Your Thoughts: The Muppet Show Comic Book

[Yorick]

...and now i'm off to listen to Scooter's Si...uh i mean Shakespear's Sister! ("It's a trip/When you're young and hip...")

Did they name themselves after the Smiths song of the same name?

 

[RedPiggy]

I finally got issue 4 by lucking out and finding it behind a plastic divider at the comic shop (I already had issue 5). I can see some possible hidden Mickeys as well, now that it's been mentioned. Anyway, it went kinda like how I've imagined it (though, admittedly, without the drag references). I thought the ending was very sweet. Fozzie brought up a great point.

I'd LOVE for "Family Reunion" to mean more than just Muppet relatives, like franchise crossovers. I've always felt kinda sad, though, that Labyrinth and Dark Crystal only seem to get mentioned/referenced in Muppet Babies episodes. Every Henson or former Henson franchise now in comic form (even Farscape?) should be at least cameoed in the audience of the theater or something.

 

[dwmckim]

Did they name themselves after the Smiths song of the same name?

That's exactly where the name came from. The "e" on the end of Shakespeare was dropped when their first logo designer accidentally left it off and they decided to keep the misspelling.

 

[dwmckim]

I finally got issue 4 by lucking out and finding it behind a plastic divider at the comic shop (I already had issue 5). I can see some possible hidden Mickeys as well, now that it's been mentioned. Anyway, it went kinda like how I've imagined it (though, admittedly, without the drag references). I thought the ending was very sweet. Fozzie brought up a great point.

I'd LOVE for "Family Reunion" to mean more than just Muppet relatives, like franchise crossovers. I've always felt kinda sad, though, that Labyrinth and Dark Crystal only seem to get mentioned/referenced in Muppet Babies episodes. Every Henson or former Henson franchise now in comic form (even Farscape?) should be at least cameoed in the audience of the theater or something.

Pigs In Space and Farscape are just BEGGING for some kind of crossover!

I would literally be laughing for days if Noranti popped up randomly in a Muppet comic (just even in the background of a crowd scene) saying "Hello, Cookie Monster" to one of the Muppet monsters.

 

[Amy]

Every Henson or former Henson franchise now in comic form (even Farscape?) should be at least cameoed in the audience of the theater or something.

No good. Simple reason - Disney doesn't own Farscape/Labyrinth/Fraggles/Sam & Friends/Dark Crystal. Remember BOOM! had to retouch a cover because Ernie and Bert were slipped in. Sesame Street is also not owned by Disney, so legally they have no right to use the characters in the Muppet comics, even as cameos.
Copyrights are VERY strictly observed. Likewise, you will not see Muppet characters cameoing in Archaia's Fraggle comics.
The Henson canon is divided among multiple owners, it's not one big crossover pool anyone can just use.
I have no idea on the copyright status of ad characters like Wilkins/Wontkins...

Disney own the Muppet Babies as part of their ownership of the Muppets generally, which is why we were able to use Skeeter.

 

[RedPiggy]

Oh, I know snowballs have a better chance of surviving the Devil's oven, but it's still nice to imagine.

 

[Drtooth]

No good. Simple reason - Disney doesn't own Farscape/Labyrinth/Fraggles/Sam & Friends/Dark Crystal. Remember BOOM! had to retouch a cover because Ernie and Bert were slipped in. Sesame Street is also not owned by Disney, so legally they have no right to use the characters in the Muppet comics, even as cameos.
Copyrights are VERY strictly observed. Likewise, you will not see Muppet characters cameoing in Archaia's Fraggle comics.
The Henson canon is divided among multiple owners, it's not one big crossover pool anyone can just use.
I have no idea on the copyright status of ad characters like Wilkins/Wontkins...

Disney own the Muppet Babies as part of their ownership of the Muppets generally, which is why we were able to use Skeeter.

Yeah.. I remember kinda saying that EVERY time someone said "OOh! We should have all of the Muppets ever to have a party! Look! That's Cookie Monster passed out on the couch!"

I've never seen a comic book licencee/ publisher that ever mixed copyrights where neither one was their own. Sure, I've seen comics published by Marvel that had cameos by their own characters in them (Ren and Stimpy issue 6, where Spidey comes over), but I never saw them have Heathcliff and ALF in the same comic together. On the subject of Heathcliff, I don't see how DIC snuck cameos of Heathcliff into later episodes of Inspector Gadget, but they had every right to do the opposite, putting Gadget into a Heathcliff episode.

But do these comics even NEED it? They're fine without gimmicky crossovers. I don't find the Family Reunion arc gimmicky at all, and we're just seeing character we haven't seen in a while. These comics speak highly for themselves.

That said... I wonder if there was any call for Disney character cameos in these things.

 

[minor muppetz]

Apparrently, part 3 of Family Reunion comes out tomorrow (I thought they normally came out on wednesdays, but Muppet Wiki lists June 3). Tough Pigs has a five-page preview, which does not reveal the issue's surprise relative (it does introduce some new unknown character watching Robin).

Man, I must not have been keeping track of the last few issue release dates... I see the previews at Tough Pigs without the anticipation, feeling surprised.

 

[minor muppetz]

Wow, issue #6 has been out for over a week, and there hasn't been much discussion online outside of Tough Pigs. Have any of us found a copy yet? I don't think Mupet Wiki even provides any details (though I usually add the majority of details to the issues at Muppet Wiki after I get my copies).

 

[Super Scooter]

Well, I'll just say that I love the surprise "Family Reunion" in this issue. It was brilliant!