Tag Archives: Bella

Bella does Comics #18 – ATOM ANT

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Atom Ant

I have a sweet spot for the old Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Nostalgia based for sure. The toons weren’t that good or original. The animation defines ‘limited’. The characters were derivative at best. Yogi Bear. Huckleberry Hound. Quick Draw McGraw. Corny. Yet still very funny in their own way. Maybe not ‘their own way’; they stole liberally from Disney and Warner Bros. But it had its charm. It was made-for-TV cartoons, not by-products of yesteryear’s movie houses like the best of Looney Tunes.

Hanna-Barbera perfected cheap, quick entertainment for kids at a time when the alternative was washed-up comedians and D-list actors flopping around a sound stage with hand puppets singing campfire songs. We ate it up in all its sugar frostiness.

I liked Atom Ant. He was an ant with atomic strength, atomic speed with a cool pilot’s helmet and a real sweet letter-man sweater. He was just too groovy for me. He lived in an anthil where he spent all day drinking milk and lifting weights. He didn’t have a secret life, a reporter’s salary, a firefly girlfriend. He was Atom Ant 24-7 and he was my guy.

And he still is.

  • Len ‘Cruze’ Webb

Bella does Comics #16 – Cartoon Crushes

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Max Goof

My daughter Olivia – my co-creator on Heaven Sent – grew up loving The Goofy Movie. As a baby and toddler she watched The Lion King on a loop but when she found The Goofy Movie, that was it. She liked Simba. She fell in love with Max.

Max, son of Goofy, was Olivia’s first crush. To hear her tell it now as a 22-year-old Air Force airman, she remembers falling for his look and he was funny. He must have been real funny because I personally saw her watching that movie 20 times and she was cracking up with cereal milk pouring out her nose every time. I think a healthy part of her affection is owed to voice actor Jason Marsden, who would go on to have a successful career in animation (The Legend of Korra, Transformers: Rescue Bots), but she doesn’t know or care about that. Her first crush will always be Max Goof and he will always have a piece of her heart all to his own. And there’s no reason to be ashamed of it; Madame Noire agrees.

Cartoon crushes are real. There are a lot of guys who keep their copy of Who Framed Roger Rabbit in a vault so as to protect their precious Jessica Rabbit. I went ga-ga over the bare mid-riff of Jeannie on a Saturday morning in 1973 before cartoon Samantha twinkled her cute little nose and Bewitched my heart forever. Some people like football head ‘Hey, Arnold‘; others go for the deep barrel-chested growl of Goliath from Gargoyles. Mulan‘s Li Shang, Sailor Moon‘s Tuxedo Mask, Josie and every one of her Pussy-cats.

Those hips, Valerie; oh those hips!

— Len ‘Cruze’ Webb

 

Bella does Comics #15 – The FLINTSTONES

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Flintsones

Before Adult Swim, before Cartoon Network, before Boomerang, before Toonami, Disney Afternoons and all that what-not; before The Simpsons, there was The Flintstones.

The show debuted on prime time television (probably before that term was created, too) September 30, 1960 and changed the landscape of cartoons and situation comedies forever. The simplistic art style made the adult contemporary themes of the program palatable to an audience hungry for something different. The 50s comedies of Leave It To Beaver, Father Knows Best were pure saccharine. It made the no-nonsense, no kids edge of The Honeymooners stand out. That proved perfect fodder for Hanna-Barbera as they modeled Fred Flintstone after the blustery, rotund Ralph Kramden and Barney Rubble after Ed Norton (with a touch of Lou Costello). Now these are some old references, I know, but this is the root from which grew George Jetson and Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin.

And I’m talking 1960-1966 Flintstones (we could lose those last 2 seasons though; The Great Gazoo. WTF?). In subsequent reboots and re-imaginings, the teeth were taken out and Fred and Barney were chewable supplements for pre-teens too young for Family Guy. And then Cartoon Network created the cartoon attic that is Boomerang and the prehistoric superstars were made all but extinct. They became Fruity Pepples; too damn sweet and mushy.

I have the first season of The Flintstones on DVD, complete with Winston cigarette commercials, and I still crack the hell up at those insane cavemen with their curvy wives. The Flintstones still feel good like a cartoon should.

Yabba. Dabba. Doo.

— Len ‘Cruze’ Webb

Bella does Comics #14: JL8

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JL8

You start doing a webcomic; you find yourself reading more and more webcomics. I find myself chuckling to The Reset Button and On The Grind. I’m a big fan of BOUNCE and Evil Inc. But my favorite webcomic of them all, which I discovered a couple years before I started my own, is JL8 by Yale Stewart, a charming weekly peek into the elementary school lives of characters based on DC Comics’ Justice League.

A hyperactive Barry (Flash), a moody Bruce (Batman), taking-it-all-in-new-kid-in-school J’onn J’onzz and a regal princess trying to just be one of the girls named Diana. Clark, Hal, Mean ol’ Lex – they are all here and it is adorable. It’s nostalgic. It’s current. It’s hilarious. It’s touching. It’s teaches lessons. It makes no sense. It’s original and a homage. It’s what all-ages comic book should be. It’s reads like an animated show; think Muppet Babies style and class for the superhero fan.

Which brings me to Bella and Diana fighting over ‘the voice of animated Batman’ in their ears. Why aren’t they arguing over ‘the voice of Wonder Woman’ in their ears? DC Animated released a critically acclaimed and well received Wonder Woman film in 2009 with Keri Russell doing an excellent job in the title role (and you should check her in The Americans; some of the best acting on television today).  Lucy Lawless, Xena herself, voiced Diana in Justice League: The New Frontier and can’t nobody say ISH about the Lawless One. Michelle Monaghan and Rosario Dawson portrayed Wonder Woman in Justice League: War and Justice League: Throne of Atlantis respectively. But veteran voice actor Susan Eisenberg brought a certain gravitas to Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. You can hear the confidence growing in the performance as the character grows more comfortable with her teammates and her surroundings in the consecutive series. She’s probably the voice in your head when you read the books, thanks also to her work in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse and Justice League: Doom. She deserves her propers, without a doubt.

The animation division of Warner Bros/DC Comics is locked into a New 52 worldview these days but there’s a Wonder Woman there too. There’s a Black Canary there, as well. A Power Girl, a Batgirl. Vixen has resurfaced in their television live action universe (with more life in web-animated form in her bones than either Canary on Arrow so can we get a switch, please?) and Diana is arguably more deserving of feature film exposure at this point. We’re eagerly and anxiously and nervously awaiting her debut in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice as the precursor to her starring role in 2017’s Wonder Woman.

But a cartoon Princess leading her own series would be cool too. If we can have a New Batman toon every other year, can’t we get TWO wonders?

— Len ‘Cruze’ Webb