Posted in: Comics | Tagged: betty boop, Comics, dynamite, entertainment, fleischer studios, roger langridge

Staying In The 30's – Roger Langridge Keeps What Makes Betty Boop Iconic

Published Wed, 03 Aug 2016 17:00:53 -0500

One of the classic cartoon characters of all time is Betty Boop. A Fleischer Studios character that embodies the prohibition era through speakeasies and jazz music. Former Popeye writer Roger Langridge will be writing the new series for Dynamite and talked with Byron Brewer about the direction for the comic and just what form the original cartoons we're going to see. Covers are by Howard Chaykin, series artist Gisele Lagace and Langridge himself.

BYRON BREWER: Is any cartoon property more iconic than Betty Boop? Roger, tell us how you came to do this legendary character's new book from Dynamite.

ROGER LANGRIDGE: I was asked nicely! Joseph Rybandt approached me a while back to ask me if I was interested in the character, based on the fact that I'd previously worked on that other great Fleischer Studios icon, Popeye. I think there were some rights issues to be worked out before I could begin, but some months later the project was given the green light and off we went.

BB: Were you a fan of the classic Max Fleischer toons?

RL: Very much so! I remember seeing one of the classic Betty Boop shorts, Snow White, on TV when I was a child. It was really bizarre — and, for that reason, intriguing. I saw a few here and there over the next few years — occasionally on TV, or at film festivals — and I was increasingly fascinated by the world they evoked. It was definitely not cute, or safe; much more a fun-house mirror version of the adult world, with jazz music, references to prohibition-era booze, and an undercurrent of sexuality. As an adult I made comics in which I tried to evoke that Fleischer world — one story in particular, "Scared Witless", featuring my Fred the Clown character, was an out-and-out tribute to the Fleischers. So, yeah — lifelong fan.

BB: Will we see any of the iconic characters from Betty's "films" in the book?

RL: I've done my best! There are rights issues to work around, so Cab Calloway doesn't appear directly, but there's a character called "Scat Skellington" who's highly reminiscent of the jazz legend. And we've got Bimbo, Koko the Clown, Sally Swing, Pudgy and Grampy all present and correct.

BB: Fleischer's toons always had Betty (and Popeye) inhabiting, as you say, very realistic, rough worlds of speak-easies and disheveled urban streets. Will this be reflected in the comic?

RL: Again, that's the goal. One of the main settings for our stories is "The Oop-A-Doop Club", a nightclub where Betty works, and I've dragged her and the rest of the cast into that seedy underworld from the cartoons as often as possible. It's an intrinsic part of the Betty Boop brand as far as I'm concerned.

BB: Did you and/or artist Gisele Lagace do research on Betty's previous incarnations? And if so, what?

RL: I mainly went to the original Fleischer cartoons as my source of inspiration. I know Gisèle looked at the films, as well as previous Betty Boop comics, as part of her research. I don't think either of us are slavishly copying those sources, though; there's a danger of making something that seems awfully dated by doing that, and we want it to be somewhat fresh and modern as well, even if our stories are set in a kind of 1930s world. I like to think we're assimilating those influences and building something new from them, without losing their essential character.

BB: Can you tell us anything about the story(ies) for #1, coming out in October?

RL: Well, in the spirit of the creepy weirdness of the original cartoons, and also because October means Halloween, it's a ghost story. Some mischievous spirits want to take over Grampy and Betty's home, and it's up to Betty and her friends to stop them. Along the way we get musical numbers, goofy gags and all the stuff you'd expect from a Fleischer cartoon.

BB: Roger, are there any projects you'd like to mention in which you may be involved outside Betty Boop?

RL: I've recently completed an online graphic novel featuring my Fred the Clown character, called The Iron Duchess. I'm printing up a small run of them to be released in September at the Small Press Expo (SPX) in Bethesda, Maryland, and I'll be selling them through my website, hotelfred.com, as well, from that date. In October, a collection of my 2015 series for BOOM! Studios, Abigail and the Snowman, which I both wrote and drew, will be hitting stores. And I've also recently completed another series for BOOM! with Andy Hirsch called The Baker Street Peculiars, which is set in the world of Sherlock Holmes, as the name implies. I think you can still pick those up if you're quick!

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