RUSSELL: Other than that unforeseen cancellation, working with them has been really great and I dont know if youve heard, but Im also writing a Snagglepuss comic for them.
HILOBROW: Oh. My. God. No, I had not.
RUSSELL: Its Snagglepuss sort of reinvented as a gay Southern Gothic playwright?
HILOBROW: [Laughs] He is, he is!!
RUSSELL: Yeah, it was not much of a stretch at all. I envision him like a tragic Tennessee Williams figure; Huckleberry Hound is sort of a William Faulkner guy, theyre in New York in the 1950s, Marlon Brando shows up, Dorothy Parker, these socialites of New York from that era come and go. Im looking forward to it; thats what Ill do after The Flintstones. [Russells contract in the gravel pit is for 12 issues.] Ill go right from that into Snagglepuss.
HILOBROW: Ive long admired the affirmative gayness of Snagglepuss.
RUSSELL: Yeah, its never discussed and its obviously ignored in the cartoons cuz they were made at a time when you couldnt even acknowledge the existence of such a thing, but its still so obvious; so its natural to present it in a context where everybody knows, but its still closeted. And dealing with the cultural scene of the 1950s, especially on Broadway, where everybodys gay, or is working with someone whos gay, but nobody can talk about it and what its like to have to try to create culture out of silence.
HILOBROW: Amazing. So this has been publicly announced?
RUSSELL: Yes, in fact, an eight-page sampler comes out in March in the Suicide Squad/Banana Splits Annual [laughs] its about Snagglepuss being dragged in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities! Then the series will begin in September or October I think.
