Friend of this Blog Adel Khan provided a link to some
Dutch FLINTSTONES comic book covers, and many of them are quite good…
…Especially as we’ve seen just how utterly bad some FLINTSTONES
covers can be!
Then again, we’ve had some DARNED GOOD ONES ones in the USA,
too!
So good, in fact, that the Dutch would reprint them, not
without good reason.
But, the most fascinating thing about this is their tendency to USE
COVER IDEAS FROM DIFFERENT HANNA-BARBERA COMICS, and repurpose them for THE FLINTSTONES!
Here are some with their American originals!
Okay, that COULD be a coincidence! But, try on a few more for size!
At least this is an interesting variation. A rare occurrence where Wilma is on the receiving end of some slapstick. Note Fred's almost inappropriately amused expression! Heh-Heh!
I don't even know what to make of this one!
Okay, I get wasting Wally and chucking Huck, in favor of Fred and Barney... but why replace Yakky Doodle and Ding-a-ling, with Augie Doggie and Mister Jinks (instead of other Flintstones related characters like Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm), yet LEAVE Touché Turtle, Pixie, and Dixie intact?
And what's with the semi-rapacious expression on Jinks? The meeces are BEHIND HIM, so what's got him so... like, desirous? Are they headed toward "Gold-en Fish Island", or something?
 |
| "GOLD-EN FISH! And, they're ALL MINE, like!" |
Even Augie seems a little too filled with anticipation. Maybe "Dear Old Dad" is stranded on that island with all those lovely "Gold-en Fish"!
Well, at least Fred tried to make up for Wilma's face-painting by naming the boat after her.
This odd cover also makes a fine transition to our next category... Even worse than mere swiping, is when Fred and/or Barney is DROPPED INTO another comic's cover illustration!
Not merely REDRAWN, mind you, but literally INSERTED into an existing cover illustration, taking the place of another character or element!
 |
| Bye-bye, Buddy Boulder. Hello, Fred! |
So, is this Fred's "second childhood", or his third, fourth or fifth?
At least they had the good sense to reprint this next cover without alterations. I'd hate to see the result, compositionally, if Fred and Barney were inserted here!
Adel is thanked for his contribution - and for all the fun we've had with it.
For anyone who cares to see ALL of these covers, take THIS LINK, and enjoy.
Way to Yabba-Dabba-Do it! Excellent post & great work Joe & Adel: what a great subject to highlight... the variations on the Cave Kids and Yogi/Huck covers are too good to keep tucked away!
ReplyDeleteThe link you provided with all the Dutch Flintstones covers had an interesting connection to some other topics covered at TIAH, did you notice a familiar artist's style on the covers for (roughly)#11-#20 as you scroll down from the top?
They were drawn by our own Daan Jippes! His dynamic style and construction are definitely present, observe:
Daan Jippes at Lambiek
Thanks for another great topic: I think the time is becoming ripe for a reprint collection of the early Gold Key H-B material.
Outside of an example of what NOT to do, we need NOTHING from the Charlrton H-B output archived, but that subject is a blog post unto itself! ;) - Dan
Joe:
ReplyDeleteGreat post! You knew I'd have to make a comment on this one, didn't you?
Thanks for putting the Dutch covers side by side with their American counterparts. Together, those covers tell a fascinating story.
The "re-purposing" of drawings originally featuring other H-B characters is truly remarkable. It does seem extremely strange for Fred and Barney to occupy the same boat (S.S. Wilma, no less) with Mr. Jinks and Augie. The only thing I can figure is that maybe the Dutch comics include other H-B characters besides the Flintstones? And there is definitely something ahead that the characters are anticipating. Makes you wonder, as you said, with the "meeces" BEHIND him, what could possibly cause Jinks to look forward with that expression? And Augie's anticipatory expression is intriguing as well. Maybe Doggie Daddy has bought an island and is cultivating catnip? Or maybe he's operating a milk farm? Or a Rock-Donald's franchise? Of course, it doesn't have to be food-related; it could be a treasure or an amusement park or something else. I guess we'll never know.
Anyway, these covers are a gold mine. Coincidentally, I was just now re-inventorying my own Flintstones comic book collection--I still have "gaps" from the Charlton era, but every other publisher set is complete. I also have a few foreign Flintstones comics--one in Spanish, and about 14 in Swedish--these foreign ones all seem to contain material from the Charlton era. Nice to see the Dutch comics appear to hark back to the "golden age" of Flintstones comics, which was Dell and Gold Key in the early to mid 60's. Marvel also did a very nice job in the 70's.
(I don't know if I'll ever complete my Charlton collection...the back issues are inexplicably expensive, and the result of acquiring one is always the same--poor artwork, characters outrageously mis-portrayed, printed on cheap paper, often ink-smudged and illegible in places, sometimes even mis-stapled or improperly cut. The only consolation is a kind of perverse satisfaction in experiencing stories and artwork that are so awful. Sometimes it can be fun or at least instructive to explore just how bad these stories can get. Answer: Really bad.)
Thanks, Joe--love this post!
Joe,
ReplyDeleteOf these, the most baffling are the ones in which gags from other characters' covers are Flintstonified. No one seems to have realized that in order for some of the jokes to make sense in a FLINTSTONES context, the props would have to LOOK like FLINTSTONES props. How many METALLIC cymbals and horns did we see in Bedrock, after all?
Chris
Dan:
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link on Daan Jippes! Great stuff! When Adel sent me this link, a number of things immediately occurred to me.
1: Adel had also mentioned the Daan Jippes artwork and, when he did, I sure wanted to know if there were NEW Jippes Flintstones STORIES inside as well. Now, I want to see those (if they exist) along with Fred Milton’s Woody Woodpecker! Those Holy Grails just keep piling up, don’t they?
2: Some the ORIGINAL covers (not the ones by Jippes, nor the Gold Key reprints) in the lower portion of Page 1 and into Page 2 of the link appear to be drawn by FLINTSTONES comic strip artist Gene Hazleton. If so, that would be a discovery almost akin to unearthing some heretofore unknown Floyd Gottfredson Mickey Mouse comic BOOK art! To my knowledge, outside of occasional strip reprints, no Gene Hazleton art ever appeared in the Dell and Gold Key comics. I wonder if H-B created those covers for foreign markets.
3: Of course, the odd swiping and repurposing of existing Western Publishing Hanna-Barbera covers, which formed the basis for this post.
And, yes… In the same way we now have a Gold Key ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE reprint collection (with another on the way, sez Amazon), there should also be similar H-B Dell and Gold Key collections. And of the FLINTSTONES and YOGI BEAR comic strips as well!
Scarecrow:
ReplyDeleteRe: The Boat Cover. Again, why Mister Jinks and Augie?
Now, I realize that, with the elimination of Wally Gator, a character with a TAIL was needed to anchor the sail that Fred (formerly Wally) was holding – and Jinksie’s cat-tail fits the bill, like. But DINO (Hoppy, or even BABY PUSS) could also have supplied the “necessary tail”, and made more sense. And, just put Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm up front in place of Augie.
If they were not going to add more Flintstones characters, it would seem more logical to actually leave Yakky and Ding in their original places – and done less redrawing. After all, Touché and the Meeces remained intact.
You’re probably right that in that there might have been Pixie, Dixie, and Mister Jinks and Augie Doggie stories inside the issue.
For what it’s worth, I have complete runs of FLINTSTONES comics from every US publisher – except Charlton. I had the first one-to-two years of them as they were released starting in the infamous month of August, 1970, but did not manage to hang on to them. Now, I have only scattered issues, and will occasional buy one to continue convincing myself that something THIS BAD actually did happen! …I SOOOO wanna believe that it didn’t!
…I think that run will remain incomplete!
Chris:
ReplyDeleteYou’re quite right, regarding the props, etc.
The music stand should have been wooden, and the tuba a massive shell. I’ll give ‘em props, though, for giving the telescope a “wooden look”, as it should have been.
But, they also get some other things fundamentally wrong…
Look at the “cymbals cover”, beyond the metallic cymbals and stand, that is.
The gag is that Huck HAS A SNOUT (of sorts) and THAT’S what hampers his cymbals-play! The injuries are confined to that area.
Fred’s NOSE (unless rendered by John Kricfalusi, or someone of his ilk) simply isn’t THAT outsized to rate similar mishaps – and consider that, by the placing of the bandages, some of Fred’s percussion-powered pain has been inflicted upon the SIDES OF HIS HEAD! Um, what did he do? Crash the cymbals onto both sides of his face? Unless he was trying to chase off a pesky “mosquito-don” buzzing around his cheekbones or something, the gag doesn’t make sense.
And, in the CAVE KIDS “marching band” cover, Sandy Stone is just WAVING A STICK at Fred’s hat, once the elephant-inducing banana is removed. Though I’ll grudgingly admit that working a feuding Fred and Barney into the CAVE KIDS “TV-watching” cover IS a stroke of genius!
One thing about the Charlton era of the Flintstones comic book run - the number of spin-off titles that emerged from its wake. Barney and Betty, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, Dino, the "Great" Gazoo - each had their own book (what, no Mr. Slate or Joe Rockhead?)
ReplyDeleteI feel that they should have milked the property for all it was worth, and flooded the spinner racks with these possibilities:
The Prose and Cons of J. Montague Gypsum
Everyone's favorite prehistoric grifter is back as he mooches and scams his way across the country in all brand-new stories. Also included is "Monty's Poetry Slab", where readers send in their own verbose doggerel to compete for a chance to win cash prizes (*cough cough* not really). Back-up feature: Hokey Wolfasauras.
Alvin Brickrock: Mastodon of Suspense
Good Ev-a-ning! Enjoy spine-tingling tales of terror and intrigue such as "Dial M for Mammoth", "The Trouble with Hairy Chests", "The Pterodactyls", and "Thorn Hurtin'". Also, AB murders a new browbeating wife in each issue!
Saber-Toothed Tiger Beat
Individual stories featuring the swingingest cats in Bedrock - Jimmy Darrock, Rock Roll, and The Way Outs, as they compete for top-of-the-charts supremacy. Back-up feature details the behind the scenes turmoil on the set of "Shinrock", as they battle in the ratings with the squares from "Hum Along With Herman".
ONE-SHOTS:
Gruesomes vs. Frankenstones
Uh oh! There's only room for one "Munsters" rip-off on this block. Who will emerge victorious, and who will be sent back to Joe Barbera's Vault O' Thievery?
Arnold, the Newsboy Lesion
Faster than Fred can say "Cancel my subscription" comes this issue featuring the fourth estate's biggest smart-ass since Jimmy Olsen. Each story will feature one of the many models of Arnold used during the original series.
Hatrock Dynasty
The backwoods bunch land their own reality series, in which they ruminate upon the pleasures of Flintstone shooting, and the evils of...BUG MUSIC!
TCJ
ReplyDeleteThat is SOOOO GOOOOD, I have nothing to add!
Except maybe that THE FLINTSTONES was “that property” for Charlton that they exploited mercilessly and sickeningly – like Harvey did with Richie Rich in the ‘70s.
Oh, and on the subject of Harvey and it’s bad moves, I’ll amend my comment to Scarecrow by saying that I also don’t have a complete run (by choice) of Harvey’s FLINTSTONES, because they consisted of those wretched Charlton reprints – despicably fronted by often-nicely-drawn covers, deceiving the consumer as to the quality of the material inside.
To me, that’s even WORSE than what Charlton did! At least Charlton told you what to expect on their covers! Boo, to you, ‘90s Harvey! …Imagine coming up unfavorably to Charlton! Yeow!
Hmmm… I guess I’ll ALWAYS have “something to add”!
Speaking of the Flintstones, Amazon is running a huge DVD sale with plenty of classic H-B cartoons in there. Check out their Deals of the Week. (sorry this has nothing to do with the subject at hand; just had to tell ya. No need to post this)
ReplyDeleteFrom The Great Minds Think Alike Dept.: I hadn't checked your blog in a few days, Joe, but when I decided to drop by I discovered we had each run the same Flintstones Gold Key cover... and on the same day! Of course, yours was part of a much (much!) bigger exploration of Dutch Flintstones comic-book covers....but still it thrills me to think I am (kinda, sorta) on the same (web)page as you. Great post! http://jimattulgeywood.blogspot.com/2014/08/then-that-cat-will-stay-out-for-night.html
ReplyDeleteJoeC:
ReplyDeleteI actually DID see that sale – and, believe it or not, ordered ROMAN HOLIDAYS to see how much it actually paralleled THE FLINTSTONES and HAIR BEAR BUNCH as sort of Daws Butler’s “last hurrah” in voicing wise-guy animal characters.
I don’t know just how much I’ll like them (though I COULD be presently surprised, for all I know), and maybe… just maybe, with time at such a premium these days, I might discuss them in a Blog post. ...Gosh, remember when I did "Looong DVD Reviews" regularly! Those were the days!
While we’re at it, this sale is on all animated properties released through Warner Archives – and at prices that make what might be “lower priority choices” attractive.
That means you could get THIS and THIS for much less than I paid for them! Don’t hesitate; it’s only for about five more days.
Jim:
ReplyDeleteYes, I DID see that coincidence at your Blog! Great minds DO, etc., etc. I think we’ve done that once or twice before, too, haven’t we?
That cover was a favorite of mine ever since I bought it new from a corner candy store, for the twelve cent cover price! Imagine, back then, that we could ever pay this kind of tribute to such great work!
Roman Holidays doesn't hold a (Roman) candle to the Flintstones or the Jetsons, of course, but I liked it well enough back in the day. It's just got that 1970s H-B patina to it that reminds you how much better things were a few years earlier. Plus, man, having Snagglepuss' voice (even though he didn't technically speak) coming out of Brutus the Lion ...
ReplyDeleteBut I do plan to go hogwild on this sale. I'm still shocked that those rare gems like the Space Kidettes/Young Samson DVD even exist.
JoeC:
ReplyDeleteI’ve never seen ROMAN HOLIDAYS, and have only gotten the slightest taste of HAIR BEAR BUNCH from Boomerang. I don’t hold particularly high hopes for either, but this week’s sale prices on both will go a long way toward mitigating that.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard it put better than you just did! Not all of these shows are BAD (…as in “BAD, BAD-DY, BAD-BAD-BAD”) as much as they are a constant reminder that everything H-B did five, ten, and fifteen years earlier was simply SOOOO much better!
I’d heard (maybe even from you) that, in ROMAN HOLIDAYS, there was a lion who spoke with the voice of Snagglepuss! That would make it somewhat worthwhile in itself. But I thought he ACTUALLY SPOKE to the family, not unlike FAMILY GUY’s Brian the Dog. It sounds like he’s more of a pet who just THINKS? (Like Snoopy?)
Either way, it’ll be good to hear a recasting of Ol’ Snag.
I also wonder why Warner Archive never released the new shorts for the 1988-1989 YOGI BEAR SHOW. I just had a few old TV-recorded VHS tapes I made of that show back in the day transferred to DVD. I haven’t watched these since initially viewing them when they were new.
I REALLY disliked the Post-Daws Butler Yogi voice, not to mention the ‘80s era H-B animation, but they are remarkably scored with “authentic 1960s Hoyt Curtin music” for the most part – and not the terrible scores that helped make the ‘80s JETSONS unwatchable. (The scoring is such for at least the first few that I watched so far, maybe it changes later – also there are some ‘80s versions of other classic H-B themes that serve as additional underscore like Yakky Doodle and other themes! …Yes, really!)
These could be put out with no music-clearance issues. And if Warner Archives is going to put out so much other ‘70s and ‘80s stuff, why not these?
BTW, the 1988-1989 YOGI BEAR SHOW, as originally constituted, was an underrated GEM! Along with those new (un-authentically voiced) Yogi’s, were all of the originals - many of which have STILL not been released to authorized DVD! And sandwiched in between two Yogi cartoons (old or new) were things like Snooper and Blabber, Ricochet Rabbit, Yippie Yappie and Yahooie, and Secret Squirrel!
…And, except for Ricochet Rabbit, few (if any) of those have been officially released! I’m glad I managed to hang on to some of these shows – for many reasons!
Joe:
ReplyDeleteLet me first applaud Top Cat James on his stellar propositions for Flintstones spin-offs and one-shots. Let me applaud even LOUDER for coining the phrase "Joe Barbera's Vault O' Thievery" which I hope gains equal notoriety along the lines of "core four" around here... heck, that could be it's own stand-alone blog!
Just wanted to bring up something I remembered coming across a while back, Ger Apeldoorn had mentioned the early Jippes Flintstones covers. In an exchange with Daan in 2011 the reference/inspiration cited was that of Harvey Eisneberg rather than Gene Hazelton. It sounds like the covers were the only thing he worked on (not interior stories, unfortunately) Here's the link with info in the opening paragraph:
The Fabulopus Fifties: Jippes & Yogi Bear Sundays
I'm actually working on some Bedrock-centric posts too: one in particular will focus on the appeal of Hazelton's artwork!
- Dan
Dan:
ReplyDeleteI’ll also take the time to applaud Top Cat James once again, as well. After all, he almost left me speechless. …ALMOST! And, that’s quite the feat!
Though I’m not quite sure I’m ready to give “Joe Barbera's Vault O' Thievery” the same Full Honors of Our Lexicon as “Disney Implosion” and “Core Four”, because I feel that JB merely did they type of …um, “tributing” to his medium (television) that the Warner Bros. animation directors did to theirs (classic film). And, the more old Warner Bros. films I watch (…and occasionaly review on this Blog), the more I see of this.
Even if JB occasionally brought his “tributing” down to THIS granular a level!
It would not surprise me one bit if Daan Jippes’ inspiration for his FLINTSTONES covers was Harvey Eisenberg, over Gene Hazelton. Eisenberg, after all, was one of the greatest comic book artists of his genre. In my opinion, he might have been second only to Carl Barks.
Besides, Gene Hazelton’s specialty was NOT comic books, unlike Eisenberg and Jippes. That’s why it’s all the more surprising to see some covers that… SURE DO LOOK LIKE HIS WORK! I’m assuming it is, unless proven otherwise.
I suppose if Cavemouse had been created in the 1960s, they would've still used Pixie and Dixie! On the upside, we would've had Tex Avery working on the Flintstones during it's best years.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I found interesting about this is how much fun characters Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm appear on the covers, yet in the cartoons, they were portrayed - aside from Bamm-Bamm's penchant for body-slamming - somewhat realistic as merely babies...then becoming dull teenagers. HERE, they're more like cartoon babies. Almost like Sugar and Spike, actually.
I'm surprised Arnold was not among the cast of. "Cave Kids" - and he ACTUALLY WAS in the TV show!
The strange thing about the 80s Jetsons episodes is how beleaguered and put-upon George Jetson became. Having said that, I could argue there are a ten-fifteen episodes that are as good as the best of the 1960s episodes, particularly "Future Tense", "Solar Snoops", "Jetsons Millions" and "Smash"
ReplyDelete‘Rehab:
ReplyDeleteWow! Imagine Tex Avery working on THE FLINTSTONES! …Or any other classic H-B series, for that matter!
That’s a great point about comics “Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm” vs. their animated counterparts. They DID have more fun! And, in the FLINTSTONES comics strip, Pebbles often shared her thoughts and insights with the readers, from her “baby-observer” perspective!
Arnold, like Mr. Slate, never found his way into the Dell and Gold Key comics. Odd, considering that less-frequently seen characters like Perry Gunnite and The Gruesomes did! With his smarts, he would likely have been the leader of the Cave Kids!
Wow, look away for a couple of days and a treasure trove of comments bursts on the scene! This is a great conversation!
ReplyDeleteLove the pseudo-Charlton Flintstones titles posted by our friend TC James! Hilarious--and right on the money!
I am intrigued by the idea of Arnold the Newsboy as possible leader of the Cave Kids. But here's a question--did the Cave Kids actually HAVE a leader? Sandy Stone usually showed the greatest amount of initiative, followed by his sister Sally. (Whenever the girls went off on their own, it was usually following Sally's direction.) Sheepy Shale was the tallest of the kids, and Buddy Boulder was by far the largest. But none of them really acted as leader, as far as I can tell in glancing through a few old issues. Rocky Ranger operated mostly as a solo act, so he was not really a leader, either. Small Stuff was the tagalong little kid, so he wouldn't qualify. Gypsy Crystal told fortunes and gave advice, and Suzy Quartz pretty much went along with whatever was going on. And if intelligence was the criteria for a leader, how about Izzy Einstone? But of course Izzy had that "geekiness" which would probably bar him from taking leadership (similar to Moonrock in the "Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show"--the other kids liked him and occasionally accepted his advice and his inventions, but they didn't actually follow him), and Arnold was anything but geeky, so he would probably be a natural for the part. He knew how to talk to other kids, and he could bamboozle the grownups. He could have come up with a lot of wacky schemes for the others to help carry out, a la Top Cat and his gang. Now that the idea has been introduced, it seems like something that should have been done long ago!
By the way, I'll be interested to get your take on the Roman Holidays. Bear in mind that most of the other H-B cartoons of the time were formulaic to the max--which is one reason I am wondering if RH was possibly originally intended as a prime time show. It's a little less "formulaic" than the standard Saturday AM fare. But that's all I'll say on the subject. Judge for yourself, and let me know what you think. I ordered a copy of it last year and watched it all within a week. It's not GREAT, but...
Scarecrow:
ReplyDelete“Wow, look away for a couple of days and a treasure trove of comments bursts on the scene!”
Never, I say NEVER “look away for a couple of days!” If you do, so sorry for you! This IS “the place to be near, in the Blogosphere”, after all! :-)
That is one COMPREHENSIVE analysis of the Cave Kids! (It’s a good thing *I* never “look away for a couple of days!” Just imagine all the great stuff I’d miss!)
I guess Sandy would be the de-facto leader, although he sort of ended up the “leader” as Porky Pig was “leader” of the Looney Tunes. He might have started out that way, but eventually appeared to give way to the more individualistic and gimmicky characters – Rocky Ranger the Hero, Small Stuff the Feisty-Mite, Sheepy the Zen Master.
But, I maintain that Arnold could have really moved-in and taken-over. The parallel to Top Cat (himself voiced by an “Arnold”) is exactly what I had in mind, even if I didn’t realize it myself!
I’m not holding high expectations for either ROMAN HOLIDAYS or HAIR BEAR BUNCH, strictly based on the era in which they were produced. Yet, there were still some good things done with Scooby-Doo by then, so I could be mistaken. I just don’t think I am. This WAS the period I walked away from TV animation, after all. And, for someone who loved it as much as I did, it must have taken something (not at all) special to accomplish that.
ROMAN HOLIDAYS was one of the original ideas batted around when THE FLINTSTONES was being developed, so it’s got THAT going for it – and that may be what elevates it above the other “formulaic” shows.
I guess I’ll almost have to do a “Loooong DVD Review” of ROMAN HOLIDAYS, once I finally get it (It hasn’t shipped yet). As it is, it’s taking forever to complete my “Loooong DVD Review” of TALE SPIN Volume Three!
Slips into Homer Simpson mode: …Oops, was I supposed to WRITE THAT, or just THINK IT? …D’oh!
Great comments and info from everybody--Dan, scarecrow, Chris, Top Cat, joecab, Comicbookrehab--and of course Joe! I know I'm in the minority but I actually enjoy ROMAN HOLIDAYS (and to a certain extent HAIR BEAR BUNCH). HAIR BEAR looks much better than ROMAN HOLIDAYS, which has that cheap look the H-B shows that aired on NBC and ABC usually had. I guess CBS paid more for their series but I have no hard evidence for that. Joe, regarding "our" Baby Puss comic cover: do you know who drew it?
ReplyDeleteJim:
ReplyDeleteI can’t say it enough… Comments like those we get here are why Blogging is so enjoyable. It’s kinda like a big round table on my favorite subjects, where everyone treats everyone with respect, friendship, and a healthy sense of humor! Keep it up, everybody!
I’m no expert on ‘70s Hanna-Barbera (perhaps thankfully), but I can’t say that I’ve ever noticed a difference in animation quality by network.
Now, I’ve always felt that the Scooby-Doo series that were created for CBS looked better than those that followed – but, I wrote that off to the fact that the other shows were done in later years (as in “deeper into the decade”), and that the quality of the animation just continued to decline as time went on. That would be why SCOOBY-DOO WHERE ARE YOU looked better than THE NEW SCOOBY-DOO MOVIES (both CBS), even though they were reasonably close.
But, if you are saying that the CBS shows looked better because they paid more for them, that would be a fascinating area to explore – and certainly one I’d never have considered. I wonder how many persons are left, besides Mark Evanier with his ‘70s H-B experience, who could possibly expand on that.
It is that very quality of the animation, along with such minor factors as the music scores and… oh, say… stories, that have formed my low opinion of ‘70s and ‘80s H-B. A studio whose output, prior to that, I LOVED!
It’s a funny thing about “animation quality”… Go look at some of their earliest stuff, like Yogi Bear in “Pie Pirates”. That’s awful animation… but it is FUNNY! It is funny in its design. It is funny in the way characters move (or don’t move). And it is funny as to the way it serves a funny story!
The ‘70s and ‘80s stuff had none of that. "Bad", with no "Funny", is just "Bad".
As I’ve said, I’ve never seen ROMAN HOLIDAYS and not much more than an eyeful of HAIR BEAR BUNCH on Boomerang. BUT… If ROMAN HOLIDAYS were animated in the style of early FLINTSTONES (Like “The Swimming Pool”, “Flintstone Flyer”, etc.) and HAIR BEAR BUNCH were animated more like ”Yogi Bear’s Big Break” or ”Slumber Party Smarty”, I know – beyond all doubt – that I would enjoy them more that way, than I will once I see them on DVD.
Why? Because that old-school, lesser animation was FUNNY! And “FUNNY” was something they lost (…or that took a back seat) along the way.
Oh, and I credit that great FLINTSTONES / Baby Puss cover to Harvey Eisenberg. No one was better with H-B characters!
The comments about Gene Hazelton made me curious and some Googling found comments by Scott Shaw that Hazelton's only comic book credit was a one-shot called Kid Carrots.
ReplyDeleteI updated the Grand Comics database listing for Kid Carrots so it notes that it was Hazelton's sole comic book credit. I have tweaked GCD a few times over the years (like adding a credit for the Daffy Duck script John Lustig had published in 1977, his first pro comics sale).
Dana:
ReplyDeleteI’m not about to dispute Scott Shaw! If he says “no”, then it’s most likely so. But is it not even remotely possible that Gene Hazelton may have done some cover illustrations for foreign editions of Hanna-Barbera comics, while working for H-B? These would have been 45-50 years ago, after all, and maybe forgotten.
The art sure looks just like the FLINTSTONES strip did when I was reading it in the late ‘60s. Perhaps it wasn’t Hazelton, but one of the artists who worked for him? His was the name associated with the strip at that time, but it *could* have been by someone in his or H-B’s employ.
So, who draws so much like Gene Hazelton, but is not Gene Hazelton?
The more we learn, the more there is to ask…
In the link Scott Shaw discusses some of the folks that can be confused with Hazelton. Anything is possible. Al Taliaferro even did a WDC&S cover so a strip guy doing comic book covers isn't unknown.
ReplyDeleteJoe Torcivia,
ReplyDeleteI'm also recognizing the two first covers from the Flintstones Dutch edition.
Both were drawn by the legendary Gene Hazelton (who, during many years, produced the Flintstones comic strip, which was distributed by McNaught Syndicate for the newspapers from the whole world).
Alias, these Flintstones covers drawn by Gene Hazelton never were carried in the USA (neither here in Brazil).
There are many blogs which bring topics about the Flintstones comic strip (drawn by Gene Hazelton, Harvey Eisenberg, Dick "Bick" Bickenbach, and many, many others). Among them, they're included: the Yowp-Yowp's blog (http://yowpyowp.blogspot.com), the Ger Apeldoorn's - who's a writer of the Dutch edition from the MAD magazine - blog (http://allthingsger.blogspot.com), and the Comicrazys blog (http://comicrazys.wordpress.com).
Rodinei:
ReplyDeleteIt’s a shame that the Gene Hazelton art (…and I STILL think it’s his) never got into the American comics.
Thanks for the list of Blogs, but you should recall that I also comment somewhat regularly on Yowp – a Blog I’ve enjoyed for years. …See you there in the future!