Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett looks at more of the current crop of animated shows plus some odds and ends.

I honestly try to stay current but I must confess that sometimes I'm taken aback by what constitutes a kid's cartoon show these days.  Make no mistake, I appreciate that Cartoon Network tries to create innovative programming when no doubt it would be so much easier to go the Nickelodeon route and air nothing but shows based on hit movies.  I like a lot of CN's current output but have to admit even the shows I don't like (The Amazing World of Gumball, Problem Solverz) look like nothing else on television.

Still, having grown up on Ruff and Reddy it was hard not to feel more than a little future shocked the first time I saw Regular Show and heard the phrase "lady pecs" being used. OK, the show's leads Mordecai and Rigby aren't supposed to be kids or even teens (according to Wikipedia they're 23) but the show has more Adult Swim than traditional Hanna-Barbara animation in its DNA.

But I'm a big fan of Adventure Time mostly because it isn't like the kind of cartoons I grew up on.   It's a simple enough premise, a boy, his dog and their adventures in a wacky fantasy land -- we've all seen (and seen and seen) that show before, but Adventure Time flatly refuses to follow any sort of formula.  Utterly unexpected and unconventional, it manages to be a kids' show where the adventure is just as weird as the comedy -- and that's pretty weird.  And while I remain convinced there’s entirely too many licensed comics being published right now (especially for kids), I was pleased to learn as of February Adventure Time is going to be monthly comic.  Though it does raise the question, since the cartoon is on Cartoon Network, why is the comic being published by BOOM! Studios and not DC?

While working on this column I've been watching TV out of the corner of my eye and I was stopped in mid-sentence by what I first assumed had to be a new clip from the upcoming movie The Adventures of Tintin.  In it Tintin and Captain Haddock are walking through the desert... when it suddenly becomes an ad for Purina Dog Chow.  A quick internet search found a press release which referred to Snowy as Tintin's "right-hand pup" and announced the two companies would be donating "...up to $150,000 to a variety of service and therapy dog organizations."  And for anyone who believes it's beneath Tintin's dignity to be subjected to this kind of crass American commercial exploitation, it's important to note in Europe Tintin and Snowy have shilled for Ken-L… as well as more products too numerous to mention.

Because I've been such a good boy, well, as good as I'm likely to get anytime soon, while shopping at my local Kroger's I bought myself a toy.  On the discount racks I found a Green Lantern movie Abin Sur figure action figure; original SRP, $8.99 -- "Manager's Special" price, $3.15.  I could frankly give half a hoot about the tiny, poorly articulated figure; I bought it for the power ring, which came included.  Of course the kid-sized thing doesn't come anywhere close to fitting my Vienna Sausagesque finger but it's a surprisingly substantial and good looking gimcrack.  And at least now I can scratch 'power ring" off my Christmas list.

Although I don't believe it's ever come up we (and by "we" I of course mean "me") do get letters.  Like this one...

In a recent item on your site -- "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--The Likability Coefficient" by Steve Bennett -- a derogatory reference is made to a column I wrote.  The following appears:
 
'…Britain's The Globe and Mail titled "When good shows go bad; Big Bang Theory's decline" who, apparently in all seriousness, is horrified by this development and the fact that now on the show "...there are even feelings being tossed around.  It's like watching Friends!"   But then, genuine human feelings have always spooked the British."

Derogatory reference is fine, but the facts must be correct.  The Globe and Mail is not located in Britain.  It is a national newspaper in Canada.  I am the author of the piece your writer quotes.  I am not British.

Regards,
 
jd
 
John Doyle
Television Critic
The Globe and Mail
Canada's National Newspaper

First, I must personally apologize to John Doyle.  I can't say how or why I would make such an embarrassing blunder but I honestly believe that when I began writing last week's column I actually knew both he and The Globe and Mail were Canadian and not British.  I can only say that I'm once again sorry for the blunder and that it didn't spring out of American arrogant ignorance about Canada.  In fact previously in this column I name checked Canada's greatest comic book hero (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--When You Coming Back, Johnny Canuck?").

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.