Alrighty then…. after doing major work this week on client’s sites and putting out a few personal fires, last night just got clogged up with all types of stuff. So, here’s the pencil sketch of today’s comic. Inks and coloring tomorrow.
I’m bringing back Stoner Vision. As Bud smokes weed, various cartoon characters will appear. Mostly from Hanna Barbera (the cool stuff) but I’ll dip into other shows as well. I grew up on Saturday morning cartoons in the 60s as my parents soon discovered that from 7:00am until Noon, if cartoons were on, I was generally quiet and *not* bothering them or my sisters. Yep, two or three bowls of Cap’n Crunch (with sugar on top) and five hours of cartoons, and I was ready to tackle Saturdays like you never knew. Now you know why I’m hooked on Mountain Dew and Adult Swim shows. Love cartoons.
Warren Zevon released his first album in 1976, and toured during 1977 popping in on Jackson Browne gigs. But it was 1978’s “Excitable Boy” that brought him to the lime-light. Everyone knows “Werewolves of London” and should know today’s comic title as well. The line “… the shit has hit the fan…” makes me laugh even today. So, Bud’s getting sued and it’s time to bring in some “Lawyers, Guns and Money”. And who better for a hired gun than Space Ghost? Yep, no one.
🙂
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Ha!
Sweet! The ACTUAL update! 🙂 Good stuff. Yeah, I still love the old HB stuff. My favorites were Johnny Quest and Ant and the Aardvark. Oh, and Atom Ant when I was a kid. They still play that stuff on Boomerang TV if you get it. They’re owned by Cartoon Network…
“Up and at ’em… Atom Ant!” H-B had a series of comic heroes like Atom Ant, The Impossibles, Secret Squirrel and others that were fun cartoons. I always like the H-B series that featured more “real life” cartoon characters like Jonny Quest and the Herculoids. My drawing style is based *heavily* on that H-B style of cartooning.
Now, some “professional” cartoon folks around the web really dislike Hanna Barbera, and as such give me some crap about my style. But, you can’t ignore the fact that they made a TON of money and it’s hard to name ONE person who does not know at least *one* of their series (besides TAFKAN).
So, my hat is off to them both. Their cartoons inspired a lot of folks (including me) to become cartoonists. So, you have to give them that.
🙂
Well, I guess they got knocked a lot because of the REALLY cheaply made stuff. You can really see it with Speed Buggy and what-not. But, yeah, a LOT of it was good stuff I think. As for quality, the early Tom and Jerry stuff was done really nice i think, even though I believe it was originally owned by WB? I know what you mean by the influence. I think my strip has a lot of influence by HB, too. Like I said, all those animal strips like Ant and the Aardvark, Texas Toads, Pink Panther…ALL that stuff was just as much of an influence as C&H, Peanuts and the Far Side. 🙂
MGM, not WB…
Seeing Space Ghost, I don’t mind the wait…
And now you get the real deal… 🙂
I am so willing to wait for anything that has even a slight reference to Warren Zevon… ‘send lawyers guns and money… the sh*t has hit the fan’!
Second only to ‘Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner’.
And… Space Ghost will be in the comic too…
🙂
Warren Zevon. Too many great songs to try start picking favorites.
I know, he was a great talent.
Have you heard his live album Learning To Flinch? It’s just him, two guitars, one piano and a very enthusiastic audience. It’s amazing. For my time and money, the one-man-band arrangements on that album beat anything he did in the studio. the Flinch versions of “Hasten Down the Wind,” “Jungle Work,” “Searching for a Heart,” “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” and most especially “The Indifference of Heaven” are staggering. I had the good fortune to see Zevon in concert a few years before he died, and the even greater fortune to meet him after the show. He was a gracious artist of stunning talent, and yeah – he’s missed.
Thank you, thank you, thank you… Warren Zevon (RIP my friend) AND Space Ghost in the sane reference?!?!? Way too cool. I LOVED both – especially Space Ghost – in fact, I have all of the original episodes from ’66-’68 on VHS somewhere. I also really dug the Space Ghost Coast to Coast that ran on the cartoon network in the early 90’s – especially fun to watch in an altered state of consciousness as the humor & show could be strange & wacky at times. Can’t wait to see the finished product!
SG: Coast to Coast was really hip and ahead of it’s time in some ways. They’d take celeb’s and just toss these inane questions at them. Most got the shtick and played along, but some were clueless and made it even funnier.
For Space Ghost fans like me, it was a total riot.
🙂
Um. Erm. Right. Having gone ‘WTF is he on about?’ and having then wikied on Space Ghost and read a number of pages, I’ve come to the conclusion (yet again) that you and I don’t inhabit the same universe. Space Ghost? Adult Swim? Broadcast television? WTF?
FWIW my husband once showed me something called Harvey Birdman that he’d downloaded. It was almost funny. Well, some of it was. Now I’ve learned where that cartoon came from.
Your love of toons and my total distaste for them probably equal out 😀
You Earthlings are odd. Just saying.
😛 😛 😛
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law… it has its moments. The Jonny Quest parody episode was very funny, but the show’s premise got old fast on me. Now the original Birdman was so stiff it was funny.
Hanna Barbera are famous for making some of the best and worst cartoons ever, sometimes in the same series. Stuff like Space Ghost, Birdman, Jonny Quest, Shazzan, Herculoids, Fantastic Four, Samson & Goliath and the classic Quick Draw McGraw are among my favorites.
To tie in 1977, Hanna Barbera released the world’s worst cartoon called Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels. Stink piles of animation. From there on out, Hanna Barbera created crap cartoons until the 90s when Dexter’s Lab, Johnny Bravo and Power Puff Girls were created. Both of them are dead now, but their company lives on.
I hope people remember me for a fun little stoner cartoon strip I drew and not the dumb ass things I may create in the future…
We’re not even in parallel Universes my dear, but that’s what makes it fun!
🙂
LOL well *my* parallel universe does have a bit of Jay Ward in it. And Cosgrove Hall (DANGER MOUSE OH YES!!!). And Groening, but only as audio 😀
At the rate you’re going, and growing, I think you stand a good chance of being remembered for 1977!
“I’m gonna pull a rabbit out of my hat!” “Again…?”
“Crumbs, DM!”
Say no more… 🙂
“No more…”
😛
Hanna and Barbera also did some great work for MGM before setting up their own studio — I’m pretty sure “The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit” was theirs, and that’s my favorite T&J cartoon of all time. Trippy jazz-infused 4th wall busting minimalist piece. And features open use of (legal) drugs. The cartoon kit includes cigarettes and coffee “for the animators.”
Those old MGM H-B Tom & Jerry cartoons weren’t for kids… they were for movie goers of the times and they wanted to entertain adults as much as the kids. Those are great cartoons and I’m doing my best to collect them in their original format (widescreen) and uncut for today’s audience. Making old cartoons PC is a crime… we wouldn’t re-edit “Casablanca” for it’s themes? Why my cartoons? Ugh..
🙂
Oh, just Googled that cartoon and it is *not* H-B and for me it was made in a period for MGM when they should have not been allowed to make T&J cartoons. They’re not very good and luckily for us Chuck Jones took over the T&J production in 1963 as most folks saw these as really bad cartoons. This one is actually very good though.
Some weed! O.O
PFFFFFTTT! Puff and pass man… 🙂
I recently read the Zevon biography, “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon”, it was a collection of memoirs and thoughts from his friends, collaborated by his ex-wife Crystal Zevon.
It was entertaining in the beginning, and tragic all the way to the end. I never read a biography where you love and hate a man at the same time.
I have a tendency not to read those types of books as it can spoil your view on a person. I prefer to remember folks for the music they made, not who they screwed over in life or whatever else they did.
Heh, if they ever wrote a book about my life, it would be a mixture of comedy and sheer horror. So, I’m glad to be a non-famous person so the skeletons in my closet stay there. They look nice in there…
🙂
From Rescuer of people to Lawyer, he would give Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law a run for his money if he also wasn’t a TalkShoe.. I mean Late Night Talk Show host. 🙂
Space Ghost would so kick Birdman’s ass… hand’s down. It is also fun to note how so many Hanna Barbera shows are picked to use at the basis of a new parody series… Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Harvey Birdman, even the Venture Brothers is a direct parody of most of the H-B shows, especially Jonny Quest. Even the fun Sealab 2021 was a rip on an educational h-B cartoon. So, my hat is off to all the H-B writers and creators who were dropping Acid or smoking pot back then so they could give us these wonderfully wacky creations….
🙂
One thing is for sure, Hanna-Barbera will never truly die. All their old cartoons get remade at some point. And people said those guys weren’t any good. Well if they really weren’t why make new shows based off their old work? Obviously something is going on there. 😉