Saturday Morning Comic Books

2010 saw the return of Batman Beyond, Darkwing Duck, and even Casper the Friendly Ghost to the world of sequential art with impressive stories from fresh talent. Luckily it looks like 2011 will continue this trend as Thundercats prepare for a renaissance of their own and even more saturday morning favorites return in their own limited and ongoing series’. Thus with the overflow of nostalgia quickly hitting tsunami like proportions why not take a trip down memory lane and take a look at some cool cartoons worthy of their own second coming or at least a new comic book or two.

1. Captain Planet and the Planteer’s: With the trend to go green in full swing there’s has never been a better time to try and take pollution down to zero once again. This early nineties environmentally conscious cartoon series followed a team globally  diverse teenagers who traveled the world to do battle with with an array of evil-doers ranging from rat-faced mutants and nuclear powered terrorists to whale poachers and even overzealous cooperate tycoons. With environmentalism making a come back on it’s own there has never been a better for the return of Captain Planet, now if only BP could a hold of those elemental power rings.

2. Disney’s Adventures of The Gummy Bears: Perhaps at the hight of it’s success in the nineteen nineties, Disney Animation quickly became a mainstay in the after school time slot for grade schoolers with it’s Disney Afternoon programing block that offered not only cartoon adaptations of popular disney films but also several original series the quality of which has yet to be out-done. Preceding both Gargoyles and Darkwing Dark, The Gummy Bears brought a touch of epic fantasy adventure into world of Disney that has yet to be equaled and while it’s place among the grand continuity of the Disney universe may forever remain a mystery, in the proper hands an all-new comic series could not only shed light on the mysterious gummy’s and the world they inhabit but also introduce the latest generation of disney fans to a forgotten treasure from the past.

3.Pirates of Dark Water: On a quest to uncover thirteen magical treasures lost among the ancient world of Rule, Ren and his crew of scalawag pirates sailed against the consuming forces of Dark Water in a brave attempt to save their dying world. Receiving a plethora of critical acclaim and supported by a loyal fan following, The Pirates of Dark Water set a new standard for what an animated television show could achieve in terms of storytelling and animation quality in the early nineties. Here’s the thing though, the series was never completed, there was never a series finale and to this day only eight of the thirteen treasures were ever revealed. This show has been begging to be completed for nearly twenty years with a fan base as loyal today as it was back when the show first aired. It’s all there waiting to be picked up again, but is there a publisher willing to brave dark water?

4: Freakizoid: It could be said that all superhero’s run around in their underwear, however only one has ever really admitted to it in public. Freakizoid. A hero blasted with the cosmic powers of the newly forged internet, when Steven Speilberg brought Freakizoid to television screens back in 1995 the Warner Brothers back lot was never quite the same. A predecessor for another popular Kids WB series that was recently brought back to life in the form of comic book, Freakizoid seems almost primed for a come back and what better way to do it, than in the medium that provided so much inspiration for the show in the first place.

5. M.A.S.K: Okay so this one actually had a comic book for a while, but what child of the eighties doesn’t remember the action packed adventures of Matt Trakker his son Scott and the loyal team of hot shot daredevil drivers who piloted weaponized vehicles and fought the evil Miles Mayhem and his VENOM crew. M.A.S.K. was one of those shows designed to sell toys but take away the commercialism and focus on an all-new story revolving around the further adventures of Matt Trakker or perhaps even his son and the comic possibilities are nearly limitless.

Of course these are but a small sampling of the great cartoons shows that so diligently filled the days long past in-between new comic releases, naturally this list could on for quite some time (anyone else remember Bucky O’ Hare?) which ultimately begs the question:

What old cartoons would you like to see made into comics? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.