The Porcupines

This cartoon quartet comes complete with bellicose landlord, pet porcupine, and Hanna-Barbera-issue dune buggy; oh, and 12 sugary tunes that hark back to a more Bazooka Joe-friendly era. The real-life identities behind our animated heroes? Bill Retoff and Micky Dolenz sound-alike Dan McKenzie (3), the brainchild of the project, logged time as one-half of the "law firm" Retoff, McKenzie, Butler & Pierce, one of the Midwest's most underrated pop bands of the '90s; Jamie Lehman held down the bottom end in Billy Blastoff; and Chris Earl is the Squires of the Subterrain, New York's greatest stealth pop genius. As our zany comic-strip protagonists, though, they are Billy, Jamie, Dan, and Chris.