I Consider myself SCHOOLED! By My Five-Year-Old!

So this evening, we had the TV tuned in to Boomerang (I rightly thought my oldest boy would enjoy Atom Ant). I was in the kitchen talking with my wife, when the oh-so-familiar strains of the Space Ghost theme drifted in from the living room. Instantly, my 5-year-old appeared in the doorway- "DADDY! Space Ghost is on!". The Boy is no stranger to superheroes (imagine that) and has seen the entire run of Space Ghost -at least the original 1960's version-at least once.

Still, I was struck by his unbridled enthusiasm and I'm a sucker for Space Ghost, so I joined him in the living room. There, on the screen, a diminutive yet macrocephalic villain was commanding
several sinister-looking alien beasts. "Oh, look!" I said, "It's the Creature King!".

"That's not the Creature King;" said the Boy, "the Creature King is green."

"Nah, " I said "that's the Creature King. You're thinking of that bad guy on the Herculoids who's kinda like the Creature King."

Two seconds later the villain in question was referred to by name. That name was The Sorcerer.

"Oh." , I said. "It's the Sorcerer. You're right."

After a few moments contemplation the Boy spoke again. "Maybe the Sorcerer and The Creature King are friends..."

You have snatched the pebble from my hand, Grasshopper. You are now ready.

Saturday Morning 1966- Space Ghost.

Don't let that talk show fool you, there was a time when Space Ghost was a bad-ass played straight super hero.

Out of all the Hanna-Barbera created super heroes to hit Saturday Morning in the 1960's, Space Ghost is, in my opinion, the cream of the crop. Oh, sure, Bird Man is cool (although he loses his solar-driven superpowers every time he steps indoors or a cloud goes by) and the Galaxy Trio rock in a ripping off the Fantastic Four kinda way. And Mightor and the Herculoids are pretty smashing in a vaguely homo-erotic, caveman, Frazetta- barbarian sort of way. But Space Ghost has it all.

Space Ghost has a cool costume (he was designed by the inimitable Alex Toth),
not one, but two, count 'em two kid sidekicks,

a boss space ship,

his own planet as a secret base and-and this is the coolest part- a freakin' monkey!


His super powers include invisibility (I'm assuming that's where the "ghost" part comes in) and a ray for every occasion, fired from his wrist-mounted power bands. Heck, Space Ghost has been know to take out whole species and entire planets just to wrap up an episode.

He also has an impressive cast of recurring villains, Zorak, Moltar, Brak, Creature King, Web Woman (sometimes Spider Woman), Metallus, Lurker... There's even a storyline where all his villains team up and form the "Council of Doom" to get even with him.

You can still get the entire series on Amazon.com pretty cheap, so treat yourself.

You just can't beat a hero so cool that his emblem is a picture of himself.

PS: Avoid the 1981 cartoon series. It was stinky.