Jim Toomey (left) has created many colorful cast members, including Hawthorne (right), a hermit crab who likes to make a fast buck and whose visible parts protrude from an old beer can.

Note to animators: Toomey is very accomplished but does not draw with considerable detail. His bug-eyed, loony marine creatures will not put a strain on any good animator. Note that with the exception of a string of pearls, Megan and Sherman are nearly identical. Megan is a shade lighter in coloration, and the crew in digital ink-and-paint may want to pronounce this difference a bit more in scenes where the two are together. The strip features a crab, a vitriolic sea captain, and a bookish sea turtle; there is some danger in coming up with “stock” voices for these roles. My advice to voice casting and voice artists is to mix it up a little and go against type; that may lend a more offbeat note to the series/special.

Who might buy: Any of the Big Three

The hectic pace of modern family life is lampooned in Edge City. Len, a harried husband and dad, authors a deliberately provocative blog and plays lead guitar for a band. © 2004 Terry and Patty LaBan.

Edge City
Finally, something oriented more toward the family. My last pick is Edge City by the husband-and-wife team Terry and Patty LaBan. Although this domestic comedy is several levels below the weirdness found in The Simpsons or Family Guy, there may be room on television for a series or special a bit closer to home. The hectic pace of modern family life is lovingly lampooned through the adventures of the Arden family. Len, a harried husband and dad, runs Leadfoot Couriers along with business partner Ragiv. When not buried in the business or rushing his kids around to sundry activities, Len authors a deliberately provocative blog and plays lead guitar for a band of fogeys called Midlife Crisis.

Len’s wife, Abby, is a therapist in group practice trying to balance self-care with patient care, family crises, her own nutty parents and the unrelenting mayhem of daily existence. Son Colin and daughter Carly are seemingly involved in every activity ever devised to occupy a child, and even Harry, the family cat, contributes to the whirlwind occupied by the Ardins. Nothing controversial or unusual here, simply a solid family comedy that reads better than Baby Blues (a similar strip that got an animated shot at primetime). Terry’s wife Patty helps to write the strip; she is a licensed social worker, and undoubtedly brings a slice-of-life approach to the situations that Terry draws.

It’s a family act for the LaBans: Patty, a licensed social worker, co-writes the strip, while Terry has been working for years as an illustrator and cartoonist.

Terry LaBan has experience drawing underground comix and has been working for years as an illustrator and cartoonist. At last glance, LaBan was developing his own animated series and pitching it to Nickelodeon, so it’s a good bet that he is aware of how to put together and pitch a cartoon show. That alone would bode well for having his comic strip make the jump to animated form.

Note to animators: It’s not surprising that LaBan, who did illustrations for Nickelodeon magazine, wants to get into animation. His appealing characters already look as if they were designed for a cartoon series, and there is nary a stiff pose among them. The strip has a smooth, graphic feel that ought to make a breezy transition to the animated medium, and there won’t be anything more difficult to do than come up with walk cycles.

Who might buy: Any of the Big Three.

And there you have it. Doubtless there will be comments from the readership suggesting many more strips ranging from the popular to the virtually obscure, and this is well and good. Many animated shows on television are beginning to look and sound distressingly similar, and a new infusion of style would certainly do no harm. That being said, here are four primetime worthy candidates that could more than fill the bill. See you in the funny papers.

This column marks my sixth year with Animation World Magazine. My thanks to Darlene Chan, Dan Sarto, Sarah Baisley and Rick DeMott for bringing my views on animation to you, my beloved readership.

Martin “Dr. Toon” Goodman is a longtime student and fan of animation. He lives in Anderson, Indiana.