Jump Start | |
---|---|
Author(s) | Robb Armstrong |
Website | syndication |
Current status/schedule | Current daily strip |
Launch date | 1989 |
Syndicate(s) | United Feature Syndicate |
Genre(s) | Humor |
Jump Start is a daily comic strip drawn by cartoonist Robb Armstrong. [1] It portrays the trials and tribulations of a young African American couple as they try to balance the demands of work and raising their young children. [2]
Jump Start is set in the Philadelphia area, where Armstrong grew up. The strip is syndicated by United Feature Syndicate.
Armstrong attended Syracuse University, where in 1982 he created a popular comic strip in the student newspaper The Daily Orange, called Hector. The strip ran for four years, [3] and its main characters were two young men and a glasses-wearing dog.
After having no success in attempting to syndicate Hector, Armstrong then transitioned it into Jump Start, [4] which was designed to have a broader appeal than the earlier strip. Jump Start entered syndication in 1989.
Jump Start's main characters are Joe and Marcy Cobb, and their children Sunny, Jojo and twins Tommi and Teddy. [2] Police officer Joe's uniform hat is drawn with a keystone badge emblem, as many police departments in Pennsylvania use that emblem due to Pennsylvania being known as the "Keystone State".
Robb Armstrong set out to portray young black couples from his own experience. In Marcy and Joe, the reader sees an average middle class couple, busy with work and raising a family. Armstrong says, "The image of young blacks is so skewed, so false. I don't know anybody who's carjacking, playing basketball, rapping. Joe and Marcy and the characters I've developed are deep and based on real life." [5] In all strips, adults use regular all caps type for their speech and thoughts, while children's speech and thought balloons are a mix of uppercase and lowercase lettering.
In November 2014, 20th Century Fox and Aaron Kaplan's Kapital Entertainment announced a project to develop a live-action television series based on Jump Start. Robb Armstrong, Andrew Orenstein and Kaplan were to co-write and serve as the executive producers of the series along with Armstrong's producer Bridget McMeel of Amuse Entertainment. [7]
In June 2022, CBS had put in development a television adaptation of Jump Start and Wayne Conley will write. [8] In February 2023, CBS ordered the pilot. [9] In March 2023, it was announced that Terry Crews would portray Joe Cobb and that Phill Lewis would direct and executive produce the pilot. [10]
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