Review — Evoking The Best Of Saturday Morning Cartoons With ‘The Herculoids’ #1

Welcome to the table,

I really like The Herculoids. One of my earliest memories was trying to launch wads of paper towels out of a tube. I was pretending to be Tundro in some place I have long forgotten the layout or address of. I do remember how the Saturday morning sun played on the blinds, though, and how images of space barbarians fighting cosmic threats looked flashing across a small TV in the corner of the living room.

The Herculoids was a classic Saturday morning cartoon designed by the legendary Alex Toth and produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. It focused on the space barbarian family of Zandor, Tara, and their son Dorno, along with some fun alien creatures who aided them in protecting the world from threats above and below.

This series was in syndication when I was a kid. I always delighted when it came on, so when I found out that Dynamite Entertainment was publishing The Herculoids comic, I knew I had to not only interview the writer Thomas Sniegoski (you can find that at this link), but I also had to be the one who got to review this book.

So let’s get into it!

The book kicks off with space mercenary Quen-Tel sitting down with a cyborg-alien to discuss the location of the fabled planet Amzot. This is immediately a cool nod to the past incarnations of the Herculoids. I really loved this touch because I have known the planet of the Herculoids by “Quasar” as well as Amzot, and I love when a small bit of dialog not only pays fan-service, but also ties up loose lore ends.

Once Quen-Tel snatches the location of Amzot from the cyborg-alien’s mind, he sets off with his crew of minions to drain the fabled planet of its natural resources.

And that’s the plot. An alien with ill intent is going to go to a hard to find utopian world devoid of pollution and corruption to strip it of it’s natural resources for wealth and power.

The alien threat shows up on Amzot, they harm the world, there is a really sad moment, and then the Herculoids do what they do best: defend the planet from that threat in a classically cool cartoon way. It’s simple, in the way that when you crave a really good cheeseburger that is exactly what you want. Not something fancy, not something crazy with experimental sauces and bread made of black tofu wrappers or something. You just want a cheeseburger. When you get it, it really hits the spot.

I love all sorts of fun food, it’s an adventure to try it all, but sometimes that simple, basic, deliciously class cheeseburger is the only thing that scratches that itch. The Herculoids is for sure my classic cheeseburger.

The comic book series, in its debut issue, does the thing I love the most when it comes to nostalgic media based on Saturday morning cartoons. From cover to cover, it comes off as a more bombastic, beautiful illustrated, brilliantly colored, skillfully well-written version of the Saturday morning cartoon it is based on.

I want every Herculoid toy, every lunch box, and to read every issue over and over again in the same way I wanted all those things based on the cartoons of the past. This is the comic I wanted when they told me they were making a Herculoids book. I know virtually nothing about the larger plot at this point; the first issue is just a setup. We only really see the titular team in total in the last few pages.

I have no clue where this series is going and, honestly, I am totally okay with that. The first issue is beautiful in no small part to Craig Rousseau on lines and Omi Remalante Jr on colors. It feels like a Saturday morning cartoon and it has a ton of energy and heart folded into it. The hardest part about this whole thing is having to wait until the next issue comes out.

Until next time, I could easily read this book twice a month if the publishing schedule complied, and again … nothing even happens in the first issue, it’s just a fun time!