'Blame it all on Bedrock': Mark Russell addresses civilization's mistakes in Flintstones reboot

Mark Russell says he was "disappointed" when he was first offered the job of rebooting The Flintstones comics. 

The author and cartoonist behind God is Disappointed in You, Apocrypha Now and Prez was skeptical of taking on the "kitschy catchphrase comedy" of The Flintstones because of its sexism and other problems the original cartoon posed for him. But, DC Comics assured him that he'd be able to make it his own and that's exactly what he did.

Russell describes his new version as a "dark comedy" that's not afraid to criticize civilization's mistakes, from people's views on same-sex marriage to humans' treatment of animals.

"The thing that sort of really ended up capturing my imagination was the fact that this is the world's first civilization," Russell explains. "So everything we've gotten wrong, all the ways our institutions have let us down, I really can just blame it all on Bedrock." 

— Produced by Chris Trowbridge