Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles

Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles by Mark Russell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

With the Communists threatening to overrun America using the entertainment industry, the House Un-American Activities Committee calls Snagglepuss to testify. Snagglepuss, a gay playwright, has other ideas...

Mark Russell first caught my attention on The Wonder Twins and made me a lifelong fan after his run on The Flintstones. Does Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles meet this high standard? Yes. Yes, it does.

Set during the height of the communist Red Scare, Snagglepuss is a closeted playwright, living with a wife but keeping a lover. The House Un-American Activities Committee is leaning on Snagglepuss hard, wanting him to name names, when his friend, Huckleberry Hound, comes to New York on the run from a disgrace down south.

Of all the stories I've ever read featuring a gay lion playright during the Red Scare of the 1950s, this one is easily in the top 3. Joking aside, this is really fucking good. Who would have thought I'd ever get emotionally invested in a tale featuring Snagglepuss and Huckleberry Hound?

Mike Feehan is at the helm on art and does a great job making Snagglepuss and Huck not seem out of place or ridiculous in a world of humans. His style reminds me of Steve Pugh's on The Flintstones. He manages to take a concept that could be ludicrous and makes it seem perfectly natural.

Mark Russell is off to his old cheery tricks on this one. In Exit Stage Left, he takes on politics, nuclear proliferation, LGBT rights, capitalism, and the entertainment industry. I was never overly fond of Snagglepuss before but now I love him, that saucy bastard! The tragedy of Huckleberry Hound and the ultimate failure of Quickdraw McGraw were poignant moments. As usual, Russell peppers the text with wit and wisdom like he's burying landmines for readers to stumble over at their convenience.

"In life you do not fight battles because you expect to win. You fight them merely because they need to be fought." Five out of five stars.



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