new DC Hanna Barbera series coming

[johnnystorm]

New DC versions of Hanna Barbera cartoons...newDC
Dastardly & Muttley by Garth Ennis(!), based on the Flying Machines cartoon. God knows what Yankee Doodle Pigeon will look like! Also looks like it's set in modern times. The cartoon was set during WW. WW1 pilots were all the rage in the sixties, but I don't know why.

IMG_5347-e1477663013950-768x523.jpg

Also a Jetsons series similar to the Flintstones one.

[Makernaut]

WW1 pilots were all the rage in the sixties, but I don't know why.

I don't want to derail the thread, but you have me wondering why WWI pilots caught on in popular culture during that time frame. Enemy Ace in comics, Snoopy and the Red Baron (which lead to a popular song), the movie "The Blue Max", a hot rod named Red Baron that influenced a model kit and a Hot Wheels car, cartoons, two General Mills cereals in the early 1970s and Red Baron frozen pizza about the mid-1970s. That's just off the top of my head; I'm sure there is way more than that. And yet, I never thought about it being a thing until you posted that it was all the rage in the sixties.

[johnnystorm]

Oh, yeah they were everywhere. Every comedy tv show or teen film had the biker bad guy in goggles & scarf, you had movies like "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines", toys, games, food products, commercials. Even the band 'Jefferson Airplane'.
No idea what started it, but it was big. No worries on the thread, the topic is lots more interesting than I'll bet the comic is going to be.

[Makernaut]

Those years are right in the middle of the Space Race. I wonder if it was a trend that arose out of that. I don't know how to rightly describe it. I want to say "backlash", but that's not quite right. Counterbalance, maybe? Sometimes there are trends that appear to be opposite of the prevailing zeitgeist and they can be significant in their own right, but they wouldn't exist apart from something else driving the bus. Maybe that trend helped make the statement "look how far we have come in 50 years".

[samurainoir]

I was pretty indifferent to the other Hanna Barbera reimagined comics from DC, but I'll read anything even remotely war related from Garth Ennis. If an anthropomorphic Dog is how he's able to convince them to that it would be commercial enough to let him do another war book, I'm okay with that.

Ennis' WW2 era Enemy Ace story was excellent. Don't know why Ennis never got to write Sgt Rock outside of the cameo in this book.

[johnnystorm]

Those years are right in the middle of the Space Race. I wonder if it was a trend that arose out of that. I don't know how to rightly describe it. I want to say "backlash", but that's not quite right. Counterbalance, maybe? Sometimes there are trends that appear to be opposite of the prevailing zeitgeist and they can be significant in their own right, but they wouldn't exist apart from something else driving the bus. Maybe that trend helped make the statement "look how far we have come in 50 years".

Well, as you mention, it was approx. The 50th anniversary of WW1, so I'm sure it was on the public's radar. Odd though how it manifested so much as a comedy theme instead of a tragedy. Then again, Hogan's Heroes & McHale's Navy were two very popular comedies set in WW2. My Dad, a vet who served in France & Germany thought both shows were hilarious. So maybe that was the best way their generation dealt. I dunno. Sounds good, but I know he wouldn't eat that damn Grape cereal.

[johnnystorm]

Those years are right in the middle of the Space Race. I wonder if it was a trend that arose out of that. I don't know how to rightly describe it. I want to say "backlash", but that's not quite right. Counterbalance, maybe? Sometimes there are trends that appear to be opposite of the prevailing zeitgeist and they can be significant in their own right, but they wouldn't exist apart from something else driving the bus. Maybe that trend helped make the statement "look how far we have come in 50 years".

Well, as you mention, it was approx. The 50th anniversary of WW1, so I'm sure it was on the public's radar. Odd though how it manifested so much as a comedy theme instead of a tragedy. Then again, Hogan's Heroes & McHale's Navy were two very popular comedies set in WW2. My Dad, a vet who served in France & Germany thought both shows were hilarious. So maybe that was the best way their generation dealt. I dunno. Sounds good, but I know he wouldn't eat that damn Grape cereal.

[hedrap]

It's usually about the age of the writers, artists and editors. They need to work with an era the current audience is familiar with, but is also distant enough to dabble with.

Look at Kong Skull Island set it in 1971. We, our group, know the 70's, but the current culture has changed so drastically it's reshaped how we perceive it. We now look at that pre-cell phone/early satellite period and scoff at how connected we thought we all were at that time.

That's roughly the same mental trick at work with bi-planes and the 60's. The creators are using the fact the audience has a cribbed knowledge/familiarity of that era so it allows them to not have to go into massive detail while at the same time, the era is far enough back that specifics have become trivial.