The Flintstones Return With an Updated Look at the Stone Age

Have you met the Flintstones before? The Hanna-Barbera produced show debuted back in September 1960. The animated series depicted the life of Fred Flintstone, his family, and his neighbor Barney back during the Stone Age. There were several comparisons to modern life as the show contained a mix of humor and social commentary. The show ran for several years and continued through several series, television movies, and even a couple live-action versions.

In July, the Flintstones are back. A new comic series written by Mark Russell with art by Steve Pugh debuts as part of DC Comics initiative to revamp several Hanna-Barbera properties. We spoke with both the writer and artist to find out more about the series and how it will compare to the original series.

GameSpot: How did you guys come on board with this project?

Mark Russell: I got a random call form [DC co-publisher] Dan DiDio in the middle of the night telling me he was going to be rebooting a lot of the Hanna-Barbera properties. He asked if I would be interested in writing The Flintstones. I confessed I didn't really know too much about The Flintstones. I remember I didn't really like them very much. I didn't find them funny. That did not dissuade him. I think he liked the work I did on Prez. He thought I'd bring the same sensibility to The Flintstones. The idea was to make The Flintstones more like modern social commentary. I owe that to him.

Steve Pugh: I got a call from the editor who was casting around for samples. It's a very boring story. I was sitting around waiting for some scripts to come in. Before I knew it, I had been signed to the book without being asked. I'm not bitter about it. It turned out very well.

Russell: I want to mention the editor was Marie Javins, who I worked with on Prez. She does a phenomenal job of matching matching artists with writers. I couldn't be happier with the work that Steve has done. Marie should get a lot of credit for putting The Flintstones together.

Pugh: I actually really agree with that. Marie is a complete powerhouse. It would be chaos without her. I should also mention Chris Chuckry, the colorist because nobody ever mentions the colorist. He's phenomenal. He worked on another satirical series with Steve Gerber on the Howard the Duck series at Marvel Max. I've been in love with work ever since.

What's it like working with the new versions of Fred, Barney, Mr. Slate, etc?

Russell: It's been a lot of fun for me because they've pretty much given me carte blanche to do with them as I will. They do ask me to keep it within the normal character temperament of each, but nobody blanched or batted an eye over the fact that I turned Mr. Slate into a sort of boss from Hell. It's been a lot of fun for me. I gave him this mansion that looks like it was furnished from a Sharper Image catalogue—a Stone Age version of it. For me, that was a lot of fun, being able to take these characters that I had this glancing familiarity with as a kid and turn them into something different.

Pugh: I'm familiar with finding that middle ground between the cartoon and the realism. It was really finding an art style that could give realism to the flashback scenes of the poignant emotional times and then being able to cartoon the animals as well.

Who came up with the different businesses in the opening splash page and throughout the issue?

Pugh: It was basically Mark that had all the main ideas on that. I just had to fit it in.

Russell: The way Steve drew in the businesses was just brilliant. I basically just gave him a list of names of businesses I wanted to be in Bedrock. He just brought it to life. He also great at, even when I don't ask for them, just including little names for things or puns. On the cover for issue #2, they're all trying on different shoes. He came up with like ten different prehistoric pun names for shoes. I thought it was brilliant. We both contribute a lot to the modern Stone Age atmosphere.

The Flintstones #1 variant cover by Ivan Reis

Have you been thinking of different dinosaur appliances?

Pugh: It's my favorite thing about the book, absolutely, drawing the creatures. You get to go crazy with them. The animals and dinosaurs look different than the figures and characters.

Russell: I like the occasional one that doesn't make any intuitive sense at all. In issue #1, Mr. Slate has a dumbwaiter that's actually a turtle. Food comes out strapped to the back of this turtle. Of course it takes forever to get there. By the time it gets there, it's all cold or melted. It's disgusting. What I'm trying to get to is how people sometimes misfire when they're trying to create civilization, technology, or a world from scratch. They're going to make bad mistakes. That's one of my favorite moments in issue #1 when Philip the Turtle has to bring Mr. Slate his ice cream.

In the animated series, we sometimes saw Stone Age versions of celebrities. Will we see any of that here?

Russell: Yeah, in fact you get some in issue #1, a little obliquely though. Instead of Andy Warhol you get Andy Warthog. Wilma looks at a painting by David Rockney instead of David Hockney. I would love to see some celebrities. It's a little touch and go because you don't want to parody someone too closely especially if they're alive now or DC might get sued. That's kind of the one directive, the one thing they're very serious about—not letting me do anything that will get them sued. I'd love to bring in some historical figures or some Stone Age celebrities at some point.

A big question has been: Why does Fred wear a tie? Without giving away the answer here, was it an easy answer for you to come up with?

Russell: Yeah, it just sort of came up to me as I was writing the storyline. I'd never really thought about it before, but when I was writing, it just seemed like a natural answer as to why he would be.

Pugh: It was a beautiful moment. It was very good.

Since this has a slightly more serious tone, how much will you delve into the breakdown of society in Bedrock?

Russell: Well, I don't know if anything bad is going to happen to Bedrock in my series. I think it's more Bedrock is setting up the institutions that will be bad for us. There'll eventually be decline in civilization in other cultures. I haven't thought that far ahead. I don't know if there's going to be any destruction of Bedrock or a day of reckoning.

The Great Gazoo sparked a little divide among fans and his story of trying to get home was never resolved. Will he appear in the series?

Pugh: Funny you should mention him…

Russell: Yeah, he does appear. In fact, he has an important role. Once they've created the world's first civilization, aliens start landing on Earth. They try to exploit the people of Bedrock or offer some shiny beads in exchange for one of the world's oceans or two. They send the Great Gazoo basically to be a game warden for Earth. He keeps the other aliens off the planet so they can let the human race evolve on its own without their interference. In my version, that's what the Great Gazoo means. It translate to like Game Warden.

Any last things you want to tease?

Pugh: Buy this book. We tried really really hard on it. We've worked really hard, and we hope we entertain you.

Russell: Yeah, give it a chance. It's not very much like the original Flintstones cartoon, but I'm really happy with what we've done so far.

Here's a preview at the first issue.