact Marvin Acme renamed himself Acme after its foundation adopting his company's name. Prior to this his name was Marvin Sears. In fact, Acme is both a Greek word meaning peak, zenith or prime and an acronym meaning either "American Company Making Everything" or, which is the generally accepted version, "A Company that Makes Everything" - a name that perfectly resembles the company's policy.

A.C.M.E. was a rather inconspicuous but more or less successful mail-order business until Marvin Acme decided to move its seat from Minneapolis to Fairfield, New York State, in 1893. This would let Acme slide more and more into public attention as its range of goods slowly began to deviate from normality.

Sear's Grandfather volunteered to emigrate to America, bringing with him his wife, four children and an orphan ward. He had been a ne'er-do-well businessman and accountant in England and had been thrown into debtor's prison a few times which accounted for the voluntary emigration. He felt certain that in America something would turn up.

The family had squatted on this land at first. Although his grandfather had been a kind, even-tempered man he had become totally frustrated with his failure as a farmer and flung a hoe at the spiral design on the rocky bluff. Thinking it was a native curse on this land. It turned out to be the family's salvation. The hoe disappeared. Sears' son was set to go after it but Sears stuck his head in the spiral and immediately felt nauseated, disoriented and in total darkness. He forbade anyone going in there.

A day after the hoe had been thrown through the spiral, a piece of paper was found blowing across the ground. It had apparently come from the spiral. It read: "Was able to use hoe as trap. Speeding bird stepped on end and wood smacked him in the face, killing him. Name remuneration.".-Wile E.Coyote

Sears asked for gold and tied the note onto a rock and tossed it in the spiral. He received a nugget about the size of a fist. Another note came through asking for another device.

Sears discovered that he had a knack for creating items that the notes asked for in a carpentry shop or forge. He also began to warehouse other things requested by the notes that were not otherwise available. As the family's fortunes grew, they moved to Port Middlebay where Sears became a prosperous merchant and eventually a magistrate.

Yet he felt an obligation to the mysterious writer of notes and had one of his sons or and eventually sons in laws man the station for a four month period. This duty was passed onto the grandsons as well and finally to Marvin Sears.

Then one day, Martin Sears fell into the hole.

### **Sears in the Tooniverse**

sears fell through a polychromatic mist, a region of utter madness and shifting shapes, of fluid forms and liquid landscapes. In the ever changing forms, shapes and designs that floated before his eyes there were instances where they were nearly recognizable but even attempting to shape to this disorder caused mental anguish.

After falling for what could have been hours or days, Sears finally popped out and landed in an explosion of dust on hard ground. It was a bright summer day or so it appeared the sky were an oddly bright blue and the sun an intense yellow shade. The bright pastel colors of everything so far as he could were overly brilliant and the shapes were askew. For it was like he was trapped in a watercolor or chalk painting. There was a faint shimmer, almost a glow to everything. Even the dirt was overly bright. It felt solid yet fluid, almost spongy.

The landscape resembled a surreal version of the barren lands he had just departed.

Sears laid on a dirt, sparsely grassed bit of land next to a road covered with black pavement, on either side of the road were craggy, eroded cliffs. His back was leaning against a wooden post that had a metal cylinder atop of it.  Hearing a sound from the distance he saw a dust cloud moving towards him at an incredible rate of speed. The dust cloud stopped right in front of him and dissipated instantly. Standing before him was a large bird looking like a cross between a roadrunner and an ostrich. The bird was also strangely shaped and colored. From out of no where a sign appeared in a prehensile wing tip, *Accelerati Incredibilulis.* The bird then emitted a loud beeping sound and the dust cloud formed and moved on down the road at a great velocity.

He then heard a sound of pinging and saw another incredible site. Closing fast on the bird  was an animal that looked like an upright humanoid wolf. He had a napkin tied around his neck, a knife and fork in either hand and was hopping down the road on a pair of giant springs attached to his feet. The bird stopped in the middle of the road and the wolf creature increased his speed. The springs caught in a crack in the road, snapping the wolf-like creature back hard enough to flatten him against the pavement. He became  a thing resembling a furry flapjack with arms and legs, still carrying a knife and fork. Like a weird furry crab it scuttled after the speeding bird.

The combination of his injuries and the dizzying sense of dislocation made Sears faint.

Sears awoke lying on a four-posted bed with a feather mattress. Next to the bed was a nightstand that had upon it a lit lamp with a paisley shade and glass pitcher of water. He was in a cavern of some sort, yet the lamp was plugged into the smooth rock of the cavern wall. Dry mouthed Sears drank some of the water, to find it cool, yet oddly greasy and with an odd taste.

Wandering around he found the cavern to have several rooms, all sparsely but tastefully furnished.

He entered a library with stacks and stacks of books, in the center of the room was a large overly stuffed armchair which sat upon a Persian carpet. Next to the armchair was a tall lamp, a small table and an ash receptacle. Sitting in the armchair was the humanoid wolf, which had so shocked Sears.

Feeling Jekyll's presence, the humanoid wolf placed a marker in his book and placed it on the table.

"You do not look like a rocket." spoke the humanoid wolf in a cultured almost British sounding voice. " I ordered a rocket, are you supposed to help me build one?"

Sears sat down hard on the cavern floor. "What are you?

Grinning doggishly, the humanoid wolf said, "I have been called many things, Carnivorous Vulgaris,  Road Runner Digestus, Eatibus Anythingus, Famishus Famishus, Eatius Birdius, Eternaliii Famishii, etcetera, etcetera. I prefer to be called Wile E. Coyote, Genius."

Peering at Sears over the rims of his glasses he remarked, "We don't have many of your kind here and I never expected to see one pop out of my mailbox."

Sears soon discovered that he had landed a bizarre analog of the Southwestern United States. The Coyote told him how he had started placing orders in his mailbox and would receive items inside it. The mailbox would expand to accommodate items larger than itself. Originally he had just placed the orders in the mailbox but the Retail Company had insisted that he tie the orders around rocks. Sears attempted to squeeze inside the mailbox and return to his world but the mailbox would not expand for him.

The Coyote was aware as were most of the inhabitants of this place that there were other planes of existence besides their own. Of course, they believed that this was the true existence and the others were pale imitations. Coyote told Sears there were various theories and belief systems floating about in the Tooniverse, the two main ones were that the world was the result of Dreaming Gods, or God. Various names were attached to him or it, The Render, Georgorr and The Gardner. Others posited a Great Animator- Giver of Life and Form.Coyote leaned towards the latter, although it did not explain why the other planes of existence had such odd and restrictive physical laws.

Coyote said he had heard of rare cases where humanoids like Jekyll had came over and he had even heard of cases where people from the Tooniverse had gone over into the other planes but he did not know how or where. Wile E. Coyote said that one of his Coyote cousins claimed to be able to travel back and forth between the worlds but he was such a liar, Wile E. did not believe him.

Sears helped Wile E. Coyote with one of the plots of his eternal quest to get a roadrunner as the bird was called. Most times he failed, with Sear's help he succeeded. As squeamish as Sears was about eating a possibly sentient creature, he did so because he was starving.

They stripped the bird down to the bones, the flesh was quite odd, having the same indefinable quality as the water but it was filling and to a degree nourishing. Sear's body was able to digest the roadrunner although it was something with which he would never become accustomed**.**

Although the food of the Tooniverse was edible to Sears and digestible, he was never able to become comfortable with the fact that in this chaotic universe death was only a state of mind. Although there were many animal level Toons, that is those with a rudimentary intelligence on the order of animals, it was possible for your meal to make sounds at you or even more disturbing suddenly acquire sentience as you were eating it. Also since in the Tooniverse even though digestion worked and the natural bodily functions were possible all of the matter, including waste products were toonstuff and so had the potentiality of forming into living Toons. It was a most singular and unpleasant sensation to have your own excrement talk to you.

After he finished eating, Wile E. Coyote sat picking his teeth with a toothpick; his stomach distended to such an extent that he looked nine months pregnant. He played some Brahms on the Victrola while relaxing. The Coyote soon fell asleep. Seizing his chance Sears tied up the Coyote with some rope.

Sears sent a note through the Coyote's mailbox hoping to inform his family about where he was. He thought at first that the Coyote would starve to death as tightly trussed as Sears had tied him and felt a bit guilty about that. However as Sears had found out death was not permanent in this plane of existence (which he began to believe was a circle of hell not described by Dante) only a few hours after the bird had been picked clean to the skeleton had flesh begun to reform on it. By the end of the day, the Roadrunner had been completely regenerated; it shook itself off and disappeared down the road in a cloud of dust. As he would discover like most events in the Tooniverse, how long it took for a regeneration was not a constant, sometimes in was instantaneous with the bird forming from the outside in or top to bottom or inside out.

Sears did not feel so guilty about the Coyote when he started down the road, hoping to find some sort of civilization.

Sears found themselves in that region of Chaos known variously as Doodleland or the Tooniverse. The inhabitants called it that for no apparent reason than they called themselves Toons. Living in the Tooniverse was something that only the very strong-minded or those who possessed some forms of madness already could have withstood without going insane. Sears was in a place where time and continuity do not necessarily coincide. A place where cause and effect often bear no relationship, except of course by marriage.  Physical laws are ever changing and matter is fluid.

Sears in Chaos, literal Chaos**.**

Sears eventually made his way to a section of the Tooniverse with some analog to New York City. This was one of the more stable regions but as with every other place in the Tooniverse, it was subject to some degree of change. Inanimate objects could change design, color or even gain sentience and mobility. Sears heard rumors of humans like himself being trapped in the Tooniverse; he also heard tales of differing levels of the Tooniverse and differing versions of it existing side by side. He dismissed the latter as rumors.

Although there were cycles of day night and seasonal cycles, they were erratic and arbitrary. They threw his circadian rhythms out of balance. There was no time sense in the Tooniverse,  a human being in the Tooniverse was, barring accident,  practically immortal and unaging. Yet who would want to live forever in that madness!

Sears discovered that the life expectancy of a human being was not too great. Toons could suffer any number of fatal accidents and not really die, however if  a human being smoked a cigar that turned out to be dynamite or was run over by a steam roller or a train or fell from the window of a 88 1/2 floor building, they would die. The corpse would eventually break down into its components and the raw material would be absorbed into toonstuff.

Trapped in this horrifying dimension, Sears decided to devote his scientific knowledge to allow him to fit in by becoming a Toon. He had heard rumors of Toons becoming human, albeit briefly through sexual contact with a human being. Although he could have studied how this was accomplished by actually participating in such activity, he found the idea unnatural and nauseating. Then one day, he met Bug Bunny and befriended him.

Bugs Bunny would return to visit Sears every so often. Without proper chemicals freed of Toonstuff and not being a scientist, Sears felt that his task was almost hopeless, yet he persevered having little else to help him keep what little remained of his sanity. He had come to hate his place and all of its insane inhabitants with a passion.

It was from Bugs Bunny during one of his visits that Sears learned of the Tooniverse's rift into what Sears called the real world.

Bugs stood in Sear's lab watching him work on his human into Toon formula. Noisily eating a carrot and kibitzing.

Pointing the carrot at Sears he asked, "Say, Doc, why you wanna be a Toon anyways?"

"Because I am tired of being alone, I want to fit in."

"Okay, but I don't know why you don't just go live with humans like yourself"

"What! You know where there are other humans?"

"Oh, yeah, a whole world full of 'em, well, mostly."

With an inarticulate scream Sears grabbed the rabbit by his furry chest and dug his fingers in hard while screaming directly into to the rabbit's face in the overblown style Sears had learned over the years in the Tooniverse.

"Why didn't you tell me?!"

Bugs extracted himself from Sears's grip with a falsetto screech of "Hey, don't wrinkle the merchandise!"

Composing himself, Bugs answered Sears's question, "I didn't tell you cuz you didn't ask."

"How do I get there?!"

"Keep your shirt on. Jeepers, keep that up and you're gonna blow a gasket. Come on I'll take you. I learned how to tunnel into other worlds my great uncle Whitey."

Bugs then tunneled into the floor of the lab, down, down, down, up, sideways, up, down, sideways… Well you get the idea, After tunneling the through the entirety of the chaos realm, Bugs exited on Earth.

Sears grabbed the Bunny by the throat and squeezed. Bugs head turned red as an apple and swelled three sizes larger. His eyes popped out of his head on springs and bounced to and fro.

Sears released the Rabbit and his head and face returned to normal after a good shaking.

"This is not the human world."

"No, Doc you walk down this road, right to that gate right there." He pointed to a large wooden gate that resembled a medieval drawbridge. A sign hung in the middle of the air pointed at the gate, "This Way Stupid!"

Sears hurried down the lane and through the gate and exited into Angel Grove. It was the real world, solid, unchanging, married to physical law and linear time. Sears wept

### **Establishing A.C.M.E.**

Acme began his career as a purveyor of novelties. He became one of the first employers in the country to utilize the then looked down upon Toons as anything but servants or manual labor. Acme had a genius for getting the Toons to create new items out of toonstuff and mass producing them in Toontown. He also had a great gift for designing unique combinations of toonstuff and real world material. His business expanded rapidly beyond mere novelties and into manufacturing foodstuffs, building material, weaponry, transportation, communications and many other ventures.

The establishment of the ACME subdivision "Acme Jewelery Co." in 1922 and the invention of "Acme Sodium Bicarbonate" in 1936 were major successes and would be the forerunners of the wide and unusual range of goods that would soon be characteristic for A.C.M.E.

In the following years the company's incomes skyrocketed. Acme turned into a conglomerate which produced everything and anything imaginable, no matter how elaborate or extravagant. The label A.C.M.E. represented a tremendous variety of outlandish and downright dangerous products that, some say, tend to fail catastrophically at the worst possible times. Goods such as the ACME American Wrought Anvil, the ACME Extra Strong Blackpowder, the ACME Jumbo Disguise Kit, the ACME Electrical Chair and the ACME "Learn How To Box" manual are just some of the company's major successes. But while some of their products left much to be desired, Acme delivery service, on the other hand, were second to none; Many customers praised (or, in some cases, cursed) Acme's ability to deliver the requested products in mere seconds after dropping the order into a mailbox or entering it on a website. Only a heartbeat and the customer had the (usually dangerous) product in his hands - or on top of him, as it sometimes happened with the delivery of anvils.

With the markets exploding, Acme introduced several subdivisions. Most importantly, there was the semi-independent Ajax Corporation: founded in 1937, Ajax's range of goods was more down-to-earth in nature, such as paint, bubblegum, and light bulbs, with its most successful departments being Ajax Ghost Exterminators, Ajax Locksmiths, Ajax Lost and Found and Ajax Broadcasting Company. Other subdivisions that were closer to A.C.M.E. itself - both regarding its management and its unusual policy - included ACME Labs, ACME Detective Agency, the already mentioned ACME Jewelery Co, the V.I.L.E. spy network, ACME Rocket-Powered Products, Inc. and ACME Cola, a knock-off version of the much more popular Buzz Cola.

In the 1930s and '40s Marvin Acme used his quickly growing wealth to support the film studios of Vinewood by funding Toontown - a settlement housing the Toons, a new generation of surreally comic-like looking anthropomorphic creatures working as actors. With its connection to Toontown A.C.M.E. became a major contractor for many Toons, both in the filming business and in private life. Acme's most important Toon customers include Woody Woodpecker, Elmer J. "Egghead" Fudd, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester J. Pussycat, Speedy Gonzales, Roger Rabbit and, by far ACME's best customer, Wile E. Coyote. Alas, Toontown would not only be a passion of the prank-loving Marvin Acme it would also be his death.

Acme Industries became one of the largest employers in the United States with factories abroad. In addition, Acme Studios was one of the first motion pictures studios, Marvin Acme sold his controlling interests to R.K. Maroon his junior partner and the studio became Maroon Studios.

Marvin Acme had acquired the land rights to Toontown in the early twenties before the land boom and so held a virtual monopoly on the use and importation of toonstuff.

According to Teddy Valiant, Marvin Acme put on a happy go lucky, buffoonish front but it was just that, a front, he was at heart a rather ruthless business man not above sharp practice, price fixing or undercutting competitors. If he had a flaw it was his predilection for Toon women, especially redheads. Although when the women became a nuisance, Acme would pay them off. There were a couple of Toon women who claimed Marvin Acme was the father of their children.

Of these, one of these women later recanted and left Toontown altogether to live in the Tooniverse. If she had a kid it was born there. Teddy Valiant was hired to locate this kid if possible.

### **Origins of a Judge**

Teddy Valiant was hired by a man named Victor to investigate Marvin Acme. Victor was a scientific genius and magically inclined human who usurped control of the country of Latveria from the Nazis and kept it. Victor had personal reasons for having an interest in travelling between universes and something like Toon Town interested him. It was clear Marvin Acme had found a way and Victor was keen on finding out what it was. The Nazis were still a big threat in Europe Victor could not ignore and so he had to resort to hiring Teddy.

Teddy Valiant's search for Acme's kid finally bore fruit, two in fact. Valiant advised Victor to stay away from the kids, even Valiant's Toontown contacts didn't want to have much to do with them. Ignoring this advice, Victor arranged a meeting in a small dive in Toontown.

Victor did not know much about Acme's family history but there must have been something wrong about it. Acme's genes had helped create what could best be called an aberration among the Toons, a Toon with thirst for mayhem and a hatred for Toons and humans in general. In human terms, these kids were psychotic.

The Toon hybrids had not been born in a conventional manner, Marvin Acme, taking inspiration from Joey Drew, had used a ritual to have a child and donated his own blood into an Inking machine capable of creating Toons. The result were two children. A boy and a girl.

The girl's identity is unknown, but she evidently would go on a killing spree in the late 80's and early 90's. Animator Ralph Bashki attempted to tell her story but executive meddling changed his intended film to be more family friendly. It instead became about a different real life event also involving the consequences of having sex with a toon and became the film *Cool World.*

The second child called himself to be Dominic Starr and claimed variously that his mother had been the toon half sister of Brenda Starr (an ace reporter that often got over her head and was kidnapped but boasted that unlike Lois Lane, she usually got herself out of trouble) or that he was descended from the criminal Belle Starr. He had been adopted by the Rotten family, with one of his later relatives being Robbie Rotten of Lazy Town and was working as a toon actor.

He was tall, thin with neon red eyes. Although half human, his hybrid nature was not readily apparent. He in fact appeared to be a Tooniverse born Toon, and was able to manipulate his body into almost any size and shape. Although many Toons were rather violent, since they could not do any lasting damage to each other they had very little regard about causing bodily harm to one another, even Toons designated as villains never crossed this line, Dominic was one of the few Toons that was deliberately malicious. He sought to hurt Toons as much and often as he could, often using logic and patience for a maximum payoff of pain and agony. He was almost afraid to unleash him on the mortal world yet as it would turn out, knowing he was half human and that his father had rejected him made him easy to manipulate on an emotional level.

Victor was able to draw out his self-hatred especially for being a Toon, believing it was his Toon nature that had caused his father to reject him. Victor told him that he thought he knew who Dominic's father was but it would take some time to find out for certain, he invited Dominic to stay with him while he conducted the search. Dominic was not the typical Toon and asked what Victor would get out of it, Victor told him money. If his father was whom Victor suspected there should be a rich reward. To make him more suitable for life in the mortal world Victor gave Dominic moral instructions. Like many psychotics he took this to heart and became a fervent believer in law, order and discipline as defined by him.

Dominic had been acting under the role of Baron Von Rotten, which he saw as a nod to Victor's status as Royalty and how Victor had promised him a title. However he received a massive concussion that damaged his mental health further.

When Victor thought Dominic was sufficiently acculturated to the mortal world he told him who he believed Marvin Acme was his father. Victor had thought hard about how to handle this, a soft approach or a direct confrontation. He let Dominic decide.

Dominic made himself a pest at Acme Industries through repeated attempts to see Marvin Acme.  He was finally ushered in on his sixth visit. Marvin Acme at first thought that Dominic's claim was a practical joke played on him by one of his cronies, such as W.R. Hearst, C.F. Kane, R.K. Maroon or J.B. Cord. When Acme realized that Dominic was serious in his accusation, his affable demeanor immediately altered into that of a hard-nosed businessman.

Acme demanded to know if Dominic had any proof of his allegations. When Dominic admitted he had no proof, Acme told him to leave. Acme stated bluntly that he did not have any children, especially any Toon children.

Dominic threatened to go to the press with the story. Acme laughed in his face and told him to go right ahead. Dominic tried to sell or even tell the story to all of the leading newspapers. None would touch it. They were either Acme owned, had large Acme advertising accounts or were owned by his Acme's friends. Not even the *Toontown Tattler*would publish the story, although Sid Hutchling's *Blush and Hush* scandal rag printed a line of sinnuendo about the claim. Sid Hutchlings immediately retracted the story and took a long vacation.

Dominic's next plan of action was to try and get a court order for Acme to take a blood test to prove his paternity. None of the Judges, even the lone Toon judge, would rule for it. Dominic vowed to one day become a judge and dispense true justice.

When Dominic persisted in making a nuisance, Marvin Acme paid a few gorilla and elephant bullyboys of his acquaintance visit Dominic, twist him like taffy and tie him into knots. When this failed to discourage him, Dominic was arrested on a trumped up charge and thrown into the Toontown Jail for a Million Bajillion years.

Dominic spent two years in solitary confinement, plotting his revenge. He was released early when he promised to join the army if released. During his Army physical Dominic managed to convince the human doctor that he was effeminate, had flat feet and a bad ticker. He was labeled 4-get it!

Victor was surprised to hear from Dominic Starr after an absence of two years. In the interim, he had come closer to finding a way to save his mother from Hell as was his intended purpose. The scheme to blackmail Marvin Acme had effectively failed and he moved on.

It was 1942, Toontown was in an uproar; somebody had robbed the Toontown National Bank for a zillion simoleons a few days before. The Toontown police were out of their depth as they were when investigating crimes of any magnitude. They had hired two human detectives, well known for solving Toon based crimes. The two human detectives were Teddy and Eddie Valiant. They had found Donald Duck's Kidnapped Nephews, had cleared Goofy of Spy charges, tracked down the notorious bank robbers Rocky and Mugsy, found the missing heir of the Fudd fortune and they had uncovered a gremlin sabotage ring in defense plants. The Valiant brothers were good at their job, mostly because they knew how Toons operated and found method to the madness. it helped that even evil toons wouldn't normally kill humans so most dangerous situations were unlikely to result in death unless an accident.

Teddy and Eddie Valiant were hired to investigate the robbery. Dominic Starr was staying in a dilapidated, thankfully non-animated building. It had originally been a grand hotel but had fallen on hard times and was currently a tenement house.

Dominic was staying on the twenty-seventh floor that had once been a grand ballroom with a full orchestra. A few of the instruments and a grand piano lay swathed in layers of dust and cobwebs.

He had robbed the First National Bank of Toontown because Marvin Acme was the Chairman of the Board. Acme also banked quite a bit of his money in it. Best of all The bank's funds were not covered by the FDIC. This would strike a blow to Acme and to the Toons.

The money would give him operating capital to acquire power so he could go against Acme by using the Toons he claimed to love but secretly hated. Dominic heard the police coming and looked down to see the Valiant brothers directing the search. He hurled the Piano down below. It hit and killed Teddy Valiant. Eddie Valiant gave chase but suffered a broken arm and leg but would make a full recovery.

Dominic escaped with the money.

In late 1942, a tall man dressed all in black, including boots, pants, suit, shirt, cape and fedora and sun glasses came to visit Victor Von Doom. His skin was bit blotchy and his teeth were oddly iridescent. "Prepare to meet your Doom!" said a low-pitched gravelly voice.

Reaching into the black suitcoat, the visitor pulled out a gun and fired it at Doom. A flag with bang on it popped out the barrel. High pitched laughter that hurt Doom's ears rose from the visitor's mouth. The black gloved hand removed the sunglasses and a rubber mask revealing the white, insanely red eyed face of Dominic Starr.

"Dominic!" Doom stated flatly.

"The name is Mr. Doom, you have it as a name, so do I." giggled the Toon.

He went on to explain that things were falling into place with his plan to destroy Marvin Acme and his legacy of Toon created material and his pride and joy of Toontown. He had hired Freddy Valiant, brother of the late Teddy Valiant and the increasingly sauced Eddie Valiant. Eddie had taken Freddy into the business after Teddy's death. Freddy was not as virtuous or strong willed as his brothers. He would take cases sub rosa for cash and not let his brother know about it. Freddy had a couple of weaknesses, gambling and Toon women. Both habits cost him a bundle.

"Toon women!", sneered Doom.

Noting Victor's disgust, Mr. Doom formed himself into a voluptuous woman for a second and winked at him.

Giggling again he told Victor that Freddie not only went for Toon women he went for humanoid barnyards, that is those Toons shaped like humanoid animals.

Freddy began to investigate Marvin Acme's acquaintances on the off chance Marvin was up to something not exactly legal. Freddy struck pay dirt when he saw an acquaintance of his leaving Marvin Acme's home. The acquaintance was Dodger Rabbit, a cousin to both Bugs Bunny and to R. K. Maroon's new find Roger Rabbit.

Once every three days Dodger Rabbit would leave Acme's home with a large, heavy sack. He would then go to the First National Bank of Toontown and exit with large stack of simoleons. Freddy trailed Dodger in the bank one day and saw him exchange gold bars for cash. Dodger would leave the bank and hit the casinos, hurdy gurdy parlors, juke joints and hooch mills in Toontown or Angel Grove.

At Mr. Doom's request, Freddy Valiant strong armed Dodger Rabbit, running him through a clothes wringer until he spilled the beans.

Dodger was stealing the money from Acme. Acme had hired Dodger to be a courier. He was supposed to be taking the gold through Toontown and into the Tooniverse to Wile E. Coyote's mail box and dropping the gold in the mailbox. Since Wile E. Coyote began ordering directly from the Acme Industries catalog he no longer dropped gold in the mailbox, Bugs Bunny had been Acme's courier until recently. Tired of his endless pursuit of the roadrunner Wile E. Coyote had on at least two occasions tried to capture, kill and eat Bugs Bunny. Bugs did not want any part of that action and quit the mule job, suggesting his ne'er do well cousin, Dodger.

Mr. Doom explained how he went to visit Dodger Rabbit but as Dominic Starr and told him that he would end in the slammer unless, he did exactly as Starr told him. Instead of wasting his money frivolously, he wished Dodger to place it in a few off shore accounts in Tropico and the Bahamas. When Dodger had accumulated several thousand dollars of Acme's money he was to go to Tropico and contact Dominic where upon they would split the money fifty-fifty.

Dodger was afraid; feeling that quitting would alert Acme to his embezzlement. Dominic explained that extradition from Tropico was rare so even if Acme squawked there wasn't anything he could do about it.

Dodger Rabbit had done as Dominic demanded. When he arrived in Tropico he had a bank balance of 20,000 smackeroos. He withdrew a couple hundred and opened a line of credit for two grand. He hit the tables at the Kookycabana and promptly dumped three grand. When he went to extend his line of credit he was informed that his original line of credit had been denied. He would have to make good the money. Dodger Rabbit discovered that his bank accounts had been emptied and that he had not a cent to his name.

To make matters worse the owner of the casino where he had dropped a bundle was Tom Tom Le Tuit, the Chief of Police. Tom Tom slapped Dodger in jail. Lo and behold, there was a warrant out for Dodger from the United States. Dodger had embezzled a lot of loot from Acme Industries.

Dodger was extradited and sent to the U.S. where he had, according to Mr. Doom's statement begun serving a long sentence for embezzlement.

Mr. Doom had long term plans that he did not bother to tell Victor. He did tell him that much of the Acme gold went into Tom Tom Le Tuit's pockets allowing him to become the Drug Kingpin of the Caribbean.

Doom and Victor (or Doom & Doom) began funding research which included seeing if it was possible for a human to become a toon. Among the few human subjects was Freddy Valiant. His crime had been making a play for Tom Tom Le Tuit's girlfriend, the Toon film star Lupe Chihuahua. Since Lupe was a female dog, although quite humanoid in places, neither Doom did not feel much sympathy for him. Besides, Valiant wanted to become a Toon.

Mr. Doom told Victor that as according to plan he was now Judge Doom. He had used some of the Bank robbery money to buy the election for Toontown's single judicial seat. Judge Doom created a batch of the solvent made of turpentine, acetone and benzene (paint thinners). This concoction was based on the study into Joey Drew's experiments, discovering that Toons could be created through ink. He used this to create solvent that could be weaponized against Toons. Judge Doom picked up an Acme oversized wooden mallet that the interns used for patient motivation and it dropped into the vat. It bubbled away to streamers of colors.

Giggling in his toonvoice, Judge Doom then dropped a live but not sentient Toon mouse into the mixture. It too, amid squeals of pain, dissolved into oily smears of color.

The next test was a sentient Toon, a blackbird whose crime had been trespassing in one of Tom Tom Le Tuit's farms where plants used for making narcotics were grown. It was noticed that despite the struggles to survive, the Toon did not conjure anything to help him, such as thought balloon to knock the Judge out. Judge Doom reasoned that the fear and pain of being dissolved was so great the Toons were not able concentrate on that ability.

Judge Doom christened the solvent dip. With it he would be able to rein in the madness in Toontown, make the Toons aware of their own mortality and create fear and terror. Once Toontown was no longer such a hot property, Acme's profits would slip, Judge Doom would then be also to leverage Acme into selling Toontown or a least a portion of it, when that happened, Judge Doom would destroy Toontown and thus ruin Acme Industries.

Victor Von Doom thought this plan to be rife with logical holes and a bit silly but he considered the source.

Doom observed something strange that turned out to be the key to the solution.  It was well known that in the real world and to a lesser extent in Toontown, Toons could laugh themselves to death. Their physical forms would keel over and a spirit form would drift out of the body, manifesting most often as cartoonish angels or devils. Then the Toon angels or devils would then drift out of sight in an upwards or downward direction.

Doom saw a Toon laughing so hard that his spirit kept rising out of his body, yet the spirit would normally snap back into the body. This time it didn't and the Toon was effectively dead. The second odd thing was a Toon patient came to the sanitarium who was by all accounts and medical data deceased. However it had mobility, motor function and could vocalize despite looking like a rotting corpse. There was little cognitive ability however and it was highly suggestible.

One of the guards, that is interns at the sanitarium told him that this was a zombie. If a Toon drank too many zombies he would become one. If the supply of the drink were stopped the Toon would eventually return to normal with no ill effects. Doom investigated further a zombie was comprised mainly of rum, the drink that the laugher had been drunk on had been rum and coke. Rum seemed to be a common factor but it did not make any sense. Doom slowly realized that it was logical only by the standards of this universe.

Doom investigated the laughing to death syndrome a bit further. Toons who laughed themselves to death ended up in the Tooniverse but were usually never again able to manifest themselves in the real world, except as Toon ghosts. It as if their physical body was forever lost to them. Doom did not understand the mechanics but apparently when a Toon traveled outside the Tooniverse the physical laws of the universe to which they traveled imposed upon them a more physical form which was somehow unique to them.

The extreme laughter breaks a Toon's connection to its unique shell, its physical manifestation in the real world when that is broken for some reason the lesser physical more energy form of the Toon from the Tooniverse was released and drawn to the Tooniverse. Yet dipping destroyed even the ghost form of the Toons so when underwent that process they were totally destroyed. Therefore Jekyll reasoned that even the ghost or quasi energy forms of the Toons in the Tooniverse bore some physical similarity to those bodies that manifested in the real world.

Judge Doom formed a partnership with several of the large businessmen, rivals, customers and outright enemies of Marvin Acme. Doom had convinced them that he could acquire Toontown and move it to a more centralized location so that toonstuff could be more easily exploited.  The land that was currently Acme Industries and Maroon Studios would be a clover leaf of the new interstate highway system and with this new system in place toonstuff could be more easily and less expensively transported to Acme's customers.

Judge Doom planned to use R. K. Maroon to force Acme to give up or sell Acme studios, failing that he would kill him. Once Doom had acquired the rights to Toontown he would wipe it off the face of the earth with 5,000 gallons of heated dip, pumped at enormous velocity through a pressurized water cannon. It was only a matter of time before each and every remaining Toon was either dipped or converted to humanity.

By destroying Toon Town, Doom would achieve vengeance against Marvin Acme and destroy his legacy of using combined materials. Secondly the eyesore and region of madness known as Toontown would be forever expunged from Doom's consciousness. Thirdly, toonstuff would become quite rare and eventually obsolete. In a few days or weeks the bottom would drop out of the Stock Market, as businesses which relied on toonstuff would no longer be able to function. Businesses that relied on real world technology and materials would again surge to prominence and Judge Doom would ride that economic wave straight to the bank.

Judge Doom had hoped to help distract Marvin Acme by having Dodger Rabbit broken out of jail. However the rabbit's proved only to negligible to Acme. The only Rabbit he was interested was Jessica Rabbit, Roger's humanoid Toon wife. Doom asked R. K. Maroon to make Jessica Rabbit distract Marvin Acme.

Dodger showed up in Tropico and began pretending to Roger Rabbit as part of a ploy to make the Roger more susceptible to persuasion through blackmail. Dodger ran up debts at Tom Tom Le Tuit's casinos that the Judge promised to make good.

Marvin Acme was aware that someone or some group was buying up the publicly held shares of Acme Enterprises stock. He had already fought off two similar takeover attempts. He was not especially worried since he always retained 51% of the stock. They could however try and force him out by tying him up in endless, futile meetings and fact finding committees, so to avoid such measures Marvin would usually poison pill Acme by making the stock prices drop drastically and scare away potential pirates. All he needed to do was ask the Toons for a work slowdown or to create inferior toonstuff.

Marvin liked to know who his enemies were so when Jessica Rabbit finally agreed to play patty cake with him, he knew he was being set up. When he was called to view the blackmail photographs, he was only slightly surprised that his old friend R. K. Maroon was behind the take over bid. He refused to sell Toontown and vowed to fight any take over bid.

Marvin went to his office at Acme make arrangements for a work slow down, he received a phone call from a frantic R.K. Maroon. Maroon told him that he was being played for at patsy too, that if Acme agreed to sell his property or Toontown that Toontown would be destroyed.

After Maroon rung off, Acme received another phone call this time from Judge Doom. Doom wished to discuss Acme's stubborn insistence on holding onto a soon to be condemned property. Acme told Doom that he had just made his will a legal document. Should he die, Toontown would be inherited by the Toons. It was actually a ploy to save his life that Acme signed the will not because he really desired for the Toons to have Toontown.

When Acme went to investigate a noise in the warehouse, he returned to find the will gone. Evidently his security measures of writing the will in disappearing reappearing ink was not effective. He found Judge Doom in his office, demanding to see the will.

Acme told him that it was in a safe place.

Judge Doom's face distended and a high pitched grating voice said, "Well, Daddy, let's not have secrets". The judge's hands formed giant mallet which he smacked Marvin Acme in the head. Acme truthfully could not tell were the will was at despite being smacked about. Angry, Judge Doom accidentally cracked Acme's fragile human skull, killing him.

He dragged him down to the warehouse floor and dropped a safe on his head. Without the will he would gain Toontown by probate.

Despite Judge Doom's acquisition of Maroon studios and the surrounding lands, despite his murders of Marvin Acme and R.K. Maroon and his attempt to frame Roger Rabbit for those crimes Judge Doom failed. He not only failed in his attempt to destroy Toontown and Acme, his actions lead to the Toons via Marvin Acme's will gaining control of Toontown, Acme Enterprises and the monopoly on toonstuff.

Marvin Acme had always told the Toons that he would leave Toontown to them should anything ever happen to him. He even carried a semi-legitimate will to prove his point. It was only semi-legitimate because it was unsigned and unwitnessed. In reality Marvin Acme intended to leave Toontown to Acme Industries so Toontown resources could continue to be exploited. Acme carried the fake will around with him to show Toons and engender their trust, goodwill and as extra incentive to give their all for Acme. After his death it was made legal.

Judge Doom was destroyed by some of his own Dip courtesy of Eddie Valiant and Toontown became the common property of the Toons. Valiant saw that justice had finally come to the Toon that had killed his brother Eddie. As fate would have it Valiant would soon meet up again with his long lost brother Freddie.

### **Modern Age**

Following Acme's death, the company was taken over by an ominous and somewhat villainous businessman known only as Mr. Chairman or The Chief. Under The Chief A.C.M.E. influence spread even more turning it more and more into a major player in virtually every branch of economy. In the 1950s the first ACME Catalog appeared, starring the slogan "Redefining pain for over 60 years!"

In 1974 ACME finished the construction of the ACME Tower just outside Fairfield, making it not only the highest building in the USA but also the company's new headquarter. In the following decades a company-controlled city called Acme Acres grew around ACME Tower housing many hundreds of ACME employees - both human and Toon. But Acme would soon exceed the zenith of its success: inspired by the "Coyote vs. Acme" case of 1990(the opening statement of the case can be read here), a wave of accusations hit A.C.M.E. damaging the company while the harsh international competition was no advantage, either. In a final attempt to defend its place as the world's leading expert on, well, anything A.C.M.E. went public - but it was too late. The financial crisis of 2008 would deal the deathblow to the crumbling Acme Corporation which would be divided among its rivals. Most importantly, the CEO of BMW, Michel Beloit, bought up large parts of his former competitor and used it as a basis to form the industry tycoon and the next century's arguably most successful company, Saeder-Krupp, in 2010. However, Acme wasn't extinct: a few hundred people from Acme Acres used their company's remaining resources to create the stellar colony of Acmetropolis.

And thus A.C.M.E. will always be remembered as the world's number one provider of exclusive goods such as trebuchets, oversized anvils, giant rubber bands and explosive tennis balls - because Acme indeed is a company that makes just about everything.