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| The Comic Strip | |
|---|---|
 Official logo | |
| Developed by | Jules Bass Arthur Rankin Jr. |
| Voices of | Donald Acree Josh Blake Camille Bonora Gary V. Brown Jim Brownold Eddie Castrodad Danielle DuClos Seth Green Earl Hammond Maggie Jakobson Larry Kenney Carmen de Lavallade Bob McFadden Jim Meskimen Peter Newman Gordy Owens Gerrianne Raphael Ron Taylor Tanya Willoughby Daniel Wooten |
| Music by | Bernard Hoffer |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 65 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Jules Bass Arthur Rankin, Jr. |
| Running time | 20 minutes |
| Production companies | Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment Pacific Animation Corporation |
| Original release | |
| Network | Syndication |
| Release | September 7 (1987-09-07) – December 4, 1987 (1987-12-04) |
The Comic Strip is an American animated series that features four rotating cartoon segments:The Mini-Monsters,Street Frogs,Karate Kat andTigerSharks. The 90-minute series ran in first-runsyndication during the 1987 season.[1]
This was the last TV series produced byRankin/Bass Productions, and distributed byLorimar-Telepictures, before Rankin/Bass Partners dissolved in 2001.
Two segments were shown on each broadcast where they each ran for about 10 minutes. The four rotating segments offered were:[2]
A segment where normal human twin siblings Sherman (voiced bySeth Green) and Melissa Baxter find themselves in for a surprise when they are sent to summer camp for one year by their overwhelmed parents. Camp Mini-Mon turns out to be run by an organ-playing shadowy camp director (voiced byPeter Newman) with his pet vulture, and attended by monster kids who are offspring of usually famous monsters, mad scientists,mutants, awitch, andMerlin (voiced byEarl Hammond). They areCount Dracula's son Dracky,Frankenstein's son Franky,The Wolf Man's comedic son Wolfie,The Creature from the Black Lagoon's son Lagoon (voiced byBob McFadden) who is a certifiedlifeguard,The Mummy's boxing son Mummo, theInvisible Man's son Blanka, Klutz (voiced byBob McFadden) the clumsy giant lizard monster who may or may not be related toGodzilla, Jynx the Witch (voiced byMaggie Wheeler), and Merlin's son Melvin accompanied by Cawfield the talking crow (voiced byEarl Hammond). In addition, the camp director is assisted by the camp counselor Garrison and the grandson ofDr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (voiced byBob McFadden) who works as the camp's physician.
A segment depicting the typical teen-aged hijinks of a gang of street-smartfrogs named Dr. Slick, Big Max (voiced byBob McFadden), Spider, Moose The Loose, and "Honey Love" Loretta (voiced by Tanya Willoughby) in an 80s-themed world inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. They are also on good terms with aturtle named Snappy Sam (voiced byRon Taylor) who is thechef and proprietor of the diner that Loretta works at and the town'sDJ TyphoonToad. Apart from Rankin-Bass regularBob McFadden, this segment featured an African-American cast. Ron Taylor also provides the theme song vocals for this segment. Each episode contains a musical number.
In a late 50s/early 60s-themed world inhabited by anthropomorphic cats, Karate Kat (voiced byBob McFadden) is aprivate investigator who uses his karate to fight crime in his town which is usually in the form ofcrime boss Big Papa (voiced byEarl Hammond) and his two lackeys named Boom-Boom Burmese (voiced byLarry Kenney) and Sumo Sai (voiced byEarl Hammond). When working at for McClaws's Detective Agency run by his short-tempered boss Katie "Big Mama" McClaw (voiced byGerrianne Raphael) who is Big Papa's ex-wife, Karate Kat is assisted by his friends/co-workers like his best friend/sparring partner Katgut (voiced byEarl Hammond), inventor Dr. Katmandu (voiced byLarry Kenney), Ciao-Baby and her sister Meow-Baby (both voiced byMaggie Jacobsen), and the aptly-named Katatonic (voiced byBob McFadden). Karate Kat's catchphrase is "I'm lean, I'm mean, I'm a karate machine" as he spin-changes from his private investigator attire into his karate attire in order to fight crime.
A group of powered-up human/sea animal hybrids consisting of Mako (voiced byPeter Newman), Walro (voiced byEarl Hammond), Dolph (voiced byLarry Kenney), Octavia (voiced byCamille Bonora), Lorca, Bronc, Angel, and Gupp become involved in underwater adventures on the planet Water-O that has them facing off against villains like T-Ray and Captain Bizzarly (voiced byEarl Hammond). Each episode consisted of two parts.
The show was also seen onABC Television inAustralia, onRPN-9 in thePhilippines, onRTM 1 inMalaysia (where it was shown after the American children's educational seriesSesame Street), onFun Channel in theMiddle East, onTV 4 inTrinidad and Tobago, onATV inHong Kong (as part of their children's television strand calledTube Time), onTVJ inJamaica and onRai 2 inItaly.
VHS releases of certain episodes ofThe 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."
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