The Comic Strip



The Comic Strip was a 1987 Rankin/Bass Productions Animated Series which ran for one season, 65 episodes in all.

The premise: four different cartoons (with different animation styles) were shown in rotation sequence, with two of the four appearing in roughly 12-minute slots per 30-minute episode.

The four cartoons were:
 * Mini Monsters, which chronicled the adventures of two normal children at a summer camp also attended by the children of some of fiction's most famous monsters (including the children of Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolf Man);
 * Karate Kat, about an anthropomorphic cat detective who fought crime using karate skills;
 * Street Frogs, showing the escapades of a Five Frog Band of aspiring musicians and street dancers;
 * Tiger Sharks, showing a team of human/marine hybrids and their underwater adventures. Of the four, this was the only cartoon to be consistently shown in two-part episodes. This series had an animation style similar to the earlier-produced Thundercats and Silverhawks that distinguished it from the other three shows in the line-up.

The series as a whole shared many of the same cast and crew with the Thundercats and Silverhawks series, being the second series to be made in the wake of Thundercats's popularity, after Silverhawks.

Not related to, or to be confused with The Comic Strip Presents.

A clip of the show's intro can be seen here.

"I'm lean, I'm mean, a karate machine! Keeeeee-YA!"
 * Action Girl: Octavia and Angel of the Tiger Sharks.
 * Adults Are Useless: Camp counselor Gary from Mini-Monsters, and also Sherman and Melissa's parents in that show's first episode.
 * As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Camp Mini-Mon, which Sherman and Melissa's mother says sounds Indian.
 * The Bet: The Mini-Monsters episode "Wolfie's Bet" has Wolfie taking up a bet by the other campers that he won't tell a joke for 24 hours; if he wins, he gets Sherman's cassette player, but if he loses, he can never tell another joke at Camp Mini-Mon again.
 * Big Bad: Big Papa on Karate Kat. T-Ray and Captain Bizzarly split this role between them on Tiger Sharks.
 * Big Good: Big Mama for Karate Kat.
 * Butt Monkey: Big Max and Snappy Sam on Street Frogs.
 * By the Power of Greyskull: Karate Kat's mantra before changing out of his jacket suit into his karate gi by spinning.


 * Catch Phrase: Karate Kat's By the Power of Grayskull mantra described above, and also "Kee-ya, baby," at the end of a segment.
 * Cool Shades: Dr. Slick on Street Frogs wears square-rimmed sunglasses.
 * Cool Ship: The Tiger Sharks' SARK could act as both a spaceship and a submarine.
 * Dancing Is Serious Business: For the Street Frogs, alongside rapping.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Dr. Katmandu in Karate Kat.
 * Does Not Like Shoes: Karate Kat, though he's far from the only one in his universe. Also Wolfie of the Mini-Monsters, though in his case it's justified as he's a werewolf.
 * Double Meaning Title: Broadcasting episodes of the same show five days a week is known as 'stripping' the show.
 * The Dragon: On Tiger Sharks, Dragonstein to Captain Bizzarly. Bonus points for being an actual dragon.
 * Episode Title Card
 * "Everybody Laughs" Ending
 * Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Subverted by the Tiger Sharks' Mako, who transforms into a humanoid mako shark but is the titular good guys' leader.
 * Evil Twin: Karate Kat had an evil twin brother named Karate Krud, who first turned evil after getting a bump to the head. When the two confront each other, they're so identical in appearance that it's near-impossible to tell them apart; Krud uses this to his advantage when Dr. Katmandu tries to whack him on the head with a specially-made mallet that'll force him to undergo a Heel Face Turn.
 * Expository Theme Tune: Besides the one for the overall show itself, the four cartoons had their own individual theme tunes.
 * The Faceless: Sherman and Melissa's parents in Mini-Monsters.
 * Failure Is the Only Option: The Street Frogs' efforts to make a decent buck were generally hampered by their own weird antics.
 * Five-Man Band: The Street Frogs.
 * The Hero: Dr. Slick (the one in the orange jumpsuit)
 * The Lancer: Moose the Loose (the one in the black jacket)
 * The Big Guy: Spider (the second-youngest of the group, though he was actually quite short)
 * Tagalong Kid: Big Max
 * The Chick: Honey Love
 * Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Dracky in Mini-Monsters.
 * Gadgeteer Genius: The Tiger Sharks' Walro and Lorca.
 * Get Rich Quick Scheme: On Street Frogs, every time a money-making opportunity was announced over the radio, the gang would be quick to jump on it. However, for them, success was never an option.
 * Grumpy Old Turtle: In Street Frogs, diner owner Snappy Sam (an anthropomorphic snapping turtle) loathes the titular group immensely because of all the hi-jinks they get up to that turn him into a Butt Monkey, plus they owe him a bill for eating at his diner.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: A number of voices in The Comic Strip are recognizable as voices from Thundercats and Silverhawks since all three shows share cast and crew members. Among the biggest examples are Karate Kat being voiced by Larry Kenney, who voiced Lion-O and Bluegrass, and Camp Mini-Mon's camp director being voiced by Peter Newman, who voiced Tygra and Quicksilver.
 * Idiot Hero: Karate Kat.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: On Mini-Monsters, Wolfie's jokes are filled with these, to the point that Klutz the monster lizard is the only one who finds them funny.
 * Jerkass: Sherman and Melissa of Mini-Monsters, at least in the first episode. It results in them both being sent to Camp Mini-Mon just to get them out of their parents' hair.
 * Keep Circulating the Tapes: Because to date, there has been no official DVD release of the series. There is currently an online petition to have a DVD release created.
 * Kill It with Fire: On Tiger Sharks, Dragonstein's primary mode of attack is to breathe fire.
 * Land Down Under: Lorca's speech patterns on Tiger Sharks.
 * Lethal Chef: Winifred the witch on Mini-Monsters, as her concoctions caused severe bellyaches to her fellow campers in one episode. Also the Street Frogs in an episode of their show are catering to a wedding, but the sandwiches and drinks they prepare cause the consumers to change color and collapse.
 * Monster Mash: The non-human campers at Camp Mini-Mon.
 * Oh Crap: In the Karate Kat intro sequence, Big Papa would open a safe with the intention of robbing it...only to find Karate waiting for him. Cue this expression on Big Papa's face.
 * Oireland: Dolph's speech patterns on Tiger Sharks.
 * Our Werewolves Are Different: Wolfie, the resident werewolf in Mini-Monsters, tells jokes with Incredibly Lame Puns to the other campers.
 * Petting Zoo People: In Karate Kat, the general cast consists mostly of anthropomorphic cats. In Street Frogs, there's a wide cross-section of anthropomorphic animals besides the Street Frogs themselves (reccuring examples include Snappy Sam, who is a snapping turtle, and the local radio disc jockey Typhoon Toad, who is a toad).
 * Recycled in Space: Tiger Sharks was essentially Thundercats underwater.
 * The Resenter: In Karate Kat, resident scientist and inventor Dr. Katmandu feels this way toward the main character because he sees Karate as just a stupid muscle-head.
 * Saturday Morning Cartoon
 * Shout-Out: One Karate Kat episode, "The Twin Brother Kaper," has Karate Krud telling Big Papa's gang that the real Karate Kat (who he's impersonating) stands for "justice, truth, honor and loyalty"; this prompts one of Big Papa's goons to describe the hero as "a thunder-cat." Big Papa promptly tells the goon to shut up. (Also see Hey, It's That Voice! above.)
 * Sixty-Five-Episode Cartoon
 * The Smurfette Principle: Honey Love for the Street Frogs.
 * Spelling Song: The intro theme song for the overall show. Also, the intro sequence for Mini-Monsters has this in the form of a cheer-leading sequence.
 * Spontaneous Choreography: Street Frogs, frequently.
 * Stranger in a Strange School: Sherman and Emily are the only two "normal" kids among the Camp Mini-Mon campers, while camp counselor Gary is the only "normal" adult (Dr. Jekyll doesn't count for obvious reasons).
 * Summer Campy: Camp Mini-Mon.
 * Team Dad: Walro on Tiger Sharks.
 * Team Mom: Big Mama on Karate Kat.
 * Transformation Sequence: Karate Kat, combined with By the Power of Grayskull. The Tiger Sharks also had a transformation sequence wherein they used a special device called the "Fish Tank" to transform into their marine forms and back again.
 * Karate Kat's "transformation" was little more than a costume change (he used the same name in both outfits and gained no new abilities) with a touch of Let's Get Dangerous.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting: The Tiger Sharks use Applied Phlebotinum to transform back and forth from humans to Fish People.
 * Why Did It Have To Be Water?: Captain Bizzarly on Tiger Sharks hates water, despite being a pirate on a planet that is almost completely aquatic in nature.
 * Wicked Witch: Averted by Winifred of the Mini-Monsters.