I was lucky enough to spend a few days last week at the second annual Clockwork Storybook writers retreat, along with Mark Finn, Matt Sturges, Bill Willingham, and Bill Williams. The conversation, as it so often does, turned time and again to The Venture Bros, and from there to Jonny Quest.

Now, as you're probably aware, Jonny Quest had the greatest opening credits (and closing credits, for that matter) in the history of television.



In the mid-90s, the cartoon series Freakazoid did a parody of Jonny Quest, complete with opening credits: Toby Danger.



And finally society progressed to the point that it was ready for The Venture Bros, which at its heart is just "Jonny Quest grew up wrong."



Last year, I saw the following interstitial short, "Jonny Quest: Time is Running Out," on Cartoon Network, and immediately wished (a) this game had been real and (b) I'd had it as a kid.



In amongst all the Venture Bros and Jonny Quest talk, Willingham told us about his own never realized plans for a "grown-up Jonny Quest" comic, and it's a shame it never came about. I've toyed with the formula a bit (arguably there's more of Jonny in J.B. Carmody in Cybermancy Incorporated than any other heroic model).

I think they've tried to relaunch the character a time or two in recent years, but I haven't found the will to check them out. There's just something about Jonny Quest in cyberspace, or whatever it was, that just sits wrong with me.