Every Saturday evening from about the age of 4-6, I was treated to syndicated episodes of Wonder Woman, The Muppet Show, and to close things out, The Pink Panther. The Panther's madcap antics, usually at the expense of his ubiquitous comic foil, the Little Man, was a favorite of both sets of grandparents. So no matter whose house I was visiting, the Pink Panther was always on.
At this year's Free Comic Book Day, the Pink Panther made an unexpected appearance to the joy of many. Now, I am not sure if having Panther portraying the Mighty Thor on the cover had everything to do with it, but on most of the comic book groups I am a member of on Facebook, this was the issue most people were glad to snatch up or regretted the most in missing out on. )OK, it probably had a little bit to do with the popularity.)
For some reason my wife and I got on the topic of the Pink Panther last night. So I decided what the heck and I went through my haul of FCBD finds to relive my child for a minute or two. The book starts out with the Panther explaining to readers how their parents used to enjoy his movies, cartoons, and comics. I thought it was a great idea having the character introduce himself since many of today's generation probably don't even know who the Pink Panther is.
After the introduction, we get an all new adventure in which Thor loses his hammer during a battle with Loki. When Mjolnir lands on earth, it looks like an ordinary claw hammer. Delighted at his find, Panther takes the hammer home. But when the cat goes to help a neighbor nail some pictures to her wall, the Panther discovers that there's something strange about his new tool
This comic features a second story; a classic tale from the 70s or 80s. While the story, about Panther getting trapped on a tropical island with a volcano problem, looked much more like the cartoons of my youth, the story features something that I don't ever recall happening in a Pink Panther cartoon- talking!
Both the Panther and Little Man, this time the chief of the island, have some witty banter with each other in the comics, but on the show- they never talked. Don't think that the Pink Panther show was 30 minutes of deafening silence, not one bit! The show had backup features like the Texas/ Tijuana Toads and the Ant and the Aardvark, who make a gag page appearance in this issue.
This book, published by newcomer American Mythology Comics was a great time machine back to my youth. It was very fast paced and lots of fun to read. I know that I use the word fun a lot but if a book isn't fun to read, why do it? And this preview of the new series was really fun AND funny!
The new Pink Panther series drops this month. If you can't find it ask your local comic book store to carry issue number #2 in time for a late July release. Until then, you can order a copy of the first issue at http://www.americanmythology.net. On the site,you can even catch some free Pink Panther cartoons like your mom and dad used to watch when they were kids and you'll understand why the Pink Panther is one cool cat.
Worth Consuming
Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment