As you may have noticed, the output for this webcomic has experienced a drop lately. There’s a couple of causes for that, most of them personal. I expect to be back on track in a few days, but in the meantime, I thought I’d share a link to my long-ago boyhood past…
I met Denver Brubaker at the Summit City Comic Con last summer. Denver’s a really great guy, and if you’re not reading Tales of a Checkered Man, you should. One of the things I mentioned to Denver was that Checkered Man, for some reason, reminded me of an old cartoon called “Cool McCool.”
Now for those who have no idea what “Cool McCool” is, here’s a quick cut-and-paste from Wikipedia:
Cool McCool was an animated series that ran on NBC from September 10, 1966 to August 30, 1969 with three segments per show, running to 60 segments in all. It was created by Bob Kane – most famous as the creator of Batman – and produced by Al Brodax for King Features.
Riffing off the then-popular genres of superheroes and James Bond spy adventures, Cool McCool featured the adventures of a hip, trenchcoated spy, who – as on the contemporary TV show Get Smart – defeated villains despite being comically inept. Villains included the Rattler, Hurricane Harry, Greta Ghoul, the Owl, Jack-In-The-Box and Dr. Madcap. McCool’s boss was known as Number One, although his face was never seen onscreen; only his arms and a cigar were visible behind his chair (a reference to another contemporary spy show – The Prisoner, which featured a spy looking for Number One who ran the prison he found himself in). Number One’s secretary was Friday, a dumpy girl who had an unrequited crush on the secret agent. McCool had three catchphrases: “Danger is my business!” “When you’re right, Number One, you’re right,” and (after bungling something) “That will never happen again.”
Recently, I came across the show’s opening theme on YouTube. I checked it out, wondering if I was right with my Checkered Man theory. And I was… but just a little. Both rely on images of their heroes negotiating their way through urban settings at night with danger all around. That’s about it though. Frankly, The Checkered Man has it all over McCool.
But here’s a chance for you to compare for yourself. Check out thecheckeredman.com (which you really should do anyway…) then take a look at the Cool McCool opening theme, which I’ve embedded below. Whatever you may think of the cartoon, you gotta admit that this is a very catchy theme…
Again, I’m sorry for the recently-decreased output, but I should be back to a normal schedule soon.
“That will never happen again…”
(I hope)
