The Comic Strip (TV series)
Encyclopedia
The Comic Strip was an American animated series which featured four rotating cartoon segments. The 30-minute series ran in first-run syndication
during the 1987-1988 season and was also seen on RPN-9 in the Philippines
.
Despite the show title, the segments have no history in newspaper comic strip
s.
The was the last TV series produced by Rankin/Bass Productions
, and distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures
.
Typically, two segments, each running about 10 minutes, were shown on each broadcast.
releases of certain episodes of The Comic Strip were made available in 1987. These VHS tapes each featured three installments of one particular cartoon. For example, the video "Adventures at Camp Mini-Mon" contained three episodes: "Camp Mini-Mon The First Day," "The Belly Ache," and "Alien."
To date, there have been no formal DVD
releases of this series in the United States.
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
during the 1987-1988 season and was also seen on RPN-9 in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
.
Despite the show title, the segments have no history in newspaper comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
s.
The was the last TV series produced by Rankin/Bass Productions
Rankin/Bass
Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc. , also known as Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment, was an American production company, known for its seasonal television specials, particularly its work in stop-motion animation. The pre-1974 library is currently owned by Classic Media,while the post-1974 library is...
, and distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures
Lorimar Productions
Lorimar, later known as Lorimar Television and Lorimar Distribution, was an American television production company that was later a subsidiary of Warner Bros., active from 1969 until 1993...
.
Segments
The four segments offered were:- The Mini-Monsters: Normal human siblings Sherman and Melissa find themselves in for a surprise when they are sent to summer camp one year. Camp Mini-Mon turns out to be attended by monster kids who are offspring of usually famous monsters, a witch and MerlinMerlinMerlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
. They are Dracky (DraculaDraculaDracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
's son), Franky (FrankensteinFrankensteinFrankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
's son), Wolfie (The Wolf ManThe Wolf ManThe Wolf Man is a 1941 American Werewolf Horror film written by Curt Siodmak and produced and directed by George Waggner. The film stars Lon Chaney, Jr. as The Wolf Man, featuring Claude Rains, Evelyn Ankers, Ralph Bellamy, Patric Knowles, Béla Lugosi, and Maria Ouspenskaya...
's son), Gill, the son of The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Mummo The MummyThe Mummy (franchise)The Mummy is any one of three series of adventure films about an ancient Egyptian priest accidentally resurrected, who brings with him a powerful curse, and the efforts of heroic archeologists to stop him.-Universal Horror Films:...
's son, Blanko the Invisible ManThe Invisible ManThe Invisible Man is a science fiction novella by H.G. Wells published in 1897. Wells' novel was originally serialised in Pearson's Weekly in 1897, and published as a novel the same year...
's son, Klutz, who may or may not be GodzillaGodzillais a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...
's son, Winifred (a.k.a. Jinx), a witch's daughter, and Melvin, the son of the wizard Merlin, accompanied by Caufield, the talking crow. - Street Frogs: Depicting the typical teen-aged hijinks of a gang of street-smart frogs, similar to Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesTeenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesThe Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a fictional team of four teenage anthropomorphic turtles, who were trained by their anthropomorphic rat sensei in the art of ninjutsu and named after four Renaissance artists...
,' named Big Max, Spider, Moose The Loose, "Honey Love" Loretta and Dr. Slick. Each episode contains a musical number. - Karate KatKarate KatKarate Kat is an animated children's television series. It was developed by Rankin/Bass and distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures in 1987. The show is about Karate Kat, a brown cat who's somehow skilled in Martial arts and uses it against crime. He is usually seen wearing a blue suit with a red tie...
: Starring a crime-fighting cat. Similar to Hong Kong PhooeyHong Kong PhooeyHong Kong Phooey is a 16-episode Hanna-Barbera animated series that first aired on ABC Saturday morning from to . The main character, Hong Kong Phooey, is a superhero who uses Chinese martial arts to fight crime. Hong Kong Phooey is the secret alter ego of Penrod "Penry" Pooch, a "mild-mannered"...
and long before SWAT Kats: The Radical SquadronSWAT Kats: The Radical SquadronSWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron is an animated series for television created by Christian and Yvon Tremblay and produced by Hanna-Barbera and Turner Program Services. Every episode of the series was directed by Robert Alvarez. The bulk of the series was written by either Glenn Leopold or Lance Falk...
, this show takes place in a world inhabited by anthropomorphic cats. - TigerSharksTigerSharksTigerSharks is an American animated children's television series developed by Rankin/Bass and distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures in 1987. The series involved a team of heroes that could transform into sharks and other marine animals and resembled the series ThunderCats and SilverHawks, also...
: About a group of powered up human/marine hybrids who became involved in underwater adventures. This show was animated like its two predecessors ThunderCatsThunderCatsThunderCats is an American animated television series that was produced by Rankin/Bass Productions debuting in 1984, based on the characters created by Tobin "Ted" Wolf. The series follows the adventures of a group of cat-like humanoid aliens...
and SilverHawksSilverhawksSilverHawks is an American animated television series developed by Rankin/Bass and distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures in 1986. The animation was provided by Japanese studio Pacific Animation Corporation. In total, 65 episodes were made...
. Each episode consisted of two parts.
Typically, two segments, each running about 10 minutes, were shown on each broadcast.
Video Releases
VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
releases of certain episodes of The Comic Strip were made available in 1987. These VHS tapes each featured three installments of one particular cartoon. For example, the video "Adventures at Camp Mini-Mon" contained three episodes: "Camp Mini-Mon The First Day," "The Belly Ache," and "Alien."
To date, there have been no formal DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
releases of this series in the United States.
External links
- The Comic Strip at the TV.comTV.comTV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...
- Petition To Get The Comic Strip Released On DVD.