MARTIN MYSTERY

 

MARTIN MYSTERY
(YTV, Discovery Kids October 1, 2003-March 27, 2006)
 
Marathon Animation, Rai Fiction, Image Entertainment Corporation, Merchandising Media GmbH (season 1-2)

  

            Martin Mystère is an Italian comic book created by Alfredo Castelli and Giancarlo Alessandrini, first published by Segio Bonelli Editore in 1982. The titular Martin is an art historian, archaeologist, anthropologist, adventurer, writer, television producer and collector of unusual objects living in New York City; although most of his education and adventures take place in Italy. Following the death of his parents in a plane crash, Martin devoted himself to studying the most enigmatic places and events in human history. Accompanying him on his adventures is Java, a mute Neanderthal man he discovered in a hidden city of Neanderthals. His long-time fiancée and eventual wife is Diana Lombard, a social worker that often gets annoyed with his taking off on his adventures on a whim and being surrounded by beautiful women. Although Martin often comes up against unscrupulous men and secret agencies, he occasionally found himself facing more fantastical beings such as Morgan le Fay, Loki, and Merlin.

Java, Martin, Billy and Diana, on the case.

            The comic was very loosely adapted into a French/Canadian animated series: Martin Mystery. Created by Vincent Chalvon-Demersay and David Michel and developed by them with Séverine Villaume, the show reimagined Martin (Sam Vincent & Alexis Tomassian) and Diana (Kelly Sheridan & Dorothée Pousséo) as 16-year-old Canadian stepsiblings attending Torrington Academy; a boarding school located in Sherbrooke, Quebec. They worked for a secret organization known as “The Center” that covertly protected Earth from extraterrestrial and supernatural threats. Martin’s vast knowledge of the supernatural and his overall intuition made him a valuable member of The Center; however, his hyperactive nature, huge ego and clumsiness tended to get in the way. Working alongside them was Martin’s best friend, Billy (also Vincent & Yann le Madic), a small, green-skinned alien, and Java (Dale Wilson & Sylvain Lemarié), a super-strong and simple-speaking caveman from 200,000 years ago that worked as a janitor at Torrington as a cover. Serving as their supervisor was M.O.M. (Teryl Rothery & Laurence Dourlens); a super-serious former agent that was an expert in hand-to-hand combat. A planned 4^th season would have revealed that M.O.M. was Diana’s mother who had her memories of her family removed and stored so that she could run The Center without distractions.

Martin suffering a slight case of vampirism.

            Martin Mystery debuted on YTV and Discovery Kids (later Nickelodeon) in English and Vrak in French on October 1, 2003, running for 3 seasons across 66 episodes. In May and June of 2004, the series began airing in the United States on the FoxBox Saturday morning programming block. After 7 episodes it was removed and the series was later picked up and aired by Nickelodeon before eventually moving to Nicktoons Network from 2005-08. Because the series was produced by Marathon Animation (now Zodiak Kids & Family France) and Image Entertainment Corporation, Martin Mystery characters have appeared in their other productions; including a  crossover with Totally Spies! In the years since, Martin Mystery has garnered a cult following, despite Alessandrini disavowing the series in 2011 as “very ugly”. While it has had a very limited home media release, episodes can be found on video hosting sites like YouTube. In 2023, Powerkids Entertainment Ltd. and Boneli Entertainment, the production arm of Sergio Bonneli Editore, announced a new 3D computer-animated series based on the comic that seemed to maintain the youthful versions of the characters. However, as of this writing, it has yet to be released.