Jake Ignatowicz
"The G-Team"
Maybe it's common with the majority of men who grew up in the '80s but Tony and I discovered we liked the same things when we were kids. Geeky things like remembering where we were when the five-part G.I. Joe mini-series "The MASS Device" first premiered, frantically trying to get a complete collection of Garbage Pail Kids trading cards, begging our parents to buy us fedoras when Indiana Jones came out, getting into bloody fights at school over what was better: Transformers or Go-Bots. "Manimal", Freaky Freezy boots, "War of the Worlds"... we could go on and on about all the pop culture things that had a direct influence on us.
So it came as no surprise when we agreed "The A-Team" was the coolest thing on television every Tuesday night. Well, until they got caught by Robert Vaugh in the final season and became CIA operatives. People really don't like to remember those 13 episodes. But the first four seasons? Total bad ass; even when Culture Club guest-starred. It was pre-teen cocaine full of explosions, car jumps, B.A. Barracus pitying evil doers, and all the while Hannibal Smith having a plan. What was there NOT to like?
It was during one of our discussions at Tony's kitchen table about "The A-Team" and the so-bad-its-awesome Mr. T Saturday morning cartoon that I began to sketch out what the Generic Funkin Cartoons would look like as the soldiers of fortune on the run. My buddy took one look at it, began laughing, called me a bastard, and then said I needed to finish it all the way.
True, his characters would never dress up as the A-Team but considering the GFC were based on Tony's childhood, it just feels right. - Jake