Now where’s their uncle?
Cartoon Network Presents #8
DC Comics (March, 1998)
LETTERER: Phil Feliz EDITOR: Bronwyn Taggart “Magilla’s Guerrillas!” WRITER: Mike Carlin ARTIST: Bill Alger COLORIST: Dave Tanguay Huckleberry Hound “War Is Huck” WRITER: Matt Wayne PENCILERS: Ivan Brunetti & Thad Doria INKER: Ivan Brunetti COLORIST: Tom Ziuko ASSISTANT: Mike BrisboisThis was supposed to be a “tie-in” with the “Kung-Fu Month” event, where the Cartoon Network comics would all have martial arts, based stories. Not that you’d know it here.
Our first story has Space Ghost, Jan, and Jayce captured by a rampaging robot monkey. So Blip calls on the help of Magilla Gorilla, Monkey (from Dexter’s Laboratory), So-So (who traveled with Peter Potimus), and Igoo (of the Herculoids) to stop him.
What they got right: While the writing is closer to Space Ghost Coast To Coast and I could complain about mixing serious and comedic primates, it was all in good fun. We also got a fight with some primitives on Amzot over the banana boomerang the robot uses. I didn’t personally find it amusing but I’m sure others would.
What they got wrong: I wouldn’t call the fighting style martial arts, making this an odd choice to lead a kung-fu fight. And I don’t care if they have Igoo, how is it a meeting of Hanna-Barbera’s top primates if you don’t have Grape Ape! Instant fail!
The Huckleberry Hound tales find the blue canine flying a plane into not-Iraq where blowing up a baby food factory unleashes a germ warfare germ, complete with his own plane. This being Huckleberry Hound things go very wrong very fast.
What they got wrong: The art was spot-on for how Huckleberry is drawn around that time, and we also sneak in a jab at an actual event, when then President Clinton ordered an air strike at what they thought was a biological weapons factory but turned out to be a baby food factory.
What they got wrong: I’m sorry, but one panel where Hong Kong Phooey (who by the way SHOULD HAVE HAD THE LEAD STORY!) shows up watching Huck deliver a flying kick at the now-giant germ isn’t a “kung-fu” story. Also I’m pretty sure they ripped off the old Huck cartoons for this story as I’ve seen parts of it before.
Recommendation: I just wasn’t amused by this story, at least not as much as I thought I would be when I first bought it, but I can see easily where someone else would. I wasn’t into the Huckleberry Hound story but that could be changing tastes as I get older. I don’t get into a lot of his adventures. The first story may be worth a look for fans of more than one of the guest heroes but that’s pretty much it.
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