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KC Carlson (I think)
A KC COLUMN by KC Carlson
With the publication of The Flintstones #12 (the last issue) on June 7, it appears that the very first wave of the DC Comics/Hanna-Barbera publishing experiment is drawing to a close, with what appears to be Wave two commencing soon — centered around the continuous Scooby Apocalypse as well as the somewhat rebooted Future Quest (as Future Quest showcase #1) in August. This is great news for me, as well as ideally for you as well, as the line so far has been a mainly interesting experiment. The titles handled to remake a few of of HB’s a lot of withstanding characters for a somewhat a lot more advanced audience, while retaining as well as prolonging the fundamental essence of these traditional kid-vid properties for new generations.
THE original WAS much BETTER
Wacky Raceland
There was one early misfire. goofy Raceland was cancelled with problem #6 without completing its storyline. I didn’t make it past #1, in spite of the original show being one of my faves as a youth. The original goofy Races was a significant hit in 1968. Loosely based on the 1965 comedy film The excellent Race (starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, as well as Natalie Wood), the animation depicted 11 different racers contending with each other in different road rallies. considering that lots of of the cars and trucks had two or a lot more drivers, the routine cast of goofy Races topped out with an unheard-of 23 different people (or animals). Oddly, the starring characters were two dastardly (ahem) villainous characters — the stereotypical mustache-twirling Dick Dastardly (originally voiced by Paul Winchell) as well as his henchman/dog Muttley (originally voiced by HB animal professional Don Messick).
The rest of the racers included:
Peter best (driving the Turbo Terrific)
Penelope Pitstop (the lone female who mainly depicted the damsel in distress)
The Slag siblings (Rock as well as Gravel), two cavemen driving the Boulder Mobile (basically a huge rock)
The Ant hill Mob, a group of diminutive gangsters, driving the Bulletproof Bomb
Professor Pat Pending, a crazy scientist, driving the Convert-a-Car
The Red Max, “piloting” a car/plane hybrid
Rufus Roughcut, a lumberjack, as well as his buddy Sawtooth in the Buzzwagon
Hillbilly Luke as well as his “pet” Blubber Bear in the Arkansas Chugabug
Sergeant Blast, in an army tank/jeep hybrid called the army Surplus Special
Plus there was The Gruesome Twosome (loosely based on different motion picture monsters) driving the weird Coupe who may — or may not — be The Gruesomes who originally appeared on The Flintstones, OR The Creepleys who appeared later on Laff-A-Lympics, OR a previous HB monster household understood as Mr. as well as Mrs. J. Evil scientist (who appeared with both Snooper as well as Blabber as well as Snagglepus). They all looked a bit alike as well as a lot of likely shared voices between them. (I’ve never handled to assemble them all in the exact same room.) all of them were somewhat as well as somehow based on the original Addams household cartoons from The new Yorker magazine (or later, from the extremely prominent TV show based on the cartoon). as well as that’s a lot more than you needed to know, as well as so I have done my job.
Wacky Races was such a prominent show that there were many spin-offs as well as revivals, including The Perils of Penelope Pitstop (1969) (starring assumption who as well as the Ant hill Mob). Dastardly as well as Muttley in Their flying Machines (1969) was one more evident pairing, however lots of keep in mind the show as being called “Stop the Pigeon” since of the show’s frustrating style song. In 2006, animation Network established an unaired pilot for a new series, as well as supposedly there’s a new goofy Races show on streaming service Boomerang starting next month. Amazingly, there have been five different video games based on goofy Races.
Wacky Raceland (the comic book) put the characters into a mad Max-like not-very-funny post-apocalyptic setting. No question it was cancelled.
FLINTSTONES, satisfy THE… (Yeah, yeah, you understand the tune by heart…)
Flintstones
The soon-to-be-ending Flintstones comic book was a truly fascinating experiment of recasting the traditional characters for a a lot more mature audience. instead of goofy hijinks (although there was a few of that), the book — written by mark Russell (God Is dissatisfied in You as well as Apocrypha now from top Shelf, Prez (2015) as well as the upcoming Snagglepuss comic book) as well as drawn by Steve Pugh (Animal Man, Generation X) — mainly commented on present social issues, transferred to the historically goofy caveman days so familiar from the many, lots of animated versions of the household over the decades. just like so lots of jobs like this, this present incarnation of the comic book gathered lots of positive important evaluations however unfortunately not sufficient sales for the series to continue past #12. I wasn’t always on board of what was going on in this comic, however I freely admit that it was one of the a lot more special comic book experiences of the last year. The entire series will be collected. The very first volume (collecting #1-6) is already available, with volume two (#7-12) arranged for release in October.
SKETCHY SUPERNATURAL SHENANIGANS
Scooby Apocalypse
Scooby Apocalypse, on the other hand, is still rolling along in its own bit post-apocalypse Keith Giffen-directed universe. It has both nothing to make with previous Scooby-Doo series in addition to whatever (which quite much explains a lot of Giffen jobs in recent years).
Oddly enough, it is quite much the precise exact same premise as the original animation series: Those four meddling youngsters as well as their pet dog travel around in the secret maker (called the wonderful secret maker here. Ooooo…) solving mysteries as well as irritating regional authority figures (who just occur to be corrupt). You gotta like this description of the very first Scooby Apocalypse collection from Amazon: “Fred. Daphne. Velma. Shaggy. Scooby-Doo. Roaming the globe in their lime-green secret Machine, they’ve fixed many crimes as well as debunked lots of sketchy supernatural shenanigans.” I believe there’s a ton of money to be made with tee shirts keeping that specific phase that explains so much of present contemporary life. Giffen is a genius, however don’t tell him that.
Volume two of Scooby Apocalypse (collecting problems #7-12) will be offered in September, while the present continuous comic book is still rolling along monthly. Its present innovative team is Keith Giffen as well as J. M. DeMatteis (writers) as well as Dale Eaglesham as well as Tom Derenick (artists). It’s a excellent read, currently featuring Velma’s evil brother. however coming soon… Scrappy-Doo back-up stories! (As if you didn’t already want to flog Giffen…)
MORE FUTURE QUEST ON THE WAY
Future Quest
If you’re as old as me, your present preferred DC/Hanna-Barbera job was a lot of likely the just recently completed Future Quest, which stars over a lots of the biggest HB action characters, mainly from the 1960s as well as ‘70s. The twelve problems (or so) of Future Quest gathered up everybody from Jonny Quest to area Ghost to Mighty Mightor to Frankenstein Jr. as well as the Impossibles. (That’s not even discussing the Herculoids!) As we discovered in the text function in the very first Future Quest collection, the series was originally brainstormed by Darwyn Cooke (sadly, one of his last projects) as well as carried out exquisitely by a top-flight group of creators including Jeff Parker, Evan “Doc” Shaner, Steve Rude, Ron Randall, Jonathan Case, Aaron Lopresti, as well as Karl Kesel. It just recently wrapped up its 12-issue run however resurfaced in the recent Adam Strange/Future Quest special by Marc Andreyko, Jeff Parker, as well as Steve Lieber. (This as well as the other recent DC/Hanna-Barbera specials will all be collected as DC satisfies Hanna-Barbera, arranged for release in September.)
Future Quest showcase #1
Also, word is now out about an upcoming new Future Quest showcase series featuring team-ups of all the Future Quest characters. The very first problem features area Ghost as well as team teaming with the Herculoids, written by Jeff Parker with art as well as cover by Ariel Olivetti (and a variant cover by Steve Rude). The very first problem will be in August, as well as Future Quest volume two (collecting problems #7-12) is currently arranged to ship in October.
I like the concept that the traditional Hanna-Barbera characters are being reworked as well as retooled for new audiences. I may not always be delighted with exactly how they are being revamped, however they are undoubtedly a treat for the fans (like me) who liked the (admittedly limited) animation created in that early TV age — mainly led by the people at the Hanna-Barbera studio. I genuinely hope that a new generation of fans will be entertained by these commonly special characters as well as shows (many of which are still on DVD, although continually going out-of-print as well as being priced as “collector’s items”). They are undoubtedly a part of American pop culture, still entertaining people today after a lot more than 50 years!
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KC CARLSON, as a kid, had a terrific collection of small plastic figures (like one inch tall) based on the traditional HB characters. someday they all disappeared, however they later resurfaced after my daddy had taken them as well as built, by hand, a shadow box created to be hung on a wall that included all of the figures in separate compartments. I still have it today — one of the few things I still have from my father.
WESTFIELD COMICS is not accountable for the silly things that KC says. particularly that thing that truly irritated you. Or made you state “Awwwww.”