I sort of wanted to dig a little deeper into the Thundarr cartoon.  While I was doing the write up for the 1st episode, Secret of the Black Pearl, I realized that the majority of the concept artwork that accompanied both vintage articles I posted last month was for this episode so I thought it would be cool to see the transition.

This first piece was done by Jack Kirby.  There are a lot of his trademark flourishes in the art from his thick, square-fingered, grasping hands, to the iconic costuming with the zigzag patterns and bold, wavy shadows…

This piece is illustrating the 2nd attack of the rat-men, after Thundarr, Ookla and Ariel sent the creatures packing in the episode opener.   Chided by their master, Gemini the evil wizard, the rat-men regroup and make a second assault, though this time outfitted with 20th century motorcycles (and in the cartoon, laser gun clubs.)  Kirby's (at the time) 40-odd years worth of comic book work really show in the layout of the piece.  It's just bursting with action and movement, not to mention a ton of personality and story detail.   He manages to bend the perspective so dynamically that you almost feel like you’re leaping precariously at the lead rat creature right alongside Thundarr.

What I find interesting in the transition from page to screen is that the final sequence is both very diluted in terms of some of the fantastical elements of the original design (like the more alien costuming of the rat-men) and the static side-scrolling camera angle, yet also slightly more violent…

Granted, we don't get before and after shots in the concept art, but instead of leaping at the rat-men with a flying tackle, in the cartoon Thundarr plants a swift kick to their heads as the speed by.   Also, though I really dig Kirby's futuristic costuming choices, I think the final design of the rat-men is more in keeping with the barbaric, post-apocalyptic tone and color palette of the cartoon.

This second piece of artwork, again by Kirby, showcases some of the mystical powers of Ariel with her ability to build bridges out of energy and light.  The first thing that jumps out at me is that Ariel's design was a little different initially.  First and foremost is her Valentine's Day color scheme, which started out slightly more feminine with the reds, pinks, and purples and the purer white of her steed.  Also, slightly more subtle, is the apparent source of her powers.   In the concept art she is wielding an orb from which she appears to be drawing the power to build the energy bridge.  I wonder if this was ditched because they didn't want the character hampered by carrying an orb all the time, or if the act of summoning the energy from an outside source was a bit too close to the idea of incantations (which would point more towards the dreaded occult, than say harmless magic?)

In the final sequence, and in the show as a whole, we can see that Ariel's color scheme was shifted to a more primary look with blues and yellows.  I can see this as a way to tone down the garish red-pink-purple combo, while also keeping it more upbeat and separate from the murky dark colors and earth tones of the setting.  You can also see that Ookla's steed is softened in the final design.  It's still alien, but less severe and scary than it appears in the concept illustration.   Also, unrelated, but I really love the idea of the shattered moon hanging in two pieces yet still in orbit.   The decimated landscape of the show is cool, but it's the moon that really sets the mood for me…

This third piece of concept artwork is pretty cool (and revealing.)  Here Kirby illustrates the main villain for this first episode, the two-faced (literally) evil wizard Gemini and his robotic knights.  First off, it's kind of interesting to note that Kirby is really drawing on his previous character design of the DC comics character Darksied.  It's mainly in the concept design, with his choice of headgear, the craggy face and heavy brow, the electrified eyes, and his overall blue armor.  What I find really interesting about this piece though, is the notation at the top left identifying the wizard as Gemini.  This piece comes from the Buzz Dixon article that originally ran in Fangoria, but it was also accompanying the Fantastic article, and in that piece the notation is missing from the art.  The character is named Sabian in the Fantastic article, which if you listen to the internet zeitgeist (or read either of the two articles) is the name of both Ariel's evil father and Thundarr's original captor.

I'm wondering if at one time Gemini and Sabian were interchangeable?  Based on the episode, Gemini is certainly not Ariel's father, so if they were the same that idea was dropped by the time the show was animated.

I'm not sure who illustrated the next piece of concept art.  One of the articles, the one from Fantastic, attributes it to "John Doorman", though I think they meant John Dorman who's listed as the supervisor of story direction in the show credits.  The Fangoria article attributes it to Jack Kirby, though it doesn't seem to be quite as loud as his style typically comes off.  Also, Kirby's Thundarr is a bit more barbaric and not as clean cut, but I could be totally reading into it.  Anyway, the reason I wanted to talk about this piece is that regardless of who drew it, it illustrates a crazy theme of jumping on a horse from a great height.  There's a scene in the cartoon towards the end of the episode where Thundarr grabs Ariel after saving her from Gemini, and the two plummet from the top floor of the evil wizards tower onto his waiting steed below (at least 40 or 50 feet below…)

I'm not positive but I think this would kill the horse instantly, and very likely cripple both Thundarr and Ariel (I don't care that he's a barbarian, gravity is a harsh mistress.)  This actually happens a couple of times in the episode as there’s a scene earlier that has Thundarr jumping off a cliff, catching a vine and then swinging onto his horse from a great height.  You tend to see this type of crazy equestrianism in older adventure films and it's always bugged me.  According to the concept art though, it looks like it was planned from the beginning…

The last bit of art I wanted to highlight is without a doubt more of Kirby's work, and it's also a scene mentioned by Steve Gerber in the Buzz Dixon Fangoria article.  When describing Ookla the Mok, Gerber relates how he's sort of the comic relief of the series (I've read that he wasn't happy with the character and that he was urged to include a "wookie" in the series), and that when confronted with technology he'll inevitably break it and use it as a blunt object.   Actually, Gerber refers to the Mok getting frustrated with trying to fly a helicopter, so much so that he rips out the joystick, tries to spin the blades by hand, and eventually just throws the whole thing at an enemy.  You can certainly see this frustration in the concept art…

The final sequence in the episode is sort of an amalgam of Gerber's description and Kirby's art.  Ookla is left in the hovering vehicle as Thundarr goes to rescue Ariel.  When Thundarr calls for Ookla to maneuver the chopper closer to them he gets frustrated trying to work the controls (which he indeed rips right out of the console.)  He's so pissed that he wedges his feet between himself and the entire cockpit console and kicks it right out of the helicopter causing it to crash.  Personally I would have liked Kirby's outcome a bit better, as pitching something out of frustration is less broad and cartoon-y, but what are you going to do?

So I finally received my copy of the Warner Bros. Presents Saturday Morning Cartoons, 1980s DVD set, and more importantly I've finally had the first opportunity to watch a full episode of Thundarr the Barbarian since I was a kid.   I don't know about anyone else, but for the most part I have a weird mental block on watching cartoons on Youtube or Hulu.  It's something about the (typically) lower audio/video quality, the small viewable screen size, having to load all the separate parts (in youtube's case), and more importantly the fact that sitting down in front of the computer tends to put me in the mind set of work.  I spend about 6 hours a day in front of a monitor for the day job, and a couple hours each night working on articles for Branded.   The last thing I want to do is try and watch stuff on the computer as well.  Anyway, the point is that I haven't brought myself to watch any of the Thundarr episodes online and since I don’t have access to Boomerang with my cable service I've had to wait on seeing the show.

The downside of the WB Saturday Moring collections is that they pretty much only feature single episodes of the included series, so we only get one episode of Thundarr the Barbarian.  In WB's defense it is the first episode (in the production order I believe), titled Secret of the Black Pearl, which was released in 1980.   Even though it's only 22 minutes of the series, what a 22 minutes it is!  Though I grew up mainly on He-Man, I did watch a bit of Thundarr and I seem to recall being really jazzed by the show.   If there were ever any 80s cartoon series that I thought aged well, Thundarr would probably be at the top of that list.

The opening sequence of the series falls into the style of expositive cartoon intros, which I'm typically not a fan of (unless the story is told with a catchy theme song, ala Galaxy High), but I have to give it a pass because it's so well done.   The writers and artists managed to cram so many ideas into those first 60 seconds that I felt like I'd already watched a few episodes before the show even really began.  There's something outright magical about picking the perfect narration and matching it to great artwork and key scenes that describe the setting, where every single word and image counts, and there's absolutely no fat to the storytelling…

"Thundarr the Barbarian! The year 1994.   From out of space comes a runaway planet hurtling between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction.  Man's civilization is cast in ruins!  2,000 years later Earth is reborn.  A strange new world rises from the old, a world of savagery, super-science and sorcery.  But one man bursts his bonds to fight for justice with his companions Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel.  He pits his strength, his courage, and his fabulous sun sword against the forces of evil.   He is Thundarr the Barbarian!"

Another aspect of the opening that I really dig is that unlike most of the Saturday morning cartoons of the 70s, Thundarr actually delivers on what that sequence promises, in particular the visuals.   It's one thing to design an intriguing show concept, and quite another to deliver on it, especially considering the cost and time constraints of television animation, and the pervading 70s era ideal of dumbing down cartoons to "protect" the young viewing audience.  When the key phrase of the day was limited animation, it's refreshing to see a production take the time to really create a dynamic and believable post-apocalyptic Earth for these characters to run around in, not to mention filling that world with interesting background characters, monsters and villains.  After the promise of a crazy futuristic fantasy setting my expectations were kind of high and it was one of the first things I was really looking for in the episode.

Right from the get-go the episode delivers as we pan across an overgrown landscape rife with the rotting carcasses of old trucks and aircraft.  The episode has a really murky feel to it because of its dark color palette with lots of blues, blacks, greens, greys and purples.  Again, not to keep harping on the 70s, but in an era of bright primary colored cartoons, this was a breath of fresh, albeit murky, air.  There was a tangible realism, not necessarily in the rendering, but in the tone that we were really only seeing in feature film animation at the time, and usually only in the more independent stuff coming from places like the Ralph Bakshi studio.   Another part of what really added to this realism was a depth of field that the animators achieved by heavily layering in foreground elements over the mid-ground action.  There are a lot of shots where the camera p.o.v. appears to be deep in this lush forest, so when Thundarr, Ookla, and Ariel are speeding along a trail there's a ton of overgrowth blocking the characters.   The animators carry this forward to some of the exposition scenes as well, and it just adds a level of believability that's lacking from a lot of Saturday morning cartoons.

Another promise delivered is the idea of a "…world of savagery, super-science, and sorcery…"  In the opening we flash on all sorts of monsters and creatures, as well as wizards and magic, and I was hoping we'd get a glimpse at a few during this initial series episode. Within the first few minutes our heroes run into a miscellaneous gill-man and a whole slew of evil rat-men before we even get an inkling of the plot.  Over the course of the episode we get to see Thundarr and the gang in a second battle with the rat-men (on motorcycles no less), as well as running into the evil wizard Gemini, his horde of robotic knights, and the colossus that is the Statue of Liberty brought to life and set upon one of the last pockets of humanity living in the remnants of New York City.

What's also interesting is that I get the feeling that there aren't any reoccurring villains.  Instead, the gang battle against a series of wizards that each control different areas of the world, who keep a strangle hold on the last vestiges of human society with their knowledge of ancient technology and sorcery.  This variety of adversaries ends up adding so much more tension to the adventure as we never know what's next.  It also opens up the episodes to another level of realism in that there's an opportunity for finality in each plot.  In a lot of similar shows a lot of the tension is eradicated by the knowledge that the villain will be back in the next episode no worse for wear.

The one aspect of the show that really surprised me was the level of action and violence.  To be honest I'm not really coming from one point of view or another when it comes to the level and execution of action in my cartoons, but I'm so used to non-violent cartoons that when I see one that pushes a little further I get kind of floored.   I'm just as happy watching He-Man refuse to punch a living being as I am watching something uber-violent like Akira, though.  After reading the Thundarr articles from Fangoria and Fantastic magazines, I was sort of expecting the show to fall on the side of Masters of the Universe.  Steve Gerber seemed pretty upset about the extent to which the production was hamstrung by the network standards and practices yearning to please parent's groups (like Action for Children's Television.)

If you look at the 1st episode concept art above you can get a pretty good idea of how much the action and adventure elements were calmed down, as well as how much Jack Kirby's concepts were changed.

But even for these changes and after watching the 1st episode I have to say that there is plenty of decent action.  Sure, Thundarr isn't slicing rat-men in half with his sun sword, but he is using it to knock weapons out of their hands mimicking a more realistic combat.  The production team also utilized the tried and true concept of having robotic villains and henchmen leaving the hero of the cartoon open to doing some damage.  There's a scene where Thundarr and Ookla are besieged by a bunch of Gemini's knights and after knocking one down Thundarr hears the mechanical whirring of the robot's gears.  With this knowledge, in the next sequence he proceeds to run another knight through with his sun sword.  The animators even had the knight stare down at his wound as Thundarr stabbed him, which added a kind of disturbing level of reality to the scene.

In another fight sequence, Thundarr ends up kicking some rat-men off their motorcycles, which I would think would be a huge no-no in a network censor's eyes as that action would be highly mimicable by children.  Of course mixed in with are a lot of more traditionally non-violent action scenes.  In their first encounter with the rat-men, we mainly see Ookla flinging them by their tails off-camera into their tree fortress.  We don't see any impact for the most part, so it comes off pretty tame as the creatures just silently glide past our heroes.   The evil wizard Gemini is also prone to shooting harmless paralyzing eye beams at Thundarr, Ookla and Ariel instead of displaying any sort of real danger or physical harm.  So there is certainly a compromise happening on screen.

Because the show does tend towards more realistic violence, and if there's one good thing I can say about the Warner Brothers DVD release of this episode, it's that they didn't go in and muck with it.   The WB studio is known for retroactively kiddifying their cartoon releases by editing episodes to match up with today's ridiculous politically correct environment.   They've cut down episodes of Johnny Quest and omited episodes of Tom and Jerry from DVD sets, in an effort to erase perceived racy content and violence.   In fact I was kind of shocked to see that they left in a shot of the decimated Twin Towers during a pan across the apocalyptic landscape of New York City.  It is funny to note that on the back of the DVD case there's a note that these episodes are intended for an adult audience and that they aren't recommended for children.  Hooey!

The one aspect of the show that I could see myself getting tired of is all of the jokes about the antiquated technology and bits of the old world lying around.   For the most part the characters in the show are ignorant of humanity's original society, and only a select few know about how to use the old technology or even what most of it is.  Ariel, whose step-father is a wizard, is well versed in the old culture and she kind of acts as the straight man to Thudarr's silly barbarian ignorance.  There's a running gag where he'll see something and think it's an important clue to solving a plot issue, like a poster for Jaws 9 in a subway scene in this episode, and Ariel will have to point out that it's just an old movie poster (to which Thundarr basically asks, "What's a moo-v?")   Sometimes this comes off kind of funny, like in a scene where Thundarr and Ookla steal a helicopter and in a fit of rage while trying to fly the crazy contraption Ookla first rips out the steering column, and then kicks the rest of the control panel out of the chopper causing it to crash (similar humor to the Chewbacca/Millennium Falcon scenes from the Star Wars movies.)  But I can see it getting old really quick.

By far, my favorite scene in the episode was the last cinematic battle sequence in which Gemini, approaching a small pocket of humans and our heroes while flying atop a thunder cloud, brings the rotting Statue of Liberty to life, acting as a harbinger of doom for New York (years before the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man even thought about stepping on a church in that town.)  Granted, it came out almost a decade before Ghostbusters II and I doubt it was an influence, but there's something really fulfilling in seeing that iconic statue coming to life and attacking a city, knowing that later on it'll play the opposite side of that coin (to mix my metaphors.)  The statue's main weapon is her torch which is transformed into a flamethrower laser which she uses to lay waste to the city and harbor, zapping entire buildings at a time.   It's so crazy and over the top, and by far my favorite Statue of Liberty action sequence beating out Remo Williams fighting on the 80s era statue cleaning scaffolding, Ghostbusters II, and the horrible physics and goofy improbability of the first X-Men movie (though maybe not as neat as the Statue reveal in Planet of the Apes…).

Unfortunately Ruby Spears chose to use very general, non-episode-specific end credits sequence, so I'm not sure who specifically wrote the episode.   I do know that you can feel the hand of Steve Gerber, Mark Evanier, Buzz Dixon, Jack Kirby and Alex Toth in the overall design and tone.  I really loved the episode and I hope Warner Brothers gets off their butt and puts out a proper full series release for the show some day.   I enjoyed this episode so much, I might have to forgo my comfort and watch more on youtube…

By the by, that Thundarr article from Fangoria magazine I posted a little while ago seems to be a little bit at odds with itself considering Buzz Dixon wrote both it, and was apparently a writer on the show.  I guess since Fangoria was just getting off teh ground the editor was fine with self-promotion pieces to fill up the zine, but it makes you wonder...

I found some time this weekend and scanned another Thundarr the Barbarian article.  This one comes from an issue of Fantastic from 1980, though for the life of me I can't remember which month.  It was written by Adam Eisenberg and makes a nice companion piece to the Fangoria/Buzz Dixon article I posted before, though it centers on more of the limitations and censorship the series had to overcome because of the imposed network standards and practices…

I know I tend to go on and on about this idea time and again, but I think it's interesting to note just how important the 1980-1983 timeframe was for modern action animation.  In the piece Steve Gerber talks a little bit about the collective intentions to bring the "action" back to action/adventure cartoons while creating Thundarr with Joe Ruby (of Ruby Spears.)   First off, though he was already working in animation doing production design for Hanna Barbera, Jack Kirby was probably hot on Gerber and Ruby's minds because of what he brought to the table for Marvel and DC comics.   I think it's really cool to see an animation production team playing to the strengths of their contracted talent instead of trying to force them to bend in another direction, which doesn't always bode well in network/studio environment.

At the same time, Gerber admits that even while shooting for the stars in terms of creating a thrilling action oriented cartoon they still had their hands tied to an extent where their barbarian hero couldn't "…throw a punch or…even hit anybody.  He can do all kids of acrobatic things, but he can't even trip anyone."  This kind of over protective standards and practices is equal parts infuriating and incredibly flooring.  Whereas it's frustrating to watch a cartoon that centers around a barbarian that you just know wants to knock the block off of every douche-bag wizard that he runs across (they are enslaving humanity you know), these limitations opened the door to exploring another heroic archetype, the strong non-violent hero (think He-Man.)  Though I know it's really easy to bag on the He-Man ideal for being too goodie good and unrealistic, this kind of storytelling is not always about focusing on the visceral and gritty realism.  Sometimes it's about fables and though I know this is obvious, morality.  This is what's really cool about a great creative environment, that there is room to explore both paths (and more), so you can have something more fist in the face like G.I. Joe, something more moral like Masters of the Universe, and something inbetween like Thundarr.

So this short period in animation is so interesting to me because it marks the beginning of the end of 10 long years of anti-integrity self-imposed studio censorship...

Similarly Gerber and Ruby found themselves challenged by another aspect of depicting violence in cartoons in that they weren't allowed to have any kind of traditional barbarian sword for the Thundarr character.  According to S&P there could be no sharp objects like knives or swords.  Though it could have hampered some of the design aesthetic on the show this limitation pushed them to create something interesting and new in Thundarr's Sunsword.   Trying to sidestep riffing too much off of Star Wars the sword was designed to have a blade forged from a bolt of lightning.   Again, even though they were hampered by network S&P the crew ended up treating this as a chance to bring something relatively new to the table, or at least they used it as an opportunity to tie in a different set of influences than a barbarian fantasy cartoon would normally lean on.  It's less Conan and more Norse god in look and design.  Again, this is certainly playing to the strengths of Jack Kirby who brought a taste of his work on characters such as Thor and the various 4th World creations for DC.

Here's another Gerber quote from the article that I love…

"The big thing that we've had to overcome is that the censors tend to treat children as if they're not just morons, but lunatics, potentially dangerous creatures."

I've been getting pretty excited about the impending release of Warner Bros. Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1980s, Vol. 1 as it'll finally give me a chance to revisit one of the shows I never got a chance to see much of as a kid, Thundarr the Barbarian.   Granted, it's only a taste with one episode on this two-disc set, but it'll be better quality than the various youtube videos that have been satiating my hunger in the interim.  Besides, if this set is successful it might lead to more Thundarr on DVD.

Regardless, I've been thinking about the series lately and in a moment of kismet I stumbled upon a couple of Thundarr-centric articles while doing some magazine back-issue research on another project.  These articles are pretty cool considering they largely feature Jack Kirby's production artwork, not to mention a few Alex Toth model sheets.  I thought it would be fun to share one of them today; written by Buzz Dixon (of Sunbow animation fame) this article was originally featured in issue number 9 of Fangoria magazine back in November of 1980 (when the horror magazine felt a whole heck of a lot more like its sister publication Starlog.)

Since I haven't really seen a full episode of Thundarr since I was a kid, reading this article puts me right back into that mindset of speculation and hoping the cartoon will be as cool as it potentially can be based on this artwork and Dixon's enthusiasm for the project…

Like Blackstar, Thundarr unfortunately debuted right before the landscape of network and syndicated television was drastically changed in 1982-83.   Because of strict regulations and pressure from parent activist groups there were some crucial missing ingredients that kept most cartoons from reaching their true potential in the 70s and very early 80s.  In particular there was a ban on fully merchandising cartoon series, in particular releasing toys of popular shows, and I think this lack of product awareness hurt that instant recognition a good toy line has on kids.  When He-Man and the Masters of the Universe came on the scene it shattered all expectations of just how popular the combination of a well-designed toy line and thought out cartoon series could be.  Had Thundarr gestated in the minds of Steve Gerber and Ruby Spears just a little longer I think it had the potential to depose He-Man from the throne it seized in the early 80s. 

Not only was it similar in style, design and tone, and thus obviously a successful to the audience, Thundarr pushed the envelope of action animation much further as it was coming from the likes of Gerber and Kirby who were well steeped in comics dynamic storytelling.  The unbridled power that Kirby is well known for can be felt in every second of the animation, even if it's only a shadow of what he brought to the comics medium.  Add to that Steve Gerber's wackiness and biting social commentary and you have a powder keg just waiting to explode.   Again, there was so much potential in this series, and I truly believe that a toy line, even a mediocre one, would have ignited it.

If I get a chance I'll scan the second Thundarr article I found this past weekend, though I think it's filled with the same production artwork.   Now to go back to waiting, though it's just a couple more weeks before the DVD finally hits store shelves…