Image via Dynamite
CBR senior staff writer Brian Cronin has been writing professionally about comic books for over fifteen years now at CBR (primarily with his “Comics Should Be Good” series of columns, including Comic Book Legends Revealed). He has written two books about comics for Penguin-Random House – Was Superman a Spy? And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed and Why Does Batman Carry Shark Repellent? And Other Amazing Comic Book Trivia! and one book, 100 Things X-Men Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, from Triumph Books. His writing has been featured at ESPN.com, the Los Angeles Times, About.com, the Huffington Post, Vulture and Gizmodo. He features legends about entertainment and sports at his website, Legends Revealed and other pop culture features at Pop Culture References. Follow him on Twitter at @Brian_Cronin and feel free to e-mail him suggestions for stories about comic books that you'd like to see featured at brianc@cbr.com!
The beloved post-Apocalyptic animated series, Thundarr the Barbarian, ran for just a single season in 1980-81, but through reruns, the beautifully designed series, which featured work from a number of classic comic book creators, has become a cult classic.
The series is now returning with new stories in a comic book series at Dynamite Entertainment from superstar writer Jason Aaron and longtime Dynamite artist Kewber Baal (with covers from Michael Cho, Rob Liefeld, Dan Panosian, Francesco Mattina, Joseph Michael Linsner, Björn Barends, and more!). The new series will launch in January.
What is Thundarr the Barbarian?
A turning point in Jack Kirby's career occurred when he was working at Marvel for a third stint in the late 1970s. He was given the chance to work on the then-new Fantastic Four cartoon for DePatie–Freleng Enterprises (the animation studio that Marvel would later buy in 1981), and his work on the cartoon would satisfy his Marvel contract that required a certain number of pages to be produced. Well, Kirby quickly took to animation, and left Marvel to go work in animation for the rest of his career (while still doing some creator-owned comic books, as well).
Thundarr the Barbarian was likely the most famous series Kirby worked on during his time in animation. The series was created by comic book writer Steve Gerber for Ruby-Spears Productions (and Gerber brought in other notable comic book writers to write for the show, including Martin Pasko, Roy Thomas, and Gerry Conway). Alex Toth did the main character designs, but Kirby then did the rest of the designs when Toth couldn't move forward with the project, and since Kirby had a strong history with post-apocalyptic stories with his Kamandi comic book series, Kirby did a marvelous job with the series' designs. The stars of the series were the mighty warrior, Thundarr, and his traveling companions, the sorceress, Princess Ariel, and the beastly-looking hero, Ookla the Mok ("Ookla" was a riff by Gerber on if you pronounced the name of the college, UCLA, as an actual word).
What does Jason Aaron have to say about the new series?
In a Dynamite press release, Jason Aaron explained, ""This strange new world arisen from the old, a world of savagery, super-science and sorcery, as created by so many comic book legends, imprinted on me in a profound way at an early age."
He continued, "Thundarr the Barbarian isn’t simply my all-time favorite Saturday morning cartoon. It’s a fundamental component of my DNA as a writer. To say I’m thrilled to be crafting Thundarr’s first ever comic book adventure would be a gross understatement. In a career full of dream jobs, this one will most assuredly go down as one of the dreamiest. And as a lifelong fan of this character and his richly-imagined world, I’m intent on creating a story that honors the cartoon we all know and love, while propelling Thundarr into his most epic adventure yet."
Thundarr the Barbarian #1 is due out in January
Source: Dynamite Entertainment
English (US) · 