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 some classic cartoon properties that have been reinvented in new forms.

We seem to be in the middle of a Josie and the Pussycats renaissance.  It seems as if every other hip website is currently heralding the 2001 live-action movie for being “satirical” as well as it’s “positive female representation” (maybe I need to see it again but I just fondly remember Rosario Dawson as Valerie).  Then came the news of the September release of a new Josie comic book series written by Marguerite Bennett (no relation) and Cameron DeOrdio with art by Audrey Mok (see “Marguerite Bennett Writing New 'Josie & the Pussycats' Comic”). I’ve enjoyed Bennett’s work on Batgirl and A-Force, the same way I’ve enjoyed all of the other New Riverdale comics, so it’s more than likely this one will be as every bit as good.

I’m sure Bennett and Cameron aren’t taking requests but I’m hoping the series features the return of Josie’s best friend Pepper from She’s Josie, the Archie comic by Dan DeCarlo that preceded Josie and the Pussycats. Smart, sarcastic yet still a stylish dresser, in a lot of ways Pepper was the original hipster.  And while we’re at it please, return Melody (a character I’ve always assumed was inspired by Melanie, played by Yvette Mimieux in the 1960 movie Where The Boys Are, but that’s just supposition on my part) to her original sex-bomb persona.  I read somewhere online that she “had no idea of the effect she had on boys” but if you read any of those original stories you definitely get the feeling she always knew exactly what she was doing.

I also wouldn’t have any complaints if there were fantasy sequences with the look and superspy plots of the Josie and the Pussycats cartoons.  And the same goes for Josie and the Pussycats In Outer Space.

Nobody loves a giant robot more than me, especially if it’s a Japanese one.  But that being said my interest in seeing the Netflix revival of the 80’s cartoon Voltron, Voltron Legendary Defender was pretty low (see “New Full Length 'Voltron: Legendary Defender' Trailer”).  Maybe because I always found the original, where five teens from Earth were dragooned into piloting robotic lions to help fight the Emperor Zarkon (like I have to tell any of you) somehow managed to simultaneously be entirely too earnest and more than a little goofy.  Then I started watching the one-hour pilot and found myself enjoying its anime style look and smart and tart dialogue, which is when it struck me it reminded me of something.  It wasn’t until I looked online though that it dawned on me that “something” was Nickelodeon’s The Legend of Korra, and the executive producers of this new version were Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos who worked on both Korra and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

The gang is pretty much as they ever were, though Lance has morphed into a kind of entitled, annoying jerk and while resident big guy Hunk is still obsessed with food he now sometimes has some trouble keeping it down (due to the rigors of space travel not because he has an eating problem, though an oopsy tummy seems like it would be a major drawback for a space pilot);  I honestly lost count of how many times he discreetly vomited off screen.  The biggest change isn’t revealed until Episode 3 where we learn one of the guys is secretly a girl.  I won’t say who it is but as previously established I’m pretty oblivious and I managed to tumble onto the twist at around the twenty-five-minute mark, so it probably won’t come as that much of a surprise to most of you.

There had been a lot of promotion behind the release of Voltron Legendary Defender, but what came as a complete surprise was another animated series, one I didn’t know existed, based on a graphic novel series.  I speak of The Deep created by writer Tom Taylor (Injustice: Gods Among Us, All-New Wolverine) and artist James Brouwer (Justice League Beyond) and published by Gestalt Comics.  It’s about The Nektons, a multicultural family of aquanauts who explore the mysteries of the uncharted areas of the oceans.  On impulse I had picked up the series on comiXology and was impressed by both its unique look and post-modern take on animated adventure cartoons.*

As previously established, I’m not the world’s biggest fan of CGI animated but I have to confess this CGI series is very sharp looking, especially when the focus stays on The Nektons and their undersea adventures.  Taylor is its head writer and Brouwer the art director, and you can tell; the first episode keeps remarkably close to the first volume in the series, “Here Be Dragons”.  There are 26 episodes in Season One and I’m very happily binge watching my way through all of them.

*Although goofy even by the standards of 60’s Hanna-Barbera cartoons, I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for 1967’s Moby Dick.  It concerned the undersea adventures of teens Tom and Tub (guess what’s Tub’s major distinguishing characteristic was).  Along with their pet seal Scooby (no relation; Scooby Doo didn’t premiere until 1968) traveled the seven seas with their super powered great white whale Moby-Dick and invariably encountered lost civilizations, aliens, monsters, and supervillains.  I’m hoping against hope Moby will make at least a cameo in the current Futurequest series.  Here’s the Moby Dick joke I’ve been holding onto since 1995 in hopes I might actually find a place to use where it might be understood; “The show did well in the ratings even though it was up against heavy competition in the form of Silas Marner: Defender of the Galaxy.”   Thank you for your patience.

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.