80s Cartoons That Deserve Current Comic Series
Over the past few days, I've had a craving for a little something from my childhood, so I went into my back issues and pulled out the 2002 Thundercats series from Wildstorm, and I reread most of them. First off, I completely forgot about the big-named artists that worked on this: Ed Benes, J Scott Campbell, and Ed McGuinness. The book may have been decent to ok, but it got me thinking, why don't we have more comics based off of franchises from the 80s? There's so much good stuff out there that is going untapped. Most of these books had their own comic runs, a few with Marvel to be exact, during the 80s, but what about now? Why aren't some of these great franchises being tapped?
== TEASER ==
What about Bravestarr? A story of a space cowboy/Marshall named Bravestarr, and his job as a Marshall on "New Texas" a planet lights years away from Earth. He could call upon the powers of spirit animals to help him out as well. He rode on a robotic horse and fought Tex Hex (related to Jonah Hex?), a gang leader with magical powers.
Sure, there's a lot of cheeseball stuff in there that wouldn't be so great today, but clean it up and you could have yourself a great show. It may take away from what the show was originally about, but why not make it violent and more suited for adults? The people who would really want this book are in their late-20s to early 30s now, so give us what we really want. On a side note, like most 80s cartoons, there was a stupid annoying sidekick. This show had a couple. There was a "Snarf" (Thundercats reference) like character, but more annoying for me, was BraveStarr's horse. He suffered from that 80s too cool for school syndrome. Let BraveStarr do all the talking, and the horse do all the shooting, and make it dark.
They were fighting crime in a future time was before Van Dame appeared in time cop. they were C.O.P.S. AKA Central Organization of Police Specialists. The thing most of us remember above everything else was that it was a mixture of essentially everything that had already been done. It was Police Academy meets G.I. Joe meets Batman, but it stood on its own perfectly fine. It was a whole police force with futuristic weapons, each character with their own code name of course, fighting Batman-esque rogues.
Again, this is something that would need to be a little bit of a darker show, in order to make it really good. There's lots of team books out there, and many of them work, even G.I. Joe, but this show and book would be on more of a local level. Just one city they need to protect. One very large city. Even following one individual around from the team, like Bulletproof, in the center of the picture. Out of all the team cartoons out there, this one would probably work the best since there are so many different personalities and characters to choose from.
Not everything from the 80s has to be dark, brooding, and violent though. There were a lot of great shows aimed at the youngsters also that would work as great comics not only for kids, but for adults also. Out of all the ones I can think of, there's one that stands out, DuckTales. It's the story of Uncle Scrooge and his three nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Uncle Scrooge is insanely rich, and in each episode he is either trying to find hidden treasure to become even more rich, or he is guarding his wealth from villains who want to steal it all.
Why hasn't someone like Boom! Studios jumped on this yet? This would be a great kids adventure book! You essentially wouldn't have to change a thing from the original cartoon. The one thing I always feel kid's comics are missing now-a-days is adventure and a grandiose scale. That's all this book is. It's a lot of Indiana Jones type adventure with Disney characters many children know and love.
I know many of you are already a little ticked I didn't include Silverhawks. I was never a huge fan though. Over all of these previously mentioned cartoons, I'd like to see a revamp of the Thundercats series more than anything. In my opinion, it was the strongest cartoon of them all, and it still stands the test of time, and it would make a great comic with a strong creative team on it. what about you guys? What 80s cartoons would you like to see make it into comic book format and why?
~Mat "InferiorEgo" Elfring is a comedian, teacher, comic book writer, comic store employee, and huge 80s cartoon fan.~
Thundarr
Thundarr
Thundarr
Thundarr
and
Thundarr.
I LOVED Silverhawks
it was a little more extreme than Tundercats
GREAT villains, fast paced action, good animation (for the most part)
I would read a SIlverhawks comic in a heartbeat
Oooh, yeah! Bravestarr! I loved that when I was a kid... but I think it was more to do with the hardcore My Little Pony than the main character ;)
" @Love: Buttons McBoom Boom FTW!!!!! and also....MASK could use a serious redoing "MASK was almost put on the list, but after watching an episode a couple hours ago (yes, I watched episodes, or part of for these shows) I realized it was gi joe meets gobots
yeah, that's true
it had potential though....and a KICK-ASS themesong !!!!
"Fighting crime....FIGHTING CRIME!"
@Manchine said:" BIONIC SIX!! "
THANK YOU! One of my favorites! Best theme song ever!"
Bionic Six.
"
hell to the yes
it was a total trainwreck at times, but I LOVED that show
like all children of the 80's, all I ever wanted was to be a part of an interracial adopted familiy of bionic warriors in coordinating spandex costumes
Where is the Thundarr love people???
"Thundarr Thundarr Thundarr Thundarr and Thundarr. "
OH HELL YEAH!!! Thundarr the Barbarian, Ookla the Mock, and Princess Ariel. That was my favorite cartoon.
I always loved the opening "The year: 1994, from out of space comes a runaway planet- hurtling between the Earth and the Moon.....unleashing cosmic destruction! "
QFT" @SupremoMaximo said:
@Manchine said:" BIONIC SIX!! "
THANK YOU! One of my favorites! Best theme song ever! ""
Bionic Six.
They seemed to be partially based on the X-Men and obviously the Million Dollar Man.
How about The Real Ghostbusters. They did try a cartoon back in the 90's that wasn't as good as well as a recent video game that I never got into.
hellllllll yes it was
I lOVED that show
"Ranger, barbarian, magician, theif, cavalier and acrobat"
- Robotech
- The New Adventures of Johny Quest
- Pole Position
There are a bunch of 80s cartoons I'd love to see redone. While you would have to remove some of the goofier elements of some of them, I don't think you necessarily want to make them darker or more violent. There was an article over at the Escapist about that a few weeks back that makes the point that when you do that, you lose the fun and some of the essence of what made us love these characters in the first place.
Please Log In to post.
Log in to comment