Wouldn’t it be nice if every major problem, even those really big problems, could be solved in seven minutes? When I was growing up, that’s exactly what happened… every Saturday morning.
Space Ghost, in his spaceship The Phantom Cruiser, would roar out of his secret space cave, confront an insidious bad guy. It always seemed hopeless for a minute or two there, and then, (whew!) prevail. Space Ghost would do this twice in a half an hour. With commercials.
Oh, I’d soon learn, along with millions of other spoiled brats, that life is a little more complicated than that. But at the time, who cared?
Alex Toth, arguably one of the greatest geniuses of comics, was one of the guys behind this classic ’60s cartoon. His sleek images, always suggesting movement and urgency, were the basis for this show. As with most animated projects, there were a lot of other folks involved and the name-of-the-game was solving problems with minimal budgets. So, it wasn’t really “pure” Toth. But you know what? These cartoons still hold up.
The Space Ghost music was also a big deal, although I’m not sure if I realized it then. Hoyt Curtin, during my childhood, was the musical director for Hanna Barbera. According to legend, Hoyt met the animators over beers. Not at a bar, but when shooting a Schlitz commercial.
In the same way a colorist adds another dimension to a black-and-white drawing, Hoyt was able to reinforce the mood of every scene in a Hanna Barbera action cartoon. A little urgency here. A bit of languish here. A sense of foreboding there. A sprinkling of humor and hopefulness to wrap it all up. In some ways, the soundtrack to my life, available only inside my head, is scored by Hoyt Curtin’s brilliant flourishes.
Space Ghost was only adventuring for a few brief years in the ‘60s. But he kept coming back in one form or another. In some ways, those Saturday mornings never ended.
Currently, Dynamite Entertainment is publishing the new Space Ghost comic series. There are lot of variant covers and some especially brilliant covers from artists Michael Cho and Jae Lee. David Pepose, the writer, was just on the Word Balloon Podcast, and you can give it a listen here. Our old buddy Jonathan Lau (he illustrated our Codename A.C.T.I.O.N. series a few years back) is the interior artist. Joe Rybandt, the very talented editor-in-charge-of-stuff, is a big supporter too.
So, it is fitting that as I am assuming new editorial responsibilities at RetroFan, my first issue’s lead story focuses on Space Ghost! Scott Shaw provides a fantastic historical retrospective that captures all the fun and yet provides new insights too.
Space Ghost sternly looks back at me when I’m working at my desk. My pal Ruben Procopio designed this beautiful bust. I can almost hear Space Ghost, in his booming stentorian/Gary Owen tones, telling me to keep on going. To be fearless. To make it happen.
Not a bad lesson to keep with you all these years, eh?
