The golden age of cartoons...

The golden age of comics is five.

With those words began last week's Comics 101, and I find that it's true. The best comics (or cartoons or whatever) are the ones produced when you were five years old. They're the ones that helped form your opinions, and they're the ones that you think of whenever anybody mentions comics and cartoons to this day, and in honor of that fact, I'm here to offer up three of my favorites from childhood.

First up is the Super Friends with their rockingly cool Hall of Justice, spinning star fades, and their rockin' narrator - as done beautifully by Frank Caliendo nowadays, by the way. The Super Friends taught us all sort of important things - always include a made-up superhero of every ethnicity in every group, make sure to have non-pwered teen sidekicks around, and be certain that the bad guys have one member of their team to exactly match up with each member of your own team.

Next is Thundarr the Barbarian where I first learned most of my earth science - you know, the horrors of what happens if a comet strikes the moon. Things'll be really bad, but the mutants and return of magic will save us.

Third in line would have to be GI Joe where we learned that no one has to ever die in a war because lasers shot out of guns will only hit machines but never people - even bad people.

There's also Thundercats with quality mutants again trying to save the world from magical forces beyond their control.

And finally, one that goes way back beyond my first memories of the cartoon, Battle of the Planets which seems to have been a Japanese cartoon that was just dubbed into English for me to see it. Still counts, though, because it's probably my absolute favorite from my childhood.

So, what're the best cartoons from your childhood?