I’m probably late to this, but I just came across this recent re-imaginings of Hanna-Barbera characters by DC Comics. I wonder if anyone else has read them and what they think, and, of course, I hope to get folks into it.
These are by Mark Russell. The art and stories are really good
(1) The Flintstones — Fred, Wilma, Barney, and Betty live in the same kind of quasi-technological pre-historic stone age, with animals as powered appliances and unexplained television technology. The story explores capitalism, consumerism, slavery, racial discrimination, marriage, polyamory, homosexuality, religion, and all kinds of contemporary issues. Fred and Barney are military veterans who have to deal with their participation in the genocide of the Tree People who used to occupy Bedrock Valley.
(2) Exit, Stage Left!: The Snagglepuss Chronicles—The pink lion Snagglepuss is a celebrated, flamboyant Tennessee Williams-type playwright living in 1950s New York. His childhood friend Huckleberry Hound is a William Faulkner-type novelist. They’re both closeted homosexuals, and they are trying to navigate a society beset by McCarthyism and oppression of all kinds. Other Hanna-Barbera characters also appear: Augie Doggie, Quickdraw McGraw, Squiddly Diddly, Peter Potamus, etc. They also interact with celebrities of the time. A Roy Cohn stand-in is a woman called Gigi Allen (!). Again, the art is just fantastic, and the story very relevant and poignant.
I wasn’t totally jazzed by Snagglepuss, but the Flintstones was BRILLIANT! The art was spectacular, and the writing was top-notch. The social commentary was, maybe, a little too pointed, but it was excellent withal. Really good stuff!
(The art in Snagglepuss left me a little uncomfortable: the characters were drawn just a little too close to “realistically” for me to be easy with them not wearing any pants.)
The epic crossover that DC did of all the adventure cartoons from Hanna Barbera was pretty good. Dick Dasterdly and Muttley was very funny, although I hated the ending. Space Ghost was really well done as well. They tried doing a reboot of The Impossibles and Frankenstein Jr. which were fairly interesting.
