I had completely forgotten about Radiskull and Devil Doll until I was surfing around on Saturday and remembered that it had been forever since I had viewed the animated Shockwave.com episodes. Then it occurred to me that I had never mentioned it in my blog, either, so now I am.
Radiskull and Devil Doll is a series of eight Flash-animated cartoons on Shockwave; they were created by a fellow named Joe Sparks. While they look kinda simple and crude, they're very imaginative and outrageously funny on occasion. Basically, it's the story of the little cute Devil Doll and his big buddy Radiskull, who is (as you can see above) a huge floating flaming skull. Radiskull loves to kill and maim and guzzle coffee, which his bud DD gives him ("boiling hot!") after which they "kick it", rapping and jamming to rock tunes also created by Sparks. With the third episode, Sparks actually begins to craft a tale: A cute little angel named Candy spies Devil Doll in the process of kicking it with Radiskull one day and is immediately smitten. Devil Doll sees her and feels the same, but romance between angels and devils is strictly forbidden and the next five chapters deal with Candy's attempt to see DD, with interference from Radiskull (who HATES angels) and a demon floozie named Wicked Nikki who wants Devil Doll for her own.
I'm tellin' ya, it's the three C's: clever, cute and charming. It's also one F: frustrating because not long after episode 8 was done Sparks was canned at Shockwave, but they wouldn't let him take R & DD with him or finish it so the resolution of the doomed love story is up in the air...has been for quite some time now. Sparks has his own website, and has been hyping a new series for several months now called Dicky and Jackie; it looks promising but alas, he's taking his sweet time finishing it as well. There have been a couple of R & DD comics (not by Sparks and nowhere near as interesting) in the meantime, and the series seems to have a cult following, so it's hard to give up completely on the Demonic Duo. Guess we'll see. Anyway, if you've never seen the Radiskull & Devil Doll cartoons, then by all means click on the picture above, which will take you to Sparks' old webpage with Shockwave/Atom Films and has links to each episode in order. KICK IT!
