From Friendly Ghosts To Gamma Rays: Superman and Yo Gabba Gabba!

You know, if in real life I met a group of creatures like the Chilly-gang in The Labyrinth, where they could rip off their heads and body parts, all while singing their crazy lil’ songs, I’d freak out. I’d probably try and go for the eyes on one of them and run like hell. Now that I admitted that random thought on my part, I also have to let you know it has nothing to do with today’s column, in which we review the new collection from Oni Press Yo Gabba Gabba!: Comic Time and the classic Filmation TV series The New Adventures of Superman (but I really needed to vent that). If you’re new around these parts, this is From Friendly Ghosts To Gamma Rays!
Looking back at the body of work I have written here at ComicAttack.net, I was noticing a few articles with some really cool stuff in it that deserve a second look. For those of you who miss and love all those classic ads from comic books with superheroes saving the day while eating a snack pie, check out this article that we ran last year for a walk down memory lane.
Out On Stands: Yo Gabba Gabba!: Comic Book Time Anthology!
Publisher: Oni Press
Writers and Artists: Various

Amazing, purely amazing AND amazingly fun. Like BOOM! Studios’ Muppets titles, Oni Press’ Yo Gabba Gabba!: Comic Book Time Anthology! has figured out a way to perfectly translate a living show from TV screen to comic book page. In over 100 pages, we get treated to an incredibly fun and faithful adaptation of the Yo Gabba Gabba world, with all its colorful madcap silliness that entertains adults, as well as kids, of any age. The artwork and writing may change from the various stories to one-pagers, however, each writer/artist team has delivered a K.O. of a book for your eyes to behold. When Oni Press released the Yo Gabba Gabba! board-comic books for toddlers a few months ago, it was only a tease of what they could really do with this property with an all-ages comic, and gladly they didn’t let us down for a minute. If you like the show you cannot go wrong, and if you know nothing of the pop-art inspired show that has kicked all other kids’ shows to the curb, you are in for a treat and what will surely be your new guilty pleasure for some time to come. As mentioned, this book can be enjoyed by both adults and children alike.

An army of artists and writers worked on this, including: Michael Allred, Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, Han Allred, Corey Barba, Philip Bond, J.Bone, Dave Crosland, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Matt Fraction, Becky Dreistadt, Chris Eliopoulos, Dan Evans, Kali Fontecchio, Matthew Loux, Joey Mason, Dave McCaig, Vicente “Vinny” Navarrete, Eric Orchard, Yuko Ota, Tod C. Parkhill, Frank Pittarese, Jamie S. Rich, Rico Renzi, Paul Scheer, Richard Stevens, J. Torres, Dean Trippe, Julia Vickerman, Jarrett Williams, and Joshua Williamson (phew, that was a lot to write).
Really I could type away my lil’ fingers until they were down to the bone (and I had to adopt two hook hands in their place), about how good this is, but instead I will just say: go out and buy now! Check out the preview pages below!

Something To Watch: The New Adventures of Superman
In 1966 a show came on the airwaves of the Saturday morning CBS time slot that would change everything: The New Adventures of Superman. The New Adventures of Superman would be important for several reasons: 1.) It was the first time we had seen Superman back in animation since the cinema shorts of the 1940s, 2.) It would be the first superhero to become animated and conquer Saturday morning cartoons spawning dozens of animated superheroes after this, and 3.) It would be the first cartoon animated by Filmation Studios which went on to produce an endless amount of work into the late 1980s (including The New Adventures of Batman, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and much more). This show is just plain cool. If you love the silver age of super heroes, you cannot go wrong here: Superman fights an endless army of giant monsters, alien invasions, and an array of super villains, including a fantastic version of Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Toyman, and Mr. Mxyzptlk. The stories are solid classic Superman fun, some even written by DC comic book writer George Kashdan, and even extra coolness is the fact it features the voice talents of the classic Superman radio show’s Bud Collyer and Joan Alexander in the leads! Basically by this point reading this article, you can tell The New Adventures of Superman is arguably one of the coolest comic book to TV adaptations ever. It is an amazing adaptation of the silver age source material and a ridiculous amount of fun. Although by today’s standards the animation may look a little simpler, it was the TV standard at the time and the colors pop off the screen like they did on the page. Your something to watch this weekend is a modern classic of superhero animation, The New Adventures of Superman. The entire series was released on a nice little 2-disc set from Warner Brothers.
That’s it for this week and remember, Gappa the triphibian monster loves you!

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Drew McCabe
drew@comicattack.net