So, this may be news to some folks since I think I’ve only really talked about it on Discord, but here these past couple months I’ve been watching a lot of old Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Specifically I’ve been interested in the “teenagers and a mascot” cartoons that they pumped out to try and milk the success of Scooby-Doo (their funny animal cartoons are fun, too, but this formula specifically is what I’ve been invested in). I’ve always really liked how Hanna-Barbera’s girls looked. I think the style is cute and charming, so almost any female characters in their cartoons would interest me, even at a young age. That being said, I’ve been wanting to draw some of the girls from these mystery solving and adventure teams, the girls who would fill the roles of Daphne and Velma in the group. Shelly LaMarine (the dark haired one) and Bubbles Blowton (the blonde) were two such characters from Jabberjaw, the cartoon where the mascot was a big shark who talked like Curly from the Three Stooges.
I remember having a big crush on Shelly as a kid, especially. Something about how slick her hair always looked, plus her general bitchy attitude (I have a thing for brats) and the way Jabberjaw was into her all appealed to me in ways I couldn’t quite explain back then. I knew when I wanted to start drawing some of these characters she’d be first on my list, and I decided to pair her with Bubbles in a similar way to how I pair Daphne and Velma. Shelly and Bubbles have a very different dynamic, though, with Shelly being the bratty type I already described, and Bubbles being every bit the ditzy/dumb blonde stereotype. I came to appreciate Bubbles more while drawing this pic, I think she’s a lot cuter than I’d originally thought, so I definitely would like to draw both of them again (maybe together, maybe separate). I’ve got a number of other Hanna-Barbera heroines I’d like to get to as well, though, so we’ll see how long it takes. Hopefully y’all will like them as much as I do and they can become semi-regulars around here. ^_^
