Greetings fellow RetroJunkers. After some much needed time outside of the internet, I have made a comeback. So without further ado, here's my next article.


You know, with all of the members here, "I wish I had a time machine" seems to be a cliche saying on this site. I'll admit, I was one of the first to say that here, but visiting a whole decade isn't in mind for me. No, when it comes to going into my past, I want to look into the cartoons that made me the artist I am today. Now if you've seen my previous article, "From doodling to drawing", you may get a better idea of where I'm coming from. As I go into the cartoons that inspired me, I will describe and summarize the shows in my own words, and what became an inspiration from that certain show.


The world of David the gnome (late 80's)



I was still in my baby years when this show premiered, however during the dawn of the 90's it aired on Nickelodeon's early scheduled network, Nick. Jr., and followed shows like Rugrats on its timeslot. The show followed a married gnome named David who often went on adventures to cure sick animals, and had a fox companion named Swift, who was often used for quick travel. This show had me learn that not all cartoons have to be the zany/goofy types that I normally grew up with, but they can also be captivating. To this day, I still consider this cartoon to be one of my favorites, and one of the most important for my character and novel development.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (late 80's)



I think it's safe to say that almost every person my age loved this cartoon. My brother had almost every video tape from F.H.E. (Family Home Entertainment). The cartoon followed four turtles that were mutated by a strange substance known as mutagen, but are also after a villain named "The Shredder". The turtles, named after rennaisance masters, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo, had ninja weapons of their own to help dispose of any foes that are in their way. Though they didn't really rely on using them for combat, they would use them to make certain obstacles get in their enemies' way, such as tossing oil containers and knocking them out. But even with some action here and there, the turtles provide their own personalities, and their day of villain butt-kicking is never complete without a slice of pizza. I considered the episodes very creative for their time, as the turtles had many other baddies to fight throughout the series, thus it gave me the idea to brainstorm story plots for upcoming novels that I had in mind.

Bucky O' Hare (early 90's)

I don't remember much from this show, but to put it in my own words it's "the Star Fox that never was". The cartoon was about a green humanoid rabbit, Bucky, who's an intergalactic bounty hunter and his primary mission in the series is to defeat an alien army known as "the Toad menace", which is precise to what the aliens look like, toads. On Bucky's side are two other humanoid animals, a cat-like girl named Jenny and a four-armed duck named Dead-Eye Duck who carried multiple gun blasters. Bucky himself carried a gun, but from what I'd heard after a decade later was that the series was cancelled since guns were a serious no-no to this point in the years of cartoons, though most of the battles had dogfights in space as Bucky and the Toads themselves had airships. This show gave me a heavy influence on writing adventure stories, and it's a very original series to me.

Sam & Max: Freelance Police! (late 90's)



This show premiered on Fox Kids around the year of 1997 and followed two characters, Sam, a detective dog, and Max, an excitable and comedic rabbit, who's also Sam's partner. Throughout the episodes, they would get a phone call from a mysterious commissioner and go to different places around the world, including the center of the Earth. This was a very entertaining Saturday morning cartoon for its time, and it brought creativity for characters I made that were involved with the comedy genre. It brought a lot of laughs despite its humor, but as a children's show, it's a great show for parents and kids alike.

Invader Zim (early 2000's)



At the time, this seemed like a good cartoon of my taste since I was in a state of depression during my late middle school year. The show was about a short but villainous alien named Zim, who, after getting rejected from an alien invasion project called "Impending Doom 2" from his race, the Irkens, goes on a mission to conquer Earth. He's accompanied, by an insane and malfunctioned droid named "Gir", although he gets in the way of Zim at times and makes things worse for him. He becomes a resident of a suburban town on Earth by giving himself a human-like disguise, but is often followed by a human named Dib, who's curious to overthrow Zim's plan to conquer Earth. The show followed heavily on Sci-Fi action and dark humor, and I grew to love the series as it showed on Nickelodeon during its time. This was one of the many inspirations for a goth character that I had developed, and became a staple to the character personality as well.


Well, that about wraps it up for this one. I know it seemed short, but I wanted to include the most important animated shows that were inspired by my work. See you next article everyone!