John Kalisz

DC's modern, adult updates of the Hanna-Barbera Universe have not worked for me at all, but I wanted to try one more before giving up since it was written by Garth Ennis, a long-time favorite of mine. I shouldn't have bothered though.

I'm not very familiar with the Dick Dastardly and Muttley characters as I never watched Wacky Races or their spin-off show when I was a kid. I thought they were in the background sometimes during the Laff-a-Lympics cartoon back in the late 1970s, but a quick Google search reveals that Hanna-Barbera actually created a couple of knock-offs for that called Mumbly and the Dread Baron because rights weren't available for Muttley and Dick Dastardly at the time. So, no, I have no attachment at all.

And Ennis does little to make me feel attached. Lt. Colonel Richard "Dick" Atcherly and Captain Dudley "Mutt" Muller are U.S. Air Force officers investigating a nuclear explosion in a foreign country when they encounter a drone that is magically transforming those who come into contact with it into cartoon characters. So Muller gets a dog head and Atcherly starts vamping like an old-timey, mustache-twirling villain. They become fugitives pursued by people who are also transforming into cartoon characters. Nothing funny or interesting ensues.

For some reason, rather than having cameos from other Hanna-Barbera characters, Ennis instead squeezes in a few Looney Tunes and Disney icons, mashing some of them up with Lovecraftian monsters -- just 'cuz.

Boring and pointless.

FOR REFERENCE:

Originally published in single magazine form as Dastardly & Muttley (2017-2018) 1-6.

Contents: Dastardly & Muttley, Chapters 1-6 / Garth Ennis, writer; Mauricet, artist and cover artist -- Variant Cover Gallery: Liam Sharp, Emanuela Lupacchino, Mark Morales, John McCrea, Steve Pugh, Howard Chaykin, and Bill Sienkiewicz, illustrators -- Draw that Pigeon! Character designs and sketches / Mauricet, illustrator… (més)