Jonny Quest, the Wacky Racers, Space Ghost, the Flintstones, and other staples of the Hanna-Barbera properties are returning this May, courtesy of DC Comics. Excuse me, DC Entertainment.
With the current trend of older things being rebooted, remade, and updated, perhaps it isn’t a surprise that this was coming. “There’s so much material on pop culture, and these characters resonate with so much of our fanbase,” DC co-publisher Dan Didio says in a press release from Entertainment Weekly. “When we discuss the plot of these books, the smile that comes over people’s faces is infectious.”
“It’s a multigenerational obsession at this point,” Jim Lee, the other DC co-publisher adds. “We just thought it would just be really interesting to take the cartoon version of these characters and see where they would be if we took what existed in the very first iteration of the cartoon and moved it into this day and age.”
Lee hopes that the new comics will “put a smile on people’s faces” and wants them to embrace these “updated versions of the characters.” Most troubling, however, is his statement that “these concepts are not just limited to little kids.” (Which was never the entire audience, sure, but makes up a significant portion of the audience, so let’s hope DC doesn’t forget them.)
“We didn’t want to just repeat what people saw in the past. It’s really important for this to resonate with folks who have never even heard of the characters.If this is the first they’re seeing it, we want them to be enjoying the material,” Didio continues.
The series themselves will sport the talents of Jeff Parker, Doc Shaner, Howard Porter, Amanda Connor, and others. “We brought in Mark Sexton, one of the designers from Mad Max: Fury Road, to take a pass on the Rocky Races,” Didio says. “You’ll see that Amanda Connor really looked at the Flintstones and found a way to move them forward, even though they’re set in the past.”
“We want to…give our creators to take chances with these characters in a way you might not see in other media,” Lee says, enthused about being able to introduce serialized storytelling to the Hanna-Barbera world.
Didio is particularly ecstatic about the project. “Even if you were cynical about how we approached these things, you’re going to love everything once you see the finished product.”
[Via Entertainment Weekly]
