Heavens to Murgatroyd! Snagglepuss is finally coming out of the closet.
When DC Comics announced last year that it was reviving a number of Hanna-Barbera cartoon icons for its latest series of comics, we learned the big, pink lion would be among them. And now, we have more information on what shape Snagglepuss’ return will take.
In an interview with HiLoBrow, writer Mark Russell — who transformed The Flinstones into a stunning post-modern tale that has been lauded as one of the best comics of 2016 — revealed that Snagglepuss has abandoned his dreams of being a stage actor.
“It’s Snagglepuss sort of reinvented as a gay Southern Gothic playwright,” Russell said.
He adds that the reinvention “was not much of a stretch at all,” with Snagglepuss becoming a “tragic Tennessee Williams figure.” And he won’t be alone. “Huckleberry Hound is sort of a William Faulkner guy, they’re in New York in the 1950s, Marlon Brando shows up, Dorothy Parker, these socialites of New York from that era come and go,” Russell said.
His interpretation of Snagglepuss is directly related to the character’s more than slight suggestion at being gay — or at least on the queer spectrum.
“It’s never discussed and it’s obviously ignored in the cartoons ’cuz they were made at a time when you couldn’t even acknowledge the existence of such a thing, but it’s still so obvious,” Russell said. “So it’s natural to present it in a context where everybody knows, but it’s still closeted. And dealing with the cultural scene of the 1950s, especially on Broadway, where everybody’s gay, or is working with someone who’s gay, but nobody can talk about it — and what it’s like to have to try to create culture out of silence.”
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Russell is no stranger to such subjects: His version of The Flinstonesdealt with the controversy around same-sex marriage and the legitimacy of same-sex couples in moving, humorous fashion.
The full Snagglepuss series starts in “September or October,” but look out for a sampler in the March issue of Suicide Squad/Banana Splits Annual. It will apparently feature “nagglepuss being dragged in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities,” according to Russell.
If you want a sneak peek of what to expect when Snagglepuss is reborn in print, DC have released a page from the upcoming comic:
A federal jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, found a local man guilty of threatening to kill former U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Following a two-day trial, the jury found Frank Stanzione, 53, of Boynton Beach, guilty of transmitting in interstate commerce a threat to kidnap or injure another person for leaving an expletive-laden message on the voicemail of the former congressman's Washington office.
According to prosecutors, Stanzione called the office from his home on January 29, 2023, and began recording a message in which he called Santos, a "fat fucking piece of shit fucker."
José Rolón, who has 150,000 followers on Instagram and over 500,000 followers on TikTok under the user name @nycgaydad, found himself bombarded with threats from right-wing users after conservative commentator Stew Peters tagged him in an Instagram video.
In the video, Peters called Rolón a "creep" and a "pervert homo," and called for his public execution. He also accused Rolón of "criminal sexual conduct," tagging the New York Police Department and urging them to investigate the gay widower.
"Some pervert homo has access to at least four kids around the clock all the time," Peters said, misstating the number of Rolón's children. "He can take them to drag conventions and then post the evidence, post pictures and videos of criminal sexual conduct … and somehow not end up in jail, or better yet, the gallows."
A gay airline employee with dual Mexican and British citizenship was jailed in Qatar on charges related to homosexuality. He is being subjected to treatment that amounts to torture, according to his relatives.
Manuel Guerrero was Acting Head of Product Development and Service Design at Qatar Airways. The 44-year-old was detained on February 4 in Qatar's capital, Doha, after falling prey to an entrapment scheme on Grindr.
"Qatar police used a false Grindr profile to contact Manuel and invite him to participate in a meeting with other people from the LGBT community in the city of Doha," Guerrero's brother, Enrique, told the British newspaper The Mirror. "Manuel was supposed to meet a person he thought he had arranged an appointment with on the night of February 4 but instead encountered police officers who were waiting to arrest him."
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