I love comics and cartoons. I mean, who in their right mind doesn't.

They represent an epoch of innocence that only lasts about 10 years where each and every story kicks off with 'Once upon a time ' and concludes with 'happily ever after. '

The End.

Or is it?

I have fond memories of awaking early before middle school simply to stare in front of the TV and watch Tom & Jerry run around chasing one another.

Or hilarious characters in the vein of Dick Dastardly and his fighter pilot hound Muttley, with that cheeky bark-cum-laugh hi hi hi hi hi hi hi!

Thanks to those creative Warner Bros, mothers and fathers around the globe taught their youngsters about the birds and the bees with dogs and cats.

And panthers, mice, roosters, bears, ducks, rabbits. In fact , it looked, anything but a real human.

And who can forget Bugs Bunny's penchant for carrots, Wiley Coyote's obsession with ACME explosives, and Pepe Le Pew's ceaseless romantic advances towards anything with a pulse.

Come to consider it, those creative illustrators were readying us tiny critters for life in (and beyond) the play ground.

If you subtract the endearing characters, magical music and, naturally, the A.M. timeslot, you had an adult allegory of Food, Hate and Love that was spoon fed daily into captive brains with Captain Crunch, non-lite milk and that enchanting harmony of 'snap, crackle and pop. '

I'm not sure which was more saccharine - the Fruit Loops or the Loony Tunes?

Weekend morning telly sure was a veritable Animal Farm. (And no, not the one I'm sure you're thinking).

You learned the facts of life from cartoons - way before The Facts Of Life was first aired in the late 70's!

Then there was also that strange group of blue characters called The Smurfs who lived in a magical forest and ate miraculous fungi (or was that the creators of the show?). Let's bear in mind this was way before The Blue Man Group - and lots more interesting, if you ask me.

I mean, where in any society does there exist a tribe composed from just one female and a seemingly unending supply of males, controlled by the one they call "Papa"?

I believe here's where the phrase 'Who's your daddy ' had its roots, but that is another subject altogether.

The point is, whether you are a big kid or a tiny kid, cartoons are always tons of fun.

It doesn't matter if you're watching them on the television or watching a pro cartoonist draw a caricature: a creative illustration, a black and white sketch, or an artistic doodle can take us all back to that golden age of innocence.

Ha ha, I said doodle.