Most of us are aware that over the decades, various and sundry popular comic strips have been adapted into animation, with perhaps two of the most noteworthy examples being PEANUTS (with Good Ol' Charlie Brown) and GARFIELD - both of which have spawned animated specials, series, movies, the works. Even less popular comics have seen their share of animated adaptations, like THE FAMILY CIRCUS.

Since we're always looking to engage in discussions around here, I felt like this one was a given . . . so much so that maybe a thread for it already exists, but I'm kinda too lazy to see if it does. So basically, it's pretty straight forward: what comics do you read, love, grew up with, etc. that you'd like to see animated?

Number one choice for me is GET FUZZY. It was always my favorite newspaper comic - Darby Conley's art style is a lot more detailed than most other comic strips, it seems like it would perfectly translate well into the world of animation. Matter of fact, I heartell there were plans for a GET FUZZY movie sometime in the mid-2000s at the height of the comic's popularity, but somehow that never came into fruition. The writing and humor also feels like to me it would have made for a great 90s Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network show, given the slight edge it has . . . or, it could have gone the BABY BLUES or BOONDOCKS route and have been adapted into a full-blown adult cartoon series, but I generally don't care for how much of adult animation foregoes storytelling in favor of pushing the envelope in terms of content because, “Dur-hur! Look what we can get away with, cuz cartoons aren't just for kids!”

Apparently LUANN had been adapted into a high school musical . . . interesting choice I suppose. Once again, it's not just the art style that's appealing, but it also has a huge cast of characters that are, for the most part, really defined and well-rounded, but could probably benefit for being expanded upon further in ways that an animated series could allow to happen, as opposed to the constraints of a comic strip format.

A FOXTROT animated series would definitely have a multi-demographic appeal, since you have characters of varying ages that reflect the trials and tribulation of childhood and adolescence in ways that are relatable to kids and teens, but you also have flustered parents who also have their own shares of struggles brought on by both domestic situations, as well as what's happening in the world around us. Granted, we've seen family dynamics like this many times before - both animated and live action, but I also have always liked how FOXTROT finds way to cleverly inject some social commentary into the gags.

It may be obvious but I always thought one day we would see that Calvin and Hobbes cartoon series. if they made one i missed it

I'd love a concrete movie or series! a hand drawn style would be ideal, covering his backstory and the Atlantic swim or a completely original storyline would be awesome

takoyama wrote:
It may be obvious but I always thought one day we would see that Calvin and Hobbes cartoon series. if they made one i missed it

CALVIN & HOBBES almost seems like a given! But then again, I understand Bill Watterson was really protective of his property, he even wouldn't allow the characters to be merchandised . . . that's why whenever you see those car decals of Calvin peeing on a cross, those are unofficial, unlicensed products.

takoyama wrote:
It may be obvious but I always thought one day we would see that Calvin and Hobbes cartoon series. if they made one i missed it

Calvin and Hobbes brings up such feelings of nostalgia for me. An animated series would be amazing!

That or maybe some Far Side shorts!

Seeing this thread I was thinking PEARLS BEFORE SWINE and found out shorts were done years ago. So thanks. GET FUZZY just got mean towards the end back in 2019 and Bucky became very unlikable. They'd really have to change up a lot for it to work.

Remember what happened to OVER THE HEDGE after the movie came out? It couldn't top its success and sort became irrelevant. That's the danger with an animated series. If it's too successful the comic could be doomed. Not everything has the staying power and genius of PEANUTS or is able to reinvent itself like BLONDIE.

Does anyone even remember the Blondie movies with Penny Singleton? Did you know there were extremely forgettable Beetle Bailey and Hagar the Horrible cartoons? Some comics get extremely forgettable movies and shows and just keep going.

So you do what Crumb did to Fritz the Cat. They make a movie you kill the character. In case anyone cares That's what the “hur, hur, adult comics ” thing is. It was fifty years ago and people in the business still remember how it seemingly came out of nowhere and was so huge and changed things.

But thanks again for starting this thread and inspiring me to look and find the Pearls Before Swine shorts.

I actually had no idea that OVER THE HEDGE existed as a comic strip before DreamWorks made that movie, in fact, I had never even heard of it, I don't believe that comic ever ran in my papers. Then again, my paper only started running PEARLS BEFORE SWINE not too many years ago, as they did with LUANN and MARMADUKE; on the flip side, they dropped GET FUZZY and SHERMAN'S LAGOON years ago (the former makes sense, as it apparently has been discontinued altogether).

Even prior to his cartoon series, there was a BEETLE BAILEY short on SESAME STREET in the 70s to demonstrate first and last:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXCH8hjF_PQ

Once upon a time all the syndicates were in New York so everything was in New Jersey papers to compete with New York papers. So we'd get nearly everything.

CURTIS is another one. I had never heard of it until READING RAINBOW did a segment about Ray Billingsley, showing his creative process of how he makes a CURTIS comic strip. It ran in our papers for a little while in the late 2000s and into the New Tens, but has since been dropped again.

You don't see CURTIS because of where you live. Demographics play a big role in regional syndication. Ray Billingsley was born in SC but grew up in Harlem. I always pictured the characters living in Newark rather than Harlem making it a must run for the Newark Star Ledger. That paper ceased publication earlier this year so I'm stuck with the USA Today issued funny pages which drop comics for any kind of controversy at all.
I have a personal attachment to CURTIS because that's my middle name.

Yeah, makes sense, and with this being the racist white south, a comic strip about a black kid probably wouldn't be popular.

On an unrelated note, Darby Conley spent a great deal of his childhood growing up in my hometown, so GET FUZZY would occasionally slip in little local references, which were always fun to pick up on as a local reader. For example, Rob once wore a t-shirt for the 1982 World's Fair that was held in our Scruffy City.

I love me some GET FUZZY. That comic strip was part of my daily routine in the post 9/11 months when my family subscribed to the daily delivered paper newspaper for the day’s headline article and the comics section.


I would really like to see an animated version of Arnold Lobel’s illustrated book, OWL AT HOME. It would look best in hand-drawn animation like the WATERSHIP DOWN film from the 1970s or the recent FROG AND TOAD ARE FRIENDS claymation.

OWL AT HOME looks like it could easily be adapted into the sorts of one-off animated specials I would see on HBO from time to time in the 90s and 2000s . . . as a matter of fact, the book's illustration style reminds me a little of the late Michael Sporn's work, such as his WHITEWASH special.

On that subject, I actually wasn't aware that Harvey Fierstein's THE SISSY DUCKLING was adapted from a children's book he wrote, but it was certainly a charming story that I could really, really relate to, being a weird artistic kid growing up among peers who were more into things like sports and the like.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
CURTIS is another one. I had never heard of it until READING RAINBOW did a segment about Ray Billingsley, showing his creative process of how he makes a CURTIS comic strip. It ran in our papers for a little while in the late 2000s and into the New Tens, but has since been dropped again.

my local newspaper had curtis and i live in VA. another cartoon i would like to see if only for a weird kind of curiosity would be a mary worth or a rex morgan md

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
I love me some GET FUZZY. That comic strip was part of my daily routine in the post 9/11 months when my family subscribed to the daily delivered paper newspaper for the day’s headline article and the comics section.


I would really like to see an animated version of Arnold Lobel’s illustrated book, OWL AT HOME. It would look best in hand-drawn animation like the WATERSHIP DOWN film from the 1970s or the recent FROG AND TOAD ARE FRIENDS claymation.

speaking of watership down i always appreciated the special presentation cartoon because back then cartoons on a weekday or night was unheard of. i was introduced to the lion the witch and the wardrobe from the cartoon and puff the magic dragon.

Charby the Vampirate.

Seriously. Crap like Hazbin Hotel gets so much love but Charby is RIPE for that treatment! It would be a glorious epic.

Ozoneocean wrote:
Charby the Vampirate.

Seriously. Crap like Hazbin Hotel gets so much love but Charby is RIPE for that treatment! It would be a glorious epic.

YES! It would be epic and a great series.

To reverse it, I always thought Simply Sarah would work great as a live action series.

Interstellar Battle Girls.

- They could even make action figures and t-shirts.

bravo1102 wrote:
To reverse it, I always thought Simply Sarah would work great as a live action series.

I still sometimes think back to the time I considered adapting VAMPIRE GIRL into a live action short film . . . on that subject, actor Bill Byrge, otherwise known as Silent Bobby from the Ernest movie, recently passed away, and I could've seen him playing the Wizard. I still feel like Ainsley Seiger could pull off Levana though.

But if we're also going to include webcomics, then I'm going to have to let my personal bias come into play and say my friend Kevin Magpoc's comic IDGet - not only is his art style unique and unlike anyone else's, but his humor and writing can be both satirical and non-sensical at once, which would be fun to watch in animated form.

Any of Chris M. Cantrell's work, such as PLEASE REWIND and THE DEADLYS already look like the kind of cartoons I grew up with in the 90s, so they feel like they'd be a natural fit for animation.

KINGDOM OF CATS could work as a cute little preschool show, and FROGTREE COMICS' style is reminisicent of SOUTH PARK.

It's hard for me to answer. I'd obviously pick one of my own, but if not, I'd pick a manga (20th Century Boys) or for it to be live action instead of animated (Kraven's Last Hunt)… I guess I could enjoy most comics from here I've read, but especially something like A Lunatics Tale animated. I know Charby is super popular and I should take a full dive into it, I suspect that it eventually becomes a coherent story with exciting developments, all I know is that I'm very easily put off by cruelty and glorifying cruelty… especially if it's part of the protagonist's charm, so I guess that + being episodic discouraged me after the first few dozens of pages, if you guys say that's much less prominent later on, I'll definitely pick it up again soon.

I want All-Star Batman & Robin to get animated.

I don't care how much people hated it, I loved it and thought it was hilarious, I can't wait to hear the line actually voice acted.