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Hello there!

To those of you that were sad at Toonopolis, The Blog going on hiatus in November (yes, both of you!), fear not! I promised an update in the new year and have a plan to allow this site to build great content while not stretching myself too thin!

First, you will notice that I have moved any and all mention (aside from the Amazon links to the right) of my books and reviews and such over to my publishing company’s new site (http://www.portmanteaupress.com/).  This will allow this site to focus more specifically on being my personal author/cartoon blog site.  Anything related to the publishing side of my business will now be found at the other site and this one will be more personal.

I felt it was important to separate my personal and business sites with their own blogs, to make it easier for people to enjoy this site without feeling like it only exists to sell my books (which is only partially true ;P).

That being said, the change in format to the site is thus: there will no longer be regular weekly updates on Wednesday or Saturday.  Instead, I will set up an open-forum policy for anyone who wants to review cartoons to send me guest posts and I will post my own whenever I have time or am inspired to do so.  This lack of regular schedule will allow me to not strain myself too much trying to keep up the content like I did last year.

I also previously tried to limit people so that I could have different authors do different posts.  No more!  If you want to post a review every week, you can do so.  Just contact me and let me know what you want to do.

It is important that anyone who wants to follow the blog sign up to the email list (Subscribe to Toonopolis, The Blog by Email) so you get the updates when they happen instead of just coming back and checking every week.

Thanks for the patience and I look forward to a fun 2012 of continuing to post high quality reviews of old school and current cartoons as well as update people on my progress with writing my Toonopolis books, my forthcoming War of the Forgotten (adult urban fantasy) series, and any other writing projects throughout the year.  Huzzah to a new year!

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As I was struggling to find time to watch cartoons to finish off Super Hero Month, I came to the realization that I have been simply stretching myself too thin.  After releasing a novella and nonfiction book less than a month apart, I have realized that I am just spending far too much time with online efforts and need to scale back.  I know there are some that have been following this blog faithfully and I appreciate that, but I will be going onto an indefinite hiatus until, at the very least, the new year.

If you want to know when I start back up again, just sign up to the email notification on the right-hand side of this page.  Then you’ll know!  And knowing is half the battle.

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Today’s Old School Wednesday Review is from Nelson.

Nelson is a geek and a gamer.  Early on, he was hooked with cartoons and Intellivision, but it wasn’t long before he found the gateway drugs of comic books and the NES.  He spent most of his life just building up his geek resume with each successive gaming system and acquiring rabid fanboy passion for all sorts of cartoons, comic books, TV shows and movies until finally becoming victim to pen and paper role playing games.  Now he dishes out his extreme opinions to whomever will listen, in person or on the internet or tries to focus that energy into writing or drawing when he isn’t busy wrangling the small zoo that has taken root in the one bedroom apartment he shares with his girlfriend.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAkL2-vh2Sk

Being a huge comic geek and growing up reading the X-Men as a kid, I asked Jeremy if I could review the 90s Fox X-Men cartoon for his Old School Wednesday reviews during Super Hero month.  I may have started my comic book career with Spider-man, but The X-Men have always had my full attention once I started with their books.  Though to be fair, this is a cartoon review and not a comic review, so I should say that I started my cartoon career with (as far as MY memory serves) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Voltron, He-Man, The Real Ghostbusters, and The Transformers (we’re going to go ahead and ignore Looney Tunes and Disney only for the sole reason that they don’t contribute to the point I’m about to make).  These cartoons all carried a similar theme.  Teams put together to protect the innocent and fight evil.  And if you’re going to make an argument against He-Man, I’ll give you he wasn’t part of a team, but he still had a whole bunch of friends who constantly helped him out against the bad guys and were no slouches in combat.  The point I’m trying to make is, I was groomed since a child to appreciate the genre.

Not bad animation for a 90's cartoon.

With that being said, let me jump back to the reason we’re all here right now.  Let’s break this beast down and really poke at it to see what made it tick.  I know Jeremy usually takes a stand on plot and voice acting, making it a point to avoid critiquing animation, but I’m going to go ahead and jump straight to the animation because I feel it’s one of the most important aspects of this show and what really helped make it work.  The actual “animation” or the movement of the characters and scenes were pretty clunky and cumbersome as early 80s and 90s American animation was, but the fact that the art style mimicked the comics of the time was an ingenious way of keeping you from noticing how awkward it looked for Wolverine to jump over a chain link fence.  That is, up until the last 5 or 6 episodes of the final season where the animation changed jarringly to a very cartoony and even more colorful version of itself.  I can only assume it was because the show had been canceled and they knew it, because even several of the mainstay voice actors, like Gambit’s, never returned, even though the character was still used.

Later style animaton from the tail end of the show's run.

Speaking of the voice acting… as far as that’s concerned, I’ve got to admit, for the majority of the show, every single character sounded exactly as they sounded in my head when I read the comics.  The voices were incredibly well done.  From Wolverine’s deep gravelly voice, a Storm who sounded authentically African, to Gambit’s Cajun charm or Beast’s intellectual, yet sometimes silly witticisms, the voice cast, most of whom were reasonably unknown and pretty much stayed that way, nailed it.  Don’t think I’m just talking about the heroes, either.  Sure, Professor X basically sounded like Patrick Stewart before the Shakespearian actor filled the role, but the villains were just as perfect.  Magneto was just as charismatic and commanding as he should have been, while Mr. Sinister’s eerie, auto-tuned voice sent the right creepy signals to my brain.  Apocalypse’s voice, both booming and terrifying with the hint of a mechanical quality always kept the mystery alive as to his origins.  To me, these actors and actresses set the bar rather high and put into place the standard by which all following voice actors working with these characters would be judged.

The popular ones.

Now, as far as the plot goes, I have plenty of love and hate for the way the show presented itself.  The cornball factor was apparent since the word go and, if not for the heavy grasp of nostalgia, would have made re-watching the entire series on Netflix a masochistic torture fest.  Not every episode is dripping with heavy handed morality or glaringly massive plot holes, but there’s enough peppered throughout the entire run of the show to make it hurt.  The episodes that did work often stemmed from an actual story from the comics that was adapted to fit the team they chose for the cartoon.  Being the X-Men, the writers had hundreds of characters to choose from and did their best to pull from the most popular X-guys-and-gals at the time.  Sometimes this made a story canonically incorrect or chronologically confusing, but for the most part, I believe the show really came through with certain stories like the Phoenix Saga and even the Dark Phoenix Saga, two iconic story arcs from the comics.  Another plus in the story column was that it definitely had an overall continuity from beginning to end, and aside from a few plot points being unexplainably out of chronological order (Jean Grey seems to be dead a few times after she’d just been in the previous episode which is pretty strange even for her), the overall story tied the episodes together, albeit rather loosely, but together nonetheless.  There were, unfortunately, so many times where the story was literally moved on by one or more characters either doing something stupid for no reason, or NOT doing something completely obvious for no reason.  These were the times I let my eyes glaze over as I waited for some super hero action.

Yeah, not allowed to use the stabby bits for real...

The action, by the way, was pretty awesome.  Watching everyone get tossed around, through walls and busting up Sentinels was always satisfying.  In fact, generally the only really annoying parts of the action involved every single time Wolverine would squat, poised over his opponent with claws popped, ready to strike while spouting some nonsense one-liner, only to be blasted, kicked, thrown, or shot off because… let’s face it… there’s no way Fox was going to ever let Wolverine stab any living creature with his claws.  Unless it was purely mechanical, Wolverine tended to end up as useless as Leonardo in the Ninja Turtles movies fighting real live Foot Soldiers.  Wait, I’m sorry, did I say ONLY annoying part?  I meant the second most annoying part.  The most annoying part was the screaming.  Boy, howdy! did this show love screaming.  If I went back and actually counted, I’m almost positive that close to 60% of the episodes contained at least one person shrieking bloody murder. Whether it was Rogue (the usual suspect) being overwhelmed by the memories she absorbed from someone, Xavier being overwhelmed by physic backlash while using Cerebro, or Wolverine and Sabertooth trying to decide once and for all, who had the biggest, er… claws, the characters on this show loved screaming.

Overall, this was one of the great cartoons of the 90s and I’ll never forget the mornings spent making sure I was awake in time, with a big bowl of cereal watching it with my brother, cheering the team on, and always curious to see what the villains were doing.  Plus, it was always fun picking out the random characters they would put in the backgrounds all the time that I was familiar with from the comics.

(By the way, in tune with the cornball aspect of the show, I’ve got a free cookie to anyone who can tell me without cheating how many times in the series a character spits out their name, followed by the command: “Remember it!” Bonus for anyone who can also correctly identify who says it.)

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In week one of Super Hero Month, I reviewed a DC show.  In week two of Super Hero Month, I reviewed a Marvel show.  This week… I review a show by Man of Action.  Who is Man of Action?  Why, the amazing team behind a show I’ve reviewed in the past (Generator Rex) and the show I’m reviewing today, Ben 10: Ultimate Alien.

It’s very unlikely that anyone who has paid attention to cartoons has been able to avoid the Ben 10 series for the last five-six years.  Although this review is specifically about the latest iteration of this series, it’s kind of impossible to ignore the first two: Ben 10 and Ben 10: Alien Force.  My six year old has been hooked on this show since the first version (and we’ve got the boxes of toys labeled Ben 10 to prove it), but I have too, especially now that the show has an older and darker edge to it with Ultimate Alien.

The voice cast on this show is both diverse and amazing.  The different alien transformations of Ben Tennyson (the title character) all have a different voice to match the alien, allowing the show to tap into such awesome voice talents as Dee Bradley Baker, John DiMaggio, Jeff Bennett and more (and only need them for the episodes in which those aliens appear).  The main three characters are consistent across Alien Force and Ultimate Alien: Yuri Lowenthal (Ben), Ashley Johnson (Gwen Tennyson, his cousin), and Greg Cipes (Kevin Levin, their ‘friend’).  All three are very well done.

No, that's not Jax from Mortal Kombat or Cyborg from Teen Titans. Kevin can absorb the substance of materials and convert his body into it.

For those who have missed the previous two Ben 10 shows, the general premise of the show is simple: aliens are out there, some kids on Earth are offspring of human/alien parents or grandparents, Ben Tennyson (one of these kids) finds a watch imbued with the DNA of all of the alien races in the universe (which he can use to transform into said aliens) and fights to protect the universe.  The original series was very campy and silly, with Ben and Gwen only being 10 years old.  Beginning with Alien Force and leading into Ultimate Alien, the show gets much more series with the characters aged to their middle teens.  This is where the series really gets its wings.

With the second series, Kevin Levin gets inserted into the show as a reluctant member of the hero team and adds a whole new level of awesome to the series.  A shady, black-market salesman who joins up with the team initially just on “common enemies” pretenses, Kevin is by far the most complex character on the show (and, as I said last week in the Iron Man: Armored Adventures review, I like my anti-heroes).  As Ultimate Alien progresses, we learn deeper levels of Kevin’s motivations and realize finally why he really wanted to befriend Ben and Gwen (and only part of that has to do with the unspoken attraction between Gwen and Kevin).  Kevin Levin, to me, is worth the price of admission alone and everything else is just gravy.

If you didn’t like Ben 10, make sure you give Alien Force and Ultimate Alien a watch anyway.  The latter two shows are much more similar in animation, darker themes, and stronger plots.  While I initially was annoyed with the most recent variant of the show with the “Ultimate” concepts of older alien forms (“I’m just gonna have to buy new versions of the same toys now!” I cried), I was happy to see the writers continue to explore the deeper levels of plots left dangling in the past series’ and close up loose ends while adding new layers.

This is just a small sample of the toys. And only from Ben 10 and Alien Force. Yeah, money sink FTW.

With constant usage of old villains (alien overlord Vilgax, the medieval techno-fiends The Forever Knights, crazed geneticist Doctor Animo, voodoo magic users Hex & Charmcaster) and new (the biochemical Hive and Osmosian Aggregor), the show never has a shortage of bad guys to throw at the heroes (sometimes in combinations/teamwork efforts, for extra fun).  The villains, in many cases, are more interesting and complex than the good guys (except Kevin).

Man of Action has created such an awesomely robust comic book/sci-fi style world in Ben 10.  In some ways, I want Man of Action to do more shows (loving this series and Generator Rex), but in others I don’t want them to dilute the quality of the two shows they produce.  I’m glad Ben 10 is already signed on for a fourth series when Ultimate Alien ends.  While the original Ben 10 had the feel of a ‘test-the-waters/marketability’ kind of show, they really hit their stride since, tell phenomenal stories, and have created some memorable characters.  I don’t care if they keep making me buy more toys and video games for my six year old, because I enjoy them as much as he does.  Ultimate Alien is most definitely a 5/5 Giant Cartoon Mallet kind of show!

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Today’s Old School Wednesday Review is from Luke.

Luke Johnson knows a thing or two about cartoons. He also knows that many things about superheroes, and is a published author because of it. You can find his short story, “The Last Laugh” in the anthology Powers, available at Amazon.

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Oh Sega, How Great You Were...

Ah, the 90′s. Say what you will about the decade (and God knows I do,) it was one of the best times for superhero cartoons. Many of the favorites came from traditional sources, such as X-Men and Spider-Man (Marvel) or the Batman, Superman and Batman Beyond animated series (DC). Another breakout star was The Tick, based on Ben Edlund’s comic series.

And then…there was Earthworm Jim.

Earthworm Jim started life as a video game character for the Sega Genesis in 1994. The platformer gained popularity thanks to its gameplay, art style, weird sense of humor, and its success translated into ports to other gaming systems, a few sequels, and an animated series on Kids WB. Which is convenient, since this is a blog about cartoons.

The story is nicely laid out in the theme song: Jim was a normal, everyday worm until a super suit fell on him. The suit gave him amazing strength and plenty of cool gadgets that came in handy when fighting evil, but also drew the attention of villains from across the universe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRli1rRMoSQ

Embedding is disabled, but it’s worth the click for the show’s intro!

Each show would follow a regular format: first, Jim and his sidekick, Peter Puppy (a small dog that would turn into an enormous snarling beast whenever hurt or scared) would find themselves at the mercy of one of the show’s villains. After a quick thwarting came the theme song, then the adventure would begin in earnest. ANOTHER villain would come forth to threaten our heroes/the universe/their neighbor’s eggbeater, leaving Jim and Peter in some kind of mortal peril. Just when things seemed darkest, Earthworm Jim would employ some form of cunning strategy–usually, screaming and wanton destruction–and the day would be saved. Then, a cow would fall from the sky–a fitting end to a 22-minute lesson in absurdity.

Good times.

No, his name was not metaphorical. Professor-Monkey-For-A-Head was quite literal.

It should come as no surprise that the creator of the games, Doug TenNapel, also created the show. Many of the principal elements were taken from the game, but the show expanded them so much farther. The backdrops for Jim’s adventures become that much more bizarre when they’re given names like Terlawk, the Planet Heck, the Boulevard of Acute Discomfort, and La Planeta de Agua (Arriba!) The characters were given full personalities that, in many cases, were different from the game. Princess What’s-Her-Name became a tough rebel warrior, a far cry from her damsel-in-distress role in the games. Peter Puppy becomes a full-fledged sidekick, and also gains a flair for the dramatic. Bob the Killer Goldfish had a southern evangelist voice to go with his dreams of universal conquest. Professor Monkey-For-A-Head’s feud with our hero was only eclipsed by the adversarial relationship he shared with his skullmate, Monkey Professor-For-A-Head. They were fleshed out in a way that wasn’t possible in a video game in 1994.

The quality of writing cropped up in other ways, too. The jokes are many and varied, coming as physical humor, puns, running gags, pop culture references, and even the occasional not-for-kids joke. (“Whip me! Whip me!” “I beg your pardon?”) Dune fans might enjoy Peter Puppy’s take on the “litany against fear,” which he uses to keep himself from freaking out. Earthworm Jim’s train of thought is easily derailed, which leads to some classic moments, and his battle cries are fantastic (“Eat dirt, detestable nemesis of virtue! AAAAHAHAHAHAHA!”) And almost none of the principal characters can finish a simile. Expect a lot of “Prepare to (something) like a…um…” Not all the jokes hit, but most do, and there’s a lot of them.

The characters may seem random but... no... wait, they're random.

Where the show really shines is in the talent of the voice actors. Most notable is the titular character, played to dim-witted, overzealous perfection by Dan Castelleneta. Yes, of Homer Simpson fame. The talent doesn’t stop there, though. Edward Hibbert, known far more for his theater work, lent his stage presence to Evil the Cat. Charlie Adler (Professor Monkey-For-A-Head), Kath Soucie (Princess What’s-Her-Name), and Jim Cummings (Psy-Crow; Bob the Killer Goldfish) have been in the voice acting game since the 80′s, and Jeff Bennett (Peter Puppy; Narrator) is one of the current top names in the business. John Kassir (Snott; Henchrat) was the friggin’ Cryptkeeper. Rounding out the cast is SCTV’s Andrea Martin, who plays Earthworm Jim’s biggest (in every sense) villain, Queen Pulsating Bloated Festering Sweaty Pus-Filled Malformed Slug-For-A-Butt. This was a cast with chops, and they each brought something special to the characters they played.

Unfortunately, even with all this going for it, Earthworm Jim only lasted two seasons. What went wrong? Most likely, it was too good at what it tried to do…absurdity tends to be a niche market. Fine for the video game industry, but not enough for network television (even a network like WB). Another possible flaw lies within that style, in that keeping a high level of quality is like walking a tightrope. Go too “safe,” and the show becomes stale–the writing centers on catchphrases instead of jokes, and characters become one-note. If you lean too far the other way, you risk losing your audience entirely. Did either of these happen with Earthworm Jim? Maybe not…but had it gone on longer, who knows.

GROOVY!

The history of the show after cancellation is…well, mostly nonexistent. It did inspire two more video games–Earthworm Jim 3D and Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy. Also, four two-episode sets were released on VHS. Apart from that, nothing. As far as I’ve seen, it was never picked up by any other channels (as opposed to The Tick, which gained a whole new popularity in reruns on Comedy Central.) No plans have been made to release the series on DVD in the United States. It seems like Earthworm Jim is destined to be a forgotten classic, remembered only by people who were lucky enough to see it while it was on.

But there may be hope yet: according to some anonymous, unverifiable source on Wikipedia, a full DVD set was released in Australia earlier this year. Perhaps there’s a chance we could someday watch the show in something other than grainy, taped-off-of-TV-fifteen-years-ago quality.

If that day comes, I plan on laying money down for it, and I hope you do too. After all, like the theme song says, “Jim can be a winner…if we only sing along.”

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Indie Book Collective presents...

As a staff member of the Indie Book Collective (official title: web monkey), I try to be involved in every blog tour.  Not having the time to commit to being an author on the Veteran’s Day Blog Tour de Troops, I offered to review one of the books on the tour.  For those who don’t know, the Blog Tour de Troops is a blog hop similar to many you’ve seen before, but with one big key difference.

Not only does every commenter earn a free eBook at each stop for him/herself, but he/she also earns a free eBook for a member of the military serving overseas.  The number one requested care item from our troops are books.  Digital books have allowed the military personel to carry a ton of books at once on an eReader and makes some of those long nights and time away from friends and family more bearable.

Onto the review!  I have decided to review George Sirois’s science fiction adventure Excelsior in support of this blog tour.

When I first read the description for Excelsior, I though, “neat, it sounds like Cool World meets Comix Zone!” While reading this wonderful book, I realized I was both right and wrong at the same time. In both of those examples (a movie and and old Genesis video game), creators come face to face with their creations to realize that they are not just alive in their imaginations.

In Excelsior, Matthew Peters discovers that his made-up world and story is not really imaginary at all. Thrust into the continuing storyline of a plot he thought he was writing, Matthew has to find strength in himself that he never knew was there.

The reasons why Matthew has visions of Excelsior and Danab IV are not only explained, they are also an integral and very original part of the story. I was amazed at how well defined the story and world is. Reading the author’s notes, I see that Sirois spent 15 years developing this story and his passion and understanding of the history is very clear.

Like so many works, I felt connections to lots of other stories, sci-fi and fantasy alike. With the recent reboot of Thundercats, I definitely felt elements that reminded me of the Thundercats storyline (which is awesomely awesome) such as the magic jewels and swordplay. Sirois has done a fantastic job of borrowing small elements of familiarity from comic books and cartoons and combining them into an amazingly original and fantastic story.

I highly recommend this for anyone who enjoys sci-fi, comics, fantasy, and action-adventure stories.  (Which, incidentally should be anyone that reads this blog on a regular basis!)

I would finally like to point out how much I loved the relationship between Matthew and his uncle Jason. They show a great example of how a tragedy can pull a broken family together and make both of the two of them better people in the end.

I look forward to more works by Sirois and the continuation of the Excelsior story.

Links:
George’s Blog (Go comment to get your free copy of Excelsior!)
Excelsior on Amazon (Get a free copy then buy one for a friend!)

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Today we continue Super Hero Month on Toonopolis, The Blog and switch from a DC property to a Marvel property.  This week, I am going to review Iron Man: Armored Adventures.

As I said last week with Young Justice, I am attempting to review these comic book cartoons this month without looking at them in the light of overall comic lore and continuity.  I also said that I have always been more of a Marvel than a DC, so incongruities with Marvel shows will generally jump out much more quickly to me.  Before I start twitching after watching the first half of the first season of this show, let me discuss the voice cast as I like to do.

The voice cast is not very good.  Adrian Petriw is decent as Tony Stark but the other two main characters have really flat delivery (Daniel Bacon as Rhodey and Anna Cummer as Pepper).  In fact, one of the few voices that stood out as I tried to watch this show was the voice of Mr. Fix.  I really want Donny James Lucas to do some more voice roles, because he’s fantastic.  The rest of the voice cast is pretty neutral at best.

Concept Art. Should have stayed a concept...

That being said, the best part of the show is the theme song done by indie rock band Rooney.  It pretty much goes downhill from there.  The concept of the show is that Tony Stark is a teenager and is thrown into his Iron Man alter-ego after his parents are killed suspiciously.  His best friends Rhodey and Pepper are there and they work together as a teenage crime-fighting unit, only dealing with large-scale issues.  The problem with this concept is that they dropped the ages of the characters but kept the severity of the battles the same.  Typically the shows that work well with the turn-well-known-characters-into-kids theme also drop the importance of their struggles to match the teenage years.

As it is, we have Tony Stark worrying about memorizing lines to Hamlet while battling a villain who has been turned into pure energy from one of his dad’s inventions.  Further, Tony Stark is a major super-genius (as demonstrated very early in the show).  Why in the world would he have trouble memorizing lines for drama class?  The rest of the characters, with the exception of Rhodey, are pretty weak.  Pepper is an annoying chatterbox (a fact that is laid on way too thick).  Happy Hogan (the jock who is basically a weird unintelligent loner) just leaves me scratching my head.

I know I said I’d avoid comparing the series to comic lore and previous iterations of a character, but I do have one major issue with this show in comparison.  Tony Stark/Iron Man is perhaps one of the best anti-heroes in all of comics.  As someone who just wrote a whole novella about the origin of an anti-hero (Toonopolis Short: Anchihiiroo), one might say I have a respect for them.  Tony Stark is supposed to be completely egocentric, only working for the common good when it serves his interests also.  In this show, he becomes a boy hero akin to Peter Parker/Spider-Man (as one of my comic geek friends put it when I asked his opinion on the show).  If I wanted to watch a Spider-Man show, I’d watch Spider-Man… not Iron Man pretending to be Spider-Man.  In fact, while the show was running I often forgot I was watching Iron Man until he was in the suit.

The animation is just so disjointed.

Lastly, the animation is not something I enjoy.  Several shows are starting to use this CGI cel-shading art style (Hot Wheels: Battle Force Five was another) but I’ve found that this animation style works much better for video games (the latest Dragon Quest games, Namco’s Tales series).  The animation of Iron Man: Armored Adventures is choppy and not very fluid.  That’s why I think this style of CG is better for gaming than for a cartoon.

Overall, as happy as I was with Young Justice last week, I am just as disappointed in Iron Man: Armored Adventures this week.  Shows like this are the reason I’ve been avoiding comic book properties over the last few years.  It’s a money-grab trying to capitalize on the success of the Iron Man live action films by slapping the Iron Man name on something that doesn’t even encompass the spirit of the original property.  2/5 Giant Cartoon Mallets.  This came pretty close to being my first 1/5, but as I said before, that is reserved for something that is completely unwatchable, not just mostly.

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Today’s Old School Wednesday Review is from Jeremy.

Jeremy Rodden is a stay-at-home dad and author of the Toonopolis Files series of cartoon novels.  He considers C.S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll his biggest influences as a writer and hopes to create a lasting, fun world that all ages can enjoy.  You can follow him on Twitter (@toonopolis), Facebook (www.facebook.com/toonopolisfiles), or his cartoon review/author blog (www.toonopolis.com).

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Many people of my generation think of the early 90′s as a golden era of cartoons, with shows like Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs (not to mention its spinoff, Pinky & the Brain).  What people liked about these shows was that they were filled with parody, fourth-wall breaking, and irreverent humor.  Many people forget that it wasn’t Tiny Toons that started this trend and many others don’t realize that the same producer, Tom Ruegger, was responsible for all of these shows (including later shows like Freakazoid and Histeria!).  The trend-setting cartoon I am talking about here is A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udX85KTl6kQ

Borrowing from the concept of taking existing characters and making them younger (popularized a few years earlier in Jim Hensen’s Muppet Babies), A Pup Named Scooby-Doo made Scoob and the gang younger (around 12-13 or so) and their first iteration of Mystery Incorporated known then as the “Scooby-Doo Detective Agency.”

The gang's all here: Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby.

The show was insanely formulaic and had a ton of self-referential humor, mocking the same formulaic nature of the previous versions of Scooby-Doo.  In every episode, we get the mystery, the clue-searching, the obligatory musical chase scene (probably the best part of every episode), the Shaggy/Scooby disguise bit to trick the monster, Freddy blaming the aptly named Red Herring for every crime (except the one time it was ACTUALLY Red who was the bad guy), and the final reveal with the “pesky kids” epithet replacing “meddling kids.”

A Pup Named Scooby-Doo was such a great example of how a formula show can be successful every episode.  Since it was a parody, the writers were able to go over-the-top with every episode without restricting themselves to concepts of realism that sometimes made the other Scooby-Doo shows hard to swallow (not that it ever stopped any of the previous writers from somehow giving every villain the advanced animatronics, holograms, or puppetry skills to create insanely unrealistic monsters, ghosts, and other baddies).

It was... RED HERRING!

In this show, a Scooby Snack wasn’t just a treat, it was a tool that gave Scooby magical powers (such as flight or turning into a rocket).  Velma’s magical briefcase could turn into any type of computer or analytic equipment she needed.  Daphne’s butler, Jenkins, could turn up at any moment for her dumbest whim.  All of the characters are pretty two-dimensional and slapsticky, but that was what made the show so great.  I’ve learned from my own experience (writing my Toonopolis books) that conventional rules of character development can get thrown out the window when you work with parody as a medium.

The show was fun, had catchy chase songs (they even put out a CD of them!) unique to each episode, and established an entire genre of self-referential cartoon parodies that led to such great works as the aforementioned Animaniacs.  I strongly consider A Pup Named Scooby-Doo one of the earliest influences of what would later become Toonopolis as well as an important landmark show that proves parody work can be successful.  While Tiny Toons and Animaniacs would be far more popular shows, the groundwork was laid here.  If you’ve never seen it, you need to treat yourself to it.  If you have seen it, watch it again… it’s still just as great.

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For those who pay attention to me (I’m looking at you, mother), you’ll recall that I put out an open submission for essays by fellow stay-at-home fathers a little over a month ago for a collaborative non-fiction essay book that I would be publishing called The Myth of Mr. Mom.

I am very happy to announce that we have received eight fantastic submissions from eight amazing stay-at-home dads that will make up the collection.  We are officially into editing/formatting mode and still look to be on pace for the early-mid December publishing date that we set from the beginning.

A few announcements regarding the completed work that I would like to share.  First, the pricing: the paperback book will be $12.99/£7.99 and the eBook will be $2.99 (conversions to other currencies handled by retailers).  The paperback will be available for purchase online via Amazon, Amazon UK, and Barnes & Noble.  The paperback will also be listed with Ingram, so any brick-and-mortar bookstore should be able to order it if you prefer to purchase books in person.  The eBook will be available through all major eBook retailers (Amazon and affiliates, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Apple, Sony, Diesel, and more).

Finally, the cover design is complete and I am very happy with the work done by the wonderfully talented designer, Jennifer Bruck.  It has already been released on the Facebook page for the book (Like It Here!).  Here is the cover for The Myth of Mr. Mom:

I am so pleased with all of the work put into this collection so far by everyone.  Based on the overwhelmingly positive response that I have seen on Twitter and Facebook, I think it is safe to say that we will be planning another collection in 2012 (either to be released in June or December).  Stay tuned for details for those that didn’t get an opportunity to share their stories in this collection.

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Now that All Request month is over, November brings us to Super Hero Month! I had been previously avoiding super hero cartoons because I just felt overwhelmed by the influx of them in the past few years.  Now it’s time to check out some of them and see if they’re any good.  This week, I’m going to review Young Justice.

I will start off by saying that I have never been much of a DC fan.  Some people, like me, are Marvels… others are DCs.  Truthfully, if it wasn’t Batman, I was not aware of most of what DC was doing over the years.  That being said, and this will apply to all of Super Hero Month, I will look at these shows on their own merits, not in analysis of the over-arching worlds/universes and continuity within comic book lore.  That would turn this blog into something else entirely!  We review cartoons.  So there.

This image is not representative of the animation on the show, but I liked it so here it is.

The voice cast for this show is pretty rocking.  Khary Payton (Aqualad) is recognizable from his work as Cyborg on Teen Titans.  Miss Martian is voiced by Danica McKellar.  If you are under the age of 20 or so, this may mean nothing to you.  If you are a Gen X/Gen Y member like myself, I just have two words for you: Winnie Cooper.  Look it up, youngsters.  Nolan North gives life to Superboy.  Gamers will recognize him as Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series.  Even former teen pop star Jesse McCartney is good as Robin (the character is annoying, but that’s not the actor’s fault–it’s the writers).  I’ve been very pleased with the voice acting in the show.

Taking a look at the characters involved, half of them are great and half of them are annoying.  On the good side: Aqualad (who is light years better than Aquaman, not that it’s saying much), Superboy (I love his dark attitude, much cooler character than Superman), and Miss Martian (the adaptation to Earth culture makes for very unique humor that is fun).  Robin is annoying and his ‘clever’ wordplay is stupid (plus, the whole ‘whelm’ joke in the first two episodes did nothing but make me want to turn off the show and watch 10 Things I Hate About You).  Kid Flash is your typical cocky/horny fifteen year old.  Artemis is just a cocky girl version of Kid Flash.  I was extremely happy that Aqualad became the leader instead of Robin.

After a few episodes, I was concerned that each of them were kind of random.  As I got deeper into the series, I realized that all of them were connected and building to a larger storyline.  This made me happy and I began to enjoy looking for the links.  Some of the storylines are fantastic.  The relationship between Superman and Superboy, for example, makes me actually care about Superman (who has always been a flat character in my opinion).  Episode Four was particularly fun, as I thought the show did a great job using Bane (always a sore spot for Batman fans, considering the complexity of the character).  He may have been defeated by the kids, but watching his mind-games and seeing how the writers handled his intelligence (such as his ability to block Miss Martian’s mind reading by filling his head with old futbol scores) was pretty enjoyable.

Superboy has daddy issues. Superman is distant. Jerk.

The introduction of Artemis added another level of intrigue to the show that was wonderful.  Between her and Red Arrow, it’s nice to have the extra internal conflict that isn’t just stereotypical in-team bickering that these shows tend to use.  Six episodes in and I am definitely hooked on this show.  I am glad I didn’t give up after my annoyance with the first episode.  When the show started with the bad run of sidekick angst and gags (wherein I said, “Hey! I already stole all those tropes for Supercity in Toonopolis: Gemini.”), I almost lost faith that the show was going to be serious enough to be solid.  I’m looking forward to finishing getting caught up on Young Justice, seeing how the multiple layers of intrigue and character development plays out, and finding the identity of The Light who seems to be pulling everyone’s strings.

Overall, I’ll give Young Justice 4/5 Giant Cartoon Mallets.  If they axed Robin, I might up it to 5.  That kid just irks me every time he’s on screen.