Network animation at the dawn of the 1980s was an artistic desert. Hanna-Barbera and Filmation dominated Saturday mornings with formulaic mysteries and low-budget comedy knockoffs. Ken Spears and Joe Ruby, who had split from Hanna-Barbera to establish Ruby-Spears in 1977, wanted something visceral. They hired Steve Gerber, the disillusioned creator of Marvel's Howard the Duck, to dream up a world where barbarians adventure in a fantasy world built directly upon our decayed present.
Gerber brought in character designer Alex Toth to establish the primary triumvirate: Thundarr, the sorceress Princess Ariel, and the feline-mutant powerhouse Ookla the Mok. To realize the ruined landscapes, Ruby recruited Jack Kirby. Fresh off his groundbreaking runs at Marvel and DC, Kirby provided storyboards and conceptual designs that buzzed with cosmic scale. Crumbling concrete highway overpasses framed ancient ruins. Mutated wizards set up crystal-powered citadels inside the rotting shells of Mount Rushmore and Cape Canaveral.
Kirby drew dynamic angles and mechanical horrors that animators struggled to replicate within modest television budgets. Still, that ambition gave 80s animated television a sharp, jagged edge. Thundarr did not patrol a generic fairytale kingdom. He rode through a shattered California, hunting techno-sorcerers who hoarded forgotten pre-collapse science. The aesthetic forged a direct bridge between the pulp fiction tradition of Robert E. Howard and the neon-streaked science fiction of the late Cold War.
