Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles by Mark Russell is a collection of comics issues based on Hanna-Barbera characters, with a more realistic bent. This is a story about standing up for what is right, despite the consequences. It’s about the place of the arts in society, as a constant mirror to the absurdity of closed-minded thinking. Snagglepuss is a playwright, during Nixon’s era, faced with the Committee for Un-American Activities, an idiotic smokescreen for inflicting narrow-minded ‘Christian’ values on the entire population, and deeming anything even slightly out of those bounds as a path leading straight towards dreaded Communism. One big trigger is being gay, considered ‘subversive’ and ‘immoral’. Here, many of these well-known cultural icons are secretly homosexual. I grew up with these cartoons, so this collection intrigued me. This is certainly a dark, gritty lens to view them through. I loved the history bits at the end, tying everything together, and explaining where changes were made and what actually happened, and the historical figures that these versions of the characters were patterned after. Highly recommended!!

***Many thanks to Netgalley and DC Entertainment for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.