Now, if you have read a lot of my interviews, or if you just know me…it’s no secret that I love cartoons. Cartoons are basically the reason why I love drawing, designing and making art. It was literally the first stepping stone one how I got to be the person I am today. I would spend hours and hours in front of the TV watching cartoons. I would get up early to catch Garfield and Friends before school, and sometimes I’d get lucky and get a late start to school because of snow or I was sick so I could catch Power Rangers or Beast Wars in the morning too! Then after school, KidsWB had a killer line-up of all their great cartoons…like Aladdin, Bonkers, Tale Spin…the list could go on. Saturdays were obviously the best, Fox Kids had the best cartoon line-up in the history of cartoons as far as I am concerned. And then the rest of the weekend would be spent watching Nickelodeon. Yes, I did spend a lot of time inside, my mom would have to literally force me to turn the TV off. But while I was watching TV, I would have a pad of paper and pencil in my hand and draw. These are a few of the cartoons I watched and had a huge influence on me.

The REAL Ghostbusters - This was probably the first cartoon I watched that I would have called my favorite. Although I don’t remember watching it too much when I was a kid, I do remember that I was crazy about it. I had every single toy there was to have, as well as other RGB crap like puzzles, posters and Shrinky Dinks! Going back and watching the cartoon (I bought the Complete Series last year) I can understand why I loved it show much, and I still love it. The stories aren’t dumbed down for kids, and some of them are actually pretty creepy. The character designs in the show are amazing, not just on the Ghostbusters and Slime…but on every single monster there is in the show. The character designer must of had a blast thinking up new monsters for each episode.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - You CANNOT have a cartoon list without including TMNT. This was MY cartoon, I knew everything there was to know about anything TMNT related. Of course I had every single toy as well as beach towels, sleeping bags…everything. This is the cartoon I look back on most fondly was was the first cartoon that really got me to draw the characters. I literally have tons of kindergarden notebooks filled with TMNT drawings. It’s safe to say, I was obsessed with TMNT, as was most of America. Looking back on the show today, it is so corny, but that’s part of the charm. I don’t think I could ever hate this cartoon for any reason. I think it’s the cause of be having a Pizza addiction as well.

Jonny Quest - I didn’t really get into this cartoon until the later years of my childhood, I didn’t really pay attention to all of the old Hannah-Barbera cartoon at the time. Once I got more heavily into art, I started to gain an appreciation for this cartoon. Every single cel from this cartoon looks like a comic book in motion. Everything about it is perfect, from the character designs to the cheesy adventure stories. I almost feel like this type of cartoon is lost with todays cartoons, everything looks so cheap. This cartoon looks so well thought out…it’s almost perfect.

X-Men – This cartoon introduced me to comic books. I didn’t really know or care about comic books until this cartoon came around, but I’m glad it did. The show almost felt like a 30 minute animated soap opera for kids, but I’m ok with that, it’s just what I needed around that age. Everything was so overdramatic in the show, looking back it seems silly, but I didn’t miss an episode of it. I still think that the Phoenix Saga is one of the greatest cartoon arc’s ever and I can’t believe they were able to put something like that on TV, especially for a children’s show.

Batman The Animated Series – There are few times were something so perfect comes around that it’s hard to argue it’s perfectness, this cartoon was one of those times. I bought the entire series a few years back on DVD and re-watched them and the cartoon still holds up today, for both kids and adults. There is nothing dumb about this cartoon at all, it’s incredibly smart. From the character designs, to the writing and even the music…all of these things put together are what makes this cartoon perfect. No cartoon before or after has been able to match how great this is. It’s been so influential to not only other cartoons, but even comic books, that it has it’s own place in the Batman continuity, even by creating new characters and fleshing out old ones that people may have forgotten about. Looking through my old elementary notebooks, there are tons and tons of square jawed Batman drawings. I don’t think this cartoon will even be irrelevant.

welp…that’s it for now. Part 2 will come whenever I think of more stuff to talk about, and when I have more free time….(there is probably a ton of spelling errors, but I typed to much and I don’t really feel like proof-reading)