Bob ran for a little over a season, 1992-93. It starred Bob Newhart as the title character of Bob McKay; a former comic book creator who was blacklisted thanks to the comics scare of the 1950s. Basically retired from the industry, Bob returns when he learns that his creation Mad-Dog is being brought back in a gritty modernized reboot. Hoping to keep his creation pure and innocent, Bob works with up-and-comer Harland Stone to craft a comic that hearkens back to those easier times of the 1950s while adapting to the Dark Knight Returns world of 90s comic books. This sort of balance was maintained pretty well by head screenwriter Mark Evanier, who knew the comics industry pretty well as the writer of Groo The Wanderer.
The collaborative effort of Bob and Harland is imagined here in this flip book. One one side, Bob McKay pens a quirky tale about alien cats seeking to make planet Earth their personal litter box. One the other is Harland's first chapter in the retooled modern adventures of a mysterious vigilante with sharp claws and a bad attitude.
In reality, Bob's idealized story is crafted by Ty Templeton (Batman Adventures) with Evan Dorkin (Milk and Cheese) taking on the modern story of Harland's. The two art and story styles could not be more different. Nor could be the reactions of the two creators. Templeton has said over the years that working on Mad-Dog was some of the most fun he ever had in comics. Meanwhile, Dorkin proclaims that working on this book was one of the dumbest things ever!
Ironically, I prefer Dorkin's grittier version of Mad-Dog. While I did like the Batman '66 take of Templeton's Mad-Dog, I was more draw to the 90s style. Sure, Dorkin's Mad-Dog looks like a canine version of Nomad. But for one reason or another, I liked it better.
Mad-Dog ran as a 6-issue miniseries. Whether it did anything to truly promote the show live tie-in is anyone's guess. Bob was the only show of it's scheduled night to be picked up for the 93-94 season. However, season two was a complete retool with the comic book angle replaced with Bob working for a greeting card company with Betty White as McKay's zany boss. Constant shifting of the show's schedule along with a dominating TGIF line-up from ABC brought about a swift death to the series right at the holiday break of 1993.
Finding the issues to this book wasn't hard. In fact, I constantly find copies of this book in bargain bins just about everywhere I go looking for bargain comic books. I think this was the 90s version of 'Bi-Clops', a Lenscrafters comic book in which Milhouse bought way too many copies of when he and Bart ran the Android's Dungeon for an ailing Comic Book Guy on The Simpsons.
I am sure that a lot of stores incorrectly thought that the comic book reader of the 1990s would go gaga for a comic book based on a Bob Newhart comedy. Thus, they ordered tons of were stuck with the issues for decades to come.
While I wouldn't recommend you going out of your way to track down the TV show this book was based on; I do think that if you can find all 6 books for $6 or less, you should do it. It's a pretty decent read by two very talented comic creators. It's not hard to find. Like I said, nearly every comic book store with a bargain bin in America has at least one full set hanging around somewhere gathering dust.
Fun stuff, Worth Consuming!
Rating: 7 out of 10 stars!s
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