Sundays weren't for going to church when I was growing up. My folks kept me away from most things Christian, and I really knew nothing about it other than the relentless bullying by those who discovered I was different in that regard.

The cartoon offerings weren't too good on Sunday mornings, especially compared to Saturday. I would get up very early on Saturdays to catch my favorite shows, like Sonic the Hedgehog, or X-Men, or Power Rangers. And then my folks and I would usually drive around the county in the afternoon, going to the flea market, and the mall, and maybe one of the local parks in the mountains or by the rivers or occasionally the beach. Then I would watch a movie with them, and then play with my toys and watch cartoon network until very late at night and then snooze away sunday morning.

In the 90s, cartoons would be shown on one channel on Sundays, starting at noon, probably to catch the church crowd. The programs here weren't generally that great, and ultimately I forgot most of them.

Cartoons were ubiquitous at the time, and there were many that weren't that great, even to little Cob. But recently I stumbled onto the old BKN block that aired on Sundays and rediscovered a few that stoked some pleasant memories of rainy sunday afternoons watching crappy cartoons.

This one left an impression on me. Skysurfer Strike Force was obviously a toy commercial for some characters that didn't really interest me at all, but little me was captivated by the conceit of a guy trying to clear his dead father's name, and the main design of the villain with his cyber-brain in a dome thing. This probably started my obsession with brains in jars, even if his was just a computer.

I was impressed by how good the animation was for what this cartoon was. It turns out it was Ruby-Spears last hurrah before closing up shop. You might know them from Thundarr the Barbarian (one of my faves) and the 80s Alvin and the Chipmunks (one of toddler Cob's faves). Watching it again, it is still very juvenile, with promising developments that never go anywhere and the status quo being maintained aggressively, like the villain's daughter having a thing for the main character and often helping him.

Very cliche, but surprisingly nice to look at.

So Ultraforce was one of the many many darker and edgier comics that flooded the market in the 90s, a charge led by Image Comics (but encouraged by a decade of edgy content dominating the Big Two). Malibu was the publisher of Ultraforce, being a small publisher eventually working with Image in the early 90s.

There were a couple Image related titles that received their own kids friendly cartoon shows in the early 90s, like Wildcats, and the Savage Dragon. Ultraforce, while not being directly involved with Image, was definitely in the same vein, featuring Liefeld-esque character designs.

The cartoon is your general example of kids schlock, pretending to feature darker villains and harder heroes, along with almost skimpy clothing on women. Ultimately though, it is a typical DIC production, featuring stilted animation and the kind of writing that couldn't even be appreciated by any adults in the room. I was fascinated by the character Prime, as a kid, wondering how this child could assume the shape of a burly flying brick, but am less impressed now that I am a (distant) fan of the original Captain Marvel.

This one didn't last too long, but I do remember being excited to see it, how it did succeed in convincing a 9 year old that this might be a little... extreme.

This one I definitely never forgot. Based on the videogame, the Double Dragon cartoon was my first real exposure to the franchise, and established several things about the universe that I was disappointed in never really seeing reflected in the games.

The show displays very low production values, with voice acting that might be described as less than enthusiastic (Though the bad guy's voice is really good omg). But the drama of two brothers battling against the shadow warriors and defending the city, and eventually finding their mother was compelling for me.

I was excited to see where the story might go, it being an early American cartoon series that had (very little) plot development, but unfortunately the show ended just as it was getting interesting.

This show led me to a very short lived Double Dragon phase, where I played the NES version of Double Dragon III (which is a very frustrating game, btw) and watched the live action movie (which is hilariously bad). But ultimately, the mediocrity of it all didn't hold my attention.

I remember these shows being on while I played with the toys in my room, and watched the rainfall outside my window. I remember sometimes tucking under the desk in my room and building a little self contained fort and watching these shows, but always I remember the pattering rain, and feeling the beginnings of what I eventually came to call the Sunday Blues.