Written by: Howard Chaykin
Art by: Mac Rey
Hanna-Barbera’s first TV characters get recast as washed-up comedians from the 50s. The dog, Reddy, is depicted as an alcoholic in and out of rehab, and the cat, Ruff, as other a money-hungry asshole. The two can barely contain their disdain for one another or for Hollywood itself, which is filled with grifters, opportunists, dejected agents, and on and on.
There’s also a shocking amount of animal innuendos.
From the 8-page intro story, art and writing by Chaykin
This was a bizarre era for corporate IP, where corporations wanted to utilize their back-catalogs but weren’t picky about how to do it. As part of the Hanna-Barbera Beyond line, this book was an attempt to bring new life to characters that were previously used as limited-animation bad-joke machines. In doing so, Chaykin ended up stripping away almost all that the characters were, which wasn’t much to begin with. But what we get is so weird that I almost don’t care.
I think corporations are more cautious about how they use their IP now; at the very least, the double-entendres would probably have to be toned down.
I have no idea if I’d call this “good” or not, but I was constantly entertained and fascinated. Mac Rey’s art is simple but effective, depicting anthropomorphic characters among humans in a way that bridges the gap between the two: Humans appear cartoon-like, and cartoons appear human-like. The lack of character outlines is a nice choice, calling back to 2000s cartoons like “Samurai Jack” and “The Life and Times of Juniper Lee.”
Chaykin, however, is a bizarre writer; he seems intent on making this as raunchy as he can get away with (which was a LOT), while telling a basic Hollywood story that could have worked in any other medium. Frankly, I’m not sure why he told this story here and not with literally any other characters. Then again, if he had, I probably wouldn’t have read it. So, uh, checkmate, I guess?
Apparently, so few people read or reviewed this that all pull-quotes were from Chaykin himself. The version currently available on DC Universe eliminates these altogether, leaving just a blank white space. All is ephemeral; enjoy it while you can.
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