 The Power Puff
girls are not anime characters. But they are among the Cartoon Network's
greatest successes in creating new series. The series generates hundreds
of millions of dollars in sales each year and has fans all over the world,
even Japan. Sean Carolan and Jenifer Moore add to that fandom by writing
stories for the Power Puff Girls comics published by DC and drawn by Phil
White. (There's another anime convention link to that book: Philip Moy,
an artist who has graced many conventions, inks some of the PPG comics.)
Of course, American comics are assembled by teams, where stories are written
and drawn by different people, while Japanese manga usually are the work
of one lead artist. |
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 "We're told
it's dialogue light," Carolan said about the creation of Power Puff comics
stories. "There's a lot of action and then Mojo Jojo comes along." The
freelancers who create the stories for the Power Puff comics have to follow
a strict "bible" from the series' creator, but they have some leeway. For
example, Carolan and Moore created a new villain for the series, ShutterThug,
who steals people when he takes their pictures. They get to reuse
existing characters such as the Amoeba Boys (one of their comics stories
is called "Amoeba Las Vegas"). And the puns in the titles get odd with
word play with "Bow Jest," named after the movie "Beau Geste." The Power
Puff comic isn't about struggles in the desert, but about Blossom losing
her courage when she loses her hair bow. |
 Some Power
Puff episodes remain unreleased in the U.S. because the Cartoon Network
wants to hold them in reserve, the writers said. They added that there
have been no new Power Puff episodes aired in recent months because the
series' creators have been working on a movie. "Indications are that the
movie holds together as a 70-90 minute film. It's not an overlong episode,"
Carolan said. But new episodes are coming, and some of them are based on
stories which first appeared in the comic. The writers spoke about an unreleased
episode that used their original story, which features a squirrel that...well,
we won't spoil the surprise for you. |
