"Lt. Rick Muttley"; Character Design For My Proposed Gritty Reboot Of Hanna-Barbera's Wacky Races
In my version of Hanna-Barbera's Wacky Races, Muttley is a disgraced American service-dog who has been kicking around Europe since the end of the second World War.
Muttley was a heroic dog on the battlefield, and a humble husband and father at home. But his master was a prestigious American general living in France, and when one of Muttley's pups bit the the General's little boy, he ordered the whole litter to be put to sleep. Muttley's wife tried to protect the pups, and so she joined them in their shallow grave.
It was already too late when Muttley found out. He flew into a rage and attacked the General, biting him on the face and leaving an unsightly scar. With nothing left to live for and nowhere to go, he fled into the night.
At the bottom of a bottle, he found a most unlikely ally: Snidely Whiplash, the famed German ace-pilot who had wreaked havoc on The General throughout the war, now living in the quiet exile of anonymity at the end of a bar.
Now that they have each other–and a renewed purpose– will the dastardly duo find redemption in the Wacky Race, or will the ghost they share come back to haunt them?