I’ve known Scott Brooks for a while, and he’s always over-delivered. He’s a passionate artist with a knack for creatively getting to the crux of it all making it blossom in ways that you wouldn’t expect. But that seem natural and unforced, nonetheless.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I stumbled across his latest project. It turns out he’s made a “fan comic” of one of his favorite characters: Jonny Quest. And he’s offering it free online to anyone who wants to read it. Clearly, it’s a labor of love.

A quick note: I always liked Jonny Quest too. Always a favorite – and I loved the mix of monster movie/adventure movie that every episode had. In fact, I enjoyed it so much there was a time in the early ‘90s when I was working at Nabisco, and the Turner people were courting me as their “way in” for Nabisco + New Jonny Quest collaboration. I didn’t love those reboots (neither did Scott, as he will mention below), but getting that swag sure was cool.

I asked him just how this project came to be. And he explained:

I’ve loved Hanna-Barbera’s 1964-65 Jonny Quest since first seeing reruns on Ted Turner’s Superstation back in the ‘70s. It was, and still is, unlike anything else ever done in animation, with its almost comic book level of drawing, exciting and sometime eerie stories, and few-holds-barred action. There’s also something really special to me about the Mid-Century era, from the mid-50’s to the mid-‘60s. The technology, design aesthetic, optimism, and just the general vibe of that period all resonates with me — as reflected in this latest JQ adventure.

I’ve honestly never seen the 1980s and ‘90s revivals of the show … I could tell from what little I *have* seen that they’re just not for me. They have their fans, and that’s fine! And I understand the desire to make something appeal to a modern audience, but by doing that, I thought the essence of what made original recipe “Jonny” click appeared to be missing. No disrespect to the talents who worked on those shows — they were doing what they were hired to do.

That said … I’ve always wished there had been just one more season of the original show. I know a lot of other fans feel similarly. Being a comic book and animation fan, I thought it might be fun to try my hand at making a new animated episode in my spare time, matching the original as best I could. This was around 2009. That rather ambitious goal ran into the brick wall of reality fairly quickly, and soon the project became a 30 second trailer for a new episode. I actually created a few seconds of the animated scenes for that. But even that proved too big a lift for li’l ol’ me.

I finally settled on turning my cartoon episode story idea into a comic book — something I’m much more comfortable with artistically. I wrote out the entire script, lettered each letter with a stylus and Cintiq tablet in Photoshop (no comic fonts were used), sketched the layouts, photographed and sourced reference, drew/inked the lines using the Cintiq, then colored it. Doing it exclusively on a computer wasn’t necessarily easier than doing it traditionally, but it sure kept my hands free of ink.

That became my first Jonny Quest comic, “issue #6,” titled, “Hordes of the Khan.” I made a real effort to make the comics look and feel as much like a comic from 1965 as possible, with a slightly wood pulp yellow cast to the pages, careful research to avoid anachronisms, and a comic book company logo that may look oddly familiar … yet not quite right either. I uploaded that story to my website (stormerbrooks.com) for people to read for free in 2017. I posted a link to it on Facebook, and got enthusiastic responses from people who weren’t my mother!

The positive reaction inspired me to keep going. I had simultaneously developed another story idea involving mysterious aliens … or are they? In 2020, I uploaded “Seekers from the Red Star,” aka “issue #2.” Both these comics included letters pages from “readers” (me) with answers from the “editor” (me again). Those were a kick to write. I also included some other ancillary materials that seemed appropriate for a comic book of the time … some “Knowledge” pages, a Jonny Quest text story, an ad for the JQ TV show, some animation style model sheets, etc. All fun stuff that scratched different creative itches.

Again, the positive response from friends and strangers kept me going. The third — and current — issue, “A Big Night on the Town” aka “issue #10,” is my most off-beat tale. After doing two rather “straight” stories, I really wanted to do what I call a “romp” — a sprawling mess of a story, with lots of moving parts. I had bits and pieces I wanted to include — set against the backdrop of Mid-Mod New York City — and sort of “kitchen-sink” the thing. I also knew I wanted to spotlight Jade. She was only seen twice in the original show, but was so packed with intrigue, you just *have* to know more about her (and yet I didn’t want to do an origin story or reveal too much; a girl needs to have some secrets). As I tried to cram all the fun stuff into the story, it just kept getting longer … and longer .. and … finally, I threw up my hands and decided to make it a double-sized issue — 48 pages.

(Spongebob narrator voice): 5 years later…

Scott has a deep knowledge of nostalgic projects, so I asked him what Easter Eggs fans should keep an eye out for.

I hate to point out every single easter egg to potential readers, and spoil the hunt, but there is at least one James Bond reference, an appearance by the main characters of a very popular (and my favorite) YA mystery book series from the ‘60s and ‘70s, and a non-appearance by (arguably) the greatest of all the pulp heroes. Some of the faces were ones I “cast,” as one would cast actors for roles; others are just my ugly mug, shifted and pulled into or out of shape. Some readers have correctly guessed that I used actress Nancy Kovack (Jason and the Argonauts, Star Trek’s “A Private Little War”) as my model for Jade. But a funny thing to me as the author and artist is how other people see things that I didn’t consciously intend! I should apologize and say that a lot of what I included — like generous use of Eero Saarinen’s sublime TWA terminal building as a location, or casting actor Juano Hernandez as the fictitious jazz trumpeter Handy Hamby (a name that just popped into my head one day which I fell in love with) — are really for an audience of one (me) — they’re just things that simply make me smile for whatever reason. I mainly want folks to settle into believing they’re reading something that might have been written in 1965 and enjoy the ride.

As much as I loved doing the art, probably my favorite part of the process was writing period-appropriate dialog for the characters. I read a lot of mid-century detective and crime novels (usually based more on the cover art than the authors or back cover blurbs), so that helped. You’ll never hear my Jonny saying “Awesome, dude” or Hadji confronting Race with a “Skibidi!” or “6-7!”

In fact, the cover of “A Big Night…” is more an homage to the men’s paperbacks of that era than to comic books. It’s not a swipe, but rather an original design inspired by artists like Robert McGinnis, Robert Maguire, and especially Mitchell Hooks. I’m not sure I nailed it … I just sit in awe of what those and other artists like Barye Phillips, James Bama, and so many stellar talents of that time period did with composition, color design, brushwork, and draftsmanship.

I’ve made these comics free for anyone who wants to read them on my website; my gift to fellow classic JQ fans. Since I don’t own the rights to the characters, I have no intention of selling them in any form. I don’t even want to upload hi res files to my website, for fear someone else might try to monetize them (sadly, it’s happened). I’m not soliciting work, as I’m more or less retired. As much as I love creating comics, I’m way too slow to meet a regular monthly deadline. I see these as my hobby — much as other people enjoy pickle ball or golf or painting landscapes. I just love these characters, and think they had a few more stories to tell in their original setting, when computers were as big as buses, and kids could dream of being adventurers in far-flung corners of a still-mysterious world.

I was also fascinating by Scott’s faux movie poster. He provided a bit of background on that for us too.

I filled all the “interior pages” of my comic with story art, but I needed something for the “covers” of the comic. I came up with a movie poster for the “back cover” and a gushy “press release” for the “inside back cover.” Fans always ask, “Why don’t they make a live action Jonny Quest movie?!” to which other fans always reply, “Because Hollywood would mess it up!” Ha! I decided that a movie made the year after Jonny premiered might be the best way to imagine it. My credits include the master of fantastical movies of the period, producer George Pal. I imagined him bringing on his War of the Worlds director, Byron Haskin. I cast George Peppard as Race and Ronny Howard as Jonny — apparently a controversial choice with some, though unlike other young actors in 1965, he was the perfect age (11).

The art for the poster was collaged by me in Photoshop from bits and pieces taken from a dozen movie posters from the ‘60s and ‘70s. Most of the art was by prolific, terrific illustrator Frank McCarthy, who did a lot of Bond movie poster art. A few pieces were taken from posters done by illustrator Tom Chantrell. I credit all the movies and artists on my “press release” page.

It’s fun to look at and imagine just what kind of rollicking story it might have been. Fans can picture it being a wild success … or a noble disappointment

Thanks Scott!
And be sure to check it out here… and be prepared to have fun!