hanna-barbera

Everyone loves trivia about their favorite animated features and series, but with over 100 years of animation history behind us right now, there’s always some new obscure fact to learn. That’s why ComicsAlliance is going deep into the minutiae of your favorite names in cartoons in this continuing video series. You think you know cartoons? Well, here’s a few things you might not know! Jinkies! This week, we're taking a look TV's most famous talking dog and the mystery-solving teens who drive him around, Scooby-Doo! Since the late 1960s, this scaredy-cat dog and the kids of Mystery Inc have been one of cartoons' most iconic teams, sparking hordes of fans and a host of imitators. This video was made to tell you all about the history of Scooby-Doo from its inspirations to the near-miss early drafts of the series to its many different incarnations and variations on its themes, and it would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling kids and their dog!

Is there anyone that doesn't love Space Ghost? Hands people, let's see them. Okay, you're all excused. Space Ghost rules and I will accept no other possible outcome. Those of you still with us, prepare to be amazed with quite possibly the best Space Ghost collectible that's ever been made. And definitely the creepiest Blip. In my lifetime, there have been but two attempts at making a good Space Ghost figure before Mezco's crack at the character in the One:12 Collective line. Art Asylum's Space Ghost: Coast to Coast (complete with desk and chair) was definitely aimed at a specific audience, but was a solid sculpt with good articulation. The same could be said of Jazwares' take, which was much more rooted in the more traditional Hanna-Barbera style and came with a funky Blip. Neither touches what Mezco's doing with its take.

Here's something I want you to do right now: Take a moment and just try to imagine explaining this week's high-profile new releases to someone who was reading comics ten, maybe even five years ago. It would take hours, and by the time you'd dealt with all the incredulous reactions and clarified all the ways that we got to this point, you'd still have to launch into your third act with "and there was also Scooby Apocalypse, where the cast of Scooby Doo meets at Burning Man right before the world is destroyed by nanotechnology." What I'm getting at here is that it's a weird book --- and more than that, it's exactly the weird book that we all knew it was going to be ever since it was announced. The question, then, is whether it's weird enough.

During yesterday’s proceedings at the annual convention for movie exhibitors known as CinemaCon, Warner Bros. announced its intention to release a Scooby-Doo (ScreenCrush editor Matt Singer’s favorite TV show of all time) reboot that would give a newer, hipper edge to the beloved cartoon Great Dane and hopefully erase all memory of the recent live-action films with Linda Cardellini and Matthew Lillard.

All the WonderCon buzz this weekend is about DC Rebirth, but DC Comics dropped some more information about another line of comics this weekend in Los Angeles, namely the new Hanna-Barbera titles. At a panel on Friday, we got a closer look at some of the titles, including Amanda Conner’s designs for The Flintstones, and a detailed look into how bizarre Wacky Raceland is going to be.

DC Comics’ upcoming Hanna-Barbera line of comics is one of the boldest decisions Warner Bros has made with those properties in a long time, and DC seem committed to treating the individual series as just as important as its main line of superhero books. With veteran creators like Keith Giffen on the books, DC is throwing its full weight behind the new line, and has unveiled new variant covers for Scooby Apocalypse and Future Quest by superstar artists like Steve Rude, Neal Adams and Bill Sienkiewicz.

Listen, I gotta tell you about this dream I had last night. It was so weird 00- DC comics had launched a line of comics based on Hanna-Barbera cartoons, but they were doing these completely bonkers takes on all of them. Like, Scooby-Doo was set in the apocalypse and Scooby had a techno-monocle that allowed him to communicate through emojis, and Wacky Races was mashed up with Mad Max: Fury Road, and they even got one of the designers from the movie for it, and there was a big crossover with Space Ghost and Jonny Quest. And the weirdest thing of all was that the Flintstones were just the Flintstones, but drawn by Amanda Conner. Bizarre, right? Wait a second... I'm just catching up on the news, and --- holy cats. It wasn't a dream. DC Comics is actually doing a Hanna-Barbera line with post-apocalyptic Wacky Races and emoji-monocle Scooby-Doo. This is actually happening.

Wednesday's links await, after the jump.

Now available from IDW Publishing and The Library of American Comics is Genius, Illustrated - the middle entry in a three volume project that examines the life and career of the undeniably great and simultaneously vastly unappreciated artist Alex Toth...

Boomerang network junkies might want to prepare for a trip to the toy store (or online equivalent, anyway). The first line of Hanna-Barbera action figures from Jazwares has begun trickling into retailers, with plenty more characters expected to arrive in October...