Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions,
And rainbows have nothing to hide.
So we've been told and some choose to believe it
I know they're wrong, wait and see.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers and me.
Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
when wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that
and someone believed it,
and look what it's done so far.
What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing?
And what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
the lovers, the dreamers and me.
All of us under its spell,
we know that it's probably magic....
Have you been half asleep
and have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name.
Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors?
The voice might be one and the same.
I've heard it too many times to ignore it.
It's something that I'm supposed to be.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
the lovers, the dreamers and me. |
When I first thought up JB using a mix of Disney and Bluth, I thought of him as a Mickey Mouse character. He even has a version of the Sorcerer's Hat hanging off his neck. This was during the late 80s when I was three shades of insane. (The only thing missing was the padded cell, but then again, there was my parent's basement.) This presumptious character proved to be quite difficult to put into a believable, and likable story though, even though I've tried for well over two decades, and some of you would know about this.
When I was putting JB into Red Cat International, as an American local stuntsmouse not unlike Hong Mao in the story, my partner in design, Ivan Mayne told me that Johnny sounded more like Kermit the Frog rather than Mickey. To quote him, Ivan thought Johnny was "A simple guy with talent who never knew he was going to get into something big, and to him the amulet originally served as a sort of rabbit's foot." Ditto so with Susan, who's behavior is similar to Miss Piggy than Minnie, especially with her affectionate behavior toward 'Her Johnnie' and her tendency to snap and go mideval on perverts. I was looking for a group of characters that could be the Donald, Daisy, and Goofy to Johnny; in RCI, I've found an alternative and made Johnny and Susan a Kermit and Piggy to Hong Mao's Mickey and Lan Tu's Minnie. It meshes quite well.
This dynamic can and will spill over to other JB titles, as I keep with Johnny's Kermit influence. Even before he left his home colony and come sailing into Amber's lap that fateful day, Johnny would always consider himself a very talented person, with his agile body and sharp wit, but he doesn't know what to do with it. This is something he'd wish on falling stars over. He couldn't imagine that his wish could come true by becoming a living cartoon character in the Human World, but he didn't plan on investigating a human lab and getting himself zapped by a Steve Ditko style experiment that grew him to Toon Size either. But in the end, either as Amber's Internet Star or the Knight of the Lightling Sword, he rolls with what life has given him, ever so eager to find a way to better himself with the circumstance.