From The Scoop: The Snorks

From the July 28 issue of Gemstone Publishing's The Scoop:
The underwater sprites who would go on to star in Hanna Barbera's The Snorks first appeared in 1974. But did you know that, like the Smurfs before them, Snorks got their start overseas? Where the Smurfs first appeared in French comic strips, the Snorks were printed and distributed in Belgium. Created by cartoonist Freddy Monnickendam, the Snorks aired as a U.S. cartoon for just one year in 1984.

Hanna Barbera, seizing upon the success of its Smurfs TV show, decided that multicolored characters living in a village underwater would be just as interesting to kids as monochromatic characters living in a village above ground.

They were wrong. Kids proved to be a bit more discerning and loyal that the cartoon creators anticipated. And though Monnickendam's Snorks were once their own thriving entity--with completely independent ideas and pursuits than those of Peyo's Smurfs, to an audience of American kids, The Snorks just seemed like a really bad ripoff (kind of like Silver Hawks was to Thundercats). The key word there is seemed, though. They may not be as well-remembered but The Snorks provided a more proactive and structured society than The Smurfs. They weren't as "magical" or as prone to song and dance, and they boasted a more complex history (what with their sometimes interaction with humans on the surface and their occasional witnessing of sea mutinies).

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