The Wacky Pack (series)

The Wacky Pack is an American comic book series and media franchise centered a group of imaginary friends that consists Roge, Leno and Cole. The series was created by Geo G. and first published by Dark Horse Comics in September 1987 and ended in May 2011 to make way for the 2011 film Gabriel and the Wacky Pack.

The Wacky Pack franchise began as a comic and expanded into advertising, movies, TV series, video games, theme parks, and toys.

History
The Wacky Pack was first conceived after Geo G's comic strip Geo's World was syndicated in 1981. Originally, the group was supposed to have six members, but Geo wanted to make the group smaller, which instead had three members. Geo came up a name of the group, called It's The Wonder Squad!. Other rejected titles for the group include Epic Team, Crazy Group, Team Ron, Three Cool Guys and Ron, Co. Geo then also came up the names "Ron, Don and Jon" (original names for Roge, Leno and Cole) for the three members as a temporary name for the starring characters. The name was never meant to be final, due both to the name sounding "too twiny." The characters were effectively small, imaginary white human boys by August 1982, finally retitled The Wacky Pack, but were still referred to as "Ron, Don and Jon" because final names had not been formulated yet. Geo chose to base Ron as a "awesome, wacky and intelligent leader of the group", for Don as "annoying and rude" and for Jon as the "youngest one who is scared of anything like spiders, etc."

On March 5, 1983, Geo drew the first sketch of Ron, Don and Jon. Liking how the sketches looked, Geo later came up another character named "Loy". Geo stated that "Loy" was chosen because of its similarity to the Major League Baseball pitcher Loy Hanning, who was one of Geo's favorite baseball players. Geo then describes the character as "the group's brother and a boy genius." He later drew a sketch of Loy on that same day. Geo then had a idea to make characters that describe as "small, cute, funny, imaginary elves with little self-control who work for the group." They were originally just simply named as elves but Geo wanted the name more funnier, which he later called them "Lars", although Geo said that the name Lars is actually a common male name in Nordic and German-speaking countries. However, Geo later heard that the name "lar" is actually the name for the lar gibbon, a primate in the gibbon family Hylobatidae. Then Geo ignored it and kept the name.

In November 1983, Geo decided to finally rename the characters Roge (his name comes with a village in the municipality of Požega, western Serbia), Leno (his name comes with the surname of the famous talk host Jay Leno), and Cole. The characters (including Loy and the lars) first appeared on Geo's children's picture book Can You Be So Wonderful? in 1984. In 1986, at the time Dark Horse Comics was founded, Geo announced that the characters would be the main characters of his upcoming comic book series that he is working on, titled The Wacky Pack, which slated for a 1987 release. The first issue of The Wacky Pack was originally set to be released in June 1987, but Geo wanted to make more time to work on the comic book series. It was instead later pushed to September 1987 by Dark Horse Comics.

Characters
The Wacky Pack is a group of imaginary friends that consists Roge, Leno and Cole and the main characters of the series of the same name. However, their brother and scientist/inventor Loy is not actually one of the members of the group, although he's one of the main characters of the series. They first appeared on Geo G's children's book Can You Be So Wonderful? in 1984. Then they later appeared in the first issue of The Wacky Pack by Dark Horse Comics in September 1987, where Roge, Leno, Cole, Loy, and the lars were transported to Earth from the dying planet of Wackizia. They had been helping as a partnership with Gabriel Garcia since he was a baby on the November 2000 issue of The Wacky Pack.

The Wacky Pack's arch-nemesis is Vio, the main antagonist of The Wacky Pack issues from 1987 to 1999 and the upcoming 2016 spin-off film, Wacky Pack and Lars. He is the Lars and the Black Group's leader and boss. In the first issue of The Wacky Pack, Vio and his minions destroyed Wackizia, and then when they arrive to Earth, they begin to be an enemy of Roge, Leno, Cole, Loy and the Lars. He says, "I've hated them so much! I mean, they are still there! But someday, I will kill them." Vio also plans to take over Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania (and the world too). His last appearance was the September 1999 (part 1) and October 1999 (part 2) issues of The Wacky Pack, where Vio get killed in a pool of acid, survives his battle with Roge, Leno and Cole, however, and waits for Roge, Leno and Cole with a key. Roge, Leno, Cole and Vio battle again where Vio is finally defeated, sliding through the sewer tunnel which leads to the lava, allowing Roge, Leno and Cole to save the day.

Films
Universal Pictures has announced plans to begin a trilogy of computer-animated Wacky Pack films, with the first film released on November 27, 2011. The project had been in various stages of development since 1991. In 1998, it was announced that Geo LTD. had acquired film rights of the comic book series. The film is produced and animated by Blur Studio. It was directed by Tim Miller, David Stinnett and Geo G. The film is set in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania and it stars the voice of Zachary Gordon as Gabriel Garcia, an artistic, creative, sweet, friendly, smart 10-year-old boy who is the adapted owner of a small wacky pack, Roge, Leno and Cole (voiced by Geo G., E.G. Daily, Nicky Jones) and had a midnight "party" in his room; and the voice of Jennifer Hale as Blues, a small imaginary girl who betrayed Roge for some reason. Gabriel, Roge, Leno, Cole and the lars need to defeat Blues.

The film received generally positive reviews by both fans and film critics, with critics praising its humor and character development. The film was also a box office success, grossing over $439 million in the United States and $538 million worldwide. A sequel to Gabriel and the Wacky Pack, titled Gabriel and the Wacky Pack 2, was released on November 21, 2014, to be followed by a third film in 2017 and a fourth in 2019. In addition, two spin-offs, titled Wacky Pack and Lars and The Vocaloids, were announced for 2016 and 2018 release dates.

Television series
An animated television series based on the comic book series was created by the series' creator Geo G. The television series was aired on Fox Kids on October 16, 1993 and ended on March 3, 1997.

DVD releases
Coming soon!

Crossovers
Coming soon!

Merchandising
Coming soon!

Theme park attractions
Coming soon!

Video games
The Wacky Pack have appeared in video games made for most major game consoles (including Nintendo's NES, Super NES, and Game Boy systems GameCube, Sega's Game Gear, Master System, Genesis and Sega CD systems, Sony's original PlayStation and PlayStation 2, and Microsoft's Xbox) and for the PC.

Trivia

 * Not to be confused with My Wacky Pack Club (which has nothing to do with the series nor the movies), a form of kids' meal specifically marketed at kids, sold at the drive-in fast-food restaurant chain Sonic.