Lemondrop has posted a list of The Top Ten Coolest Cartoon Characters, which despite the name, is pretty heavy on comic book characters. As these lists go, this is one of the more interesting and diverse ones, even when I don’t agree — it features characters such as Nasser Ali Khan from Marjane Satrapi’s “Chicken with Plums” and John Arbuckle from Garfield — but other than Daria and Maggie and Hopey from Love and Rockets, it was sadly lacking in women. (I do get the feeling, though, it was originally intended to be a list of comic book and cartoon crushes and was later changed to “coolest.”)
If you’re going to make a list of the coolest cartoon characters, how is Sailor Moon (or any of the other Sailor Scouts/Soldiers) not on this list? Why no Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop? If we want to branch out to comics without resorting to the typical faves like Hellboy and such, why not Fone Bone and Thorn from Bone? Katchoo from Strangers in Paradise? I think I’d even happily campaign for Skywise from Elfquest, but I understand that’s my issue.
I’m glad that Emily Brochin included Daria, though. I’m surprised at how polarizing Daria is — you talk to women of a certain age, and we all cite Daria as something we related to and is quite the reference point for us. You talk to men of a similar age — even otherwise thoughtful, awesome men — and they just talk about how annoying the show was. I just think that’s funny.
Image taken from screenshot of Lemondrop
