Archaia Comics enters Jim Henson deal

[Laszlo]

The cover for the free comic (the Dark Crystal side, that is) has been illustrated by Brian Froud himself:

http://www.archaia.com/blog/archaia-2011-fcbd-covers

Man, I love that Skeksis cover!

 

[Drtooth]

Uh, that's cool and everything, but somehow I'm more excited about This

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Yep- I saw that. I love Inspector Gadget- can't wait to check it out on Free Comic Book Day!

 

[Drtooth]

Too bad it has to share the preview with Meh... Johnny Test... but still, I've been waiting for an IG comic book for years. Not even since the show was on did we have an official Gadget comic. There are tales of strips in the UK for a children's television magazine, but I've only seen one of them, and it really seemed like they completely overemphasized cheap comedy over everything else that made the series great. but they were short gag strips, what are you gonna do.

I think Cookie jar is coming quite a ways trying to redeem itself after the DIC buyout... there was a massive new gadget series planned before the buyout that got put on permanent hold when they got it... and Cookie jar hasn't been making all that good shows lately. I kinda blame them for the epic Gadget series never happening. Sigh... Saban's small stake in the series kept Gadget and the Gadgetinis (which is highly underrated) from ever seeing the light of day now or forever in the US... as Disney now owns that stake. |

But comic book? Sure! Great! Can't wait till it hits store shelves.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Are you talking about this- http://inspector-gadget.net/
There's an advertisement for a new Inspector Gadget cartoon series coming from DIC in 2009, supposedly.

Oh yeah- and here's another fun Inspector Gadget tidbit you may like-

Holy unexpected crossover, Batman!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMMhC5v5kmg

Check it out- a live action Inspector Gadget (portrayed by Maurice LaMarche- later voice artist for him) meets the live action Super Mario Bros. on The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! WOW! Cool!

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah, that series never happened, and honestly, I'm REALLY ticked about that. Cookie Jar (again, bought out DIC) opted for a meh flash animated Richard Scary Mysteries show (spoiler: the solution to every mystery is whatever cockamamie invention the scientist shows off at the beginning of the episode. Wouldn't even fool a 2 year old) and a TERRIBLE Doodlebops cartoon with even stiffer flash animation (They were that popular to warrant a cartoon series?).

But then again, where would anyone put a new Gadget series, since even networks that run cartoons can't be bothered to run cartoons anymore? We still never got Gadgetinis. Not the best show, but it had some great concepts... plus, Gadget didn't always have to go after Claw... he had other non-recurring enemies. Only thing I don't like about Gadget and the Gadgetinis ARE the Gadgetinis (Brain was written off the show, suffering from a nervous mental breakdown and going into hiding... Penny and him apparently kept in touch, though)... Gadget's been promoted too, so Cheif Quimby isn't there... instead you get a far more angry character called Colonel Nozzair (who's name is constantly mispronounced as Nose Hair, which drives him mad)... he has an extreme loathing of Gadget (he fantasizes about being at Gadget's funeral joyfully in an episode), and Gadget is of course too oblivious to notice. And the worst part is, Nozzair's hatred of Gadget isn't unfounded... remember the exploding messages Quimby gave him? Think about that a hundred times worse.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Sounds like it could be a funny cartoon series- I wouldn't mind seeing some of the Inspector Gadget and the Gadgetinis series sometimes. It seems like I've seen that clip of Penny reuniting with Brain on the series on Youtube somewhere....
Here's a working link for that live action appearance of Inspector Gadget on "The Super Mario Bros. Show" I was talking about earlier- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pduYbyIGqM

I have seen a bit of Inspector Gadget's Field Trip and it doesn't look like anything to get that excited about- just a little fun element for kids to learn about the world in educational videos.
I've run across a DVD of a few episodes of Gadget Boy and Heather at Big Lots...and I still can't bother to spend the few bucks to get it- I've been curious about the series, but it looks like it has a very tenuous connection to the actual original series and just doesn't look all that good at all. (Never been a big fan of these kinds of younger versions of characters that isn't the actual character at all.) At least, if Gadget Boy was Inspector Gadget as a kid or something, I could've taken that a bit better (though it wouldn't make much sense.)
Sometimes instead of trying to do something really different with a franchise, studios should just trying doing a new version of the same tried and true formula that's actually good.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Aha! Good ol' Youtube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sBrjWXmxF4&feature=related

 

[Drtooth]

Don't bother with Gadget Boy... it takes the best things from Gadget, waters them down, forces in a bunch of Get Smart catchphrases... it's utterly terrible. The only likable character is the Vulture that the villain abuses.

Back on the subject, yeah... I'm wondering if this Dark Crystal series will be yet another one I'm going to have to pick up... I haven't seen TDC for YEARS now.. decades, more like it. I can't even remember the details, so I'd have to rewatch the film to make comparisons... and I don't own the film yet...

 

[GonzoLeaper]

I haven't seen TDC for YEARS now.. decades, more like it. I can't even remember the details, so I'd have to rewatch the film to make comparisons... and I don't own the film yet...

You sure you want to be admitting that in the Fantasy Worlds forums? LOL j/k- I will have to admit as well though- I do have a copy of "The Dark Crystal" on DVD and I like it pretty well- but "Labyrinth" is still my favorite of Jim Henson's two big fantasy movies.