Tuesday 19 January 2010

Gary Fields - "Stray Pets"

Back when the Cartoon Network was cool, the magazine presented as much of the Hanna-Barbera characters as the channel itself, often having this vast cast interacting with the "new generation" including "Dexter's Lab", "Johnny Bravo", "Cow and Chicken" and the "Powerpuff Girls". Not only that but we Brits, for a while, had the chance to experience what the American comic buffs would get more of: Hanna-Barbera comics.

I remember reading Issue 10 waaay back in the mid/late '90's, and it was this particular strip that had me captivated right up to the present day. I didn't know it before but I had my first taste for Gary Field's artwork. Also, unlike the cartoons themselves, it also got me hooked on seeing different HB characters crossover within each other (Except for maybe "Yogi's Gang", but that's a totally different concept altogether).

What I loved from observing Gary's work (and blog) is that even Mr Fields himself has been inspired by HB's fun style and characters whilst working on these stories, and it shows in his own work today. He also has the opportunity to take such a silly, fun story and go crazy with making the characters as lively as expressive as possible. It was about this time, I believe, when they actually started keeping the characters on-model and creating further adventures that were as true to the original cartoons as possible (case in point with Looney Tunes. The earliest Road Runner comics from the '50's/60's actually gave both the bird and Coyote dialogue).

So here I present to you my first and all-time favourite HB strip featuring Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy. Can any of you name/recognise the "cameos" here? ;)


1 comment:

  1. Lol, now that's quite a crossover! I see what you mean about the artist's style too, it's a real throwback. :) Thanks for sharing, man. :)

    ReplyDelete