Parachute pants, Members Only jackets and New Edition aren’t cool again just yet, but the ’80s are definitely back.

Just look at Diamond’s Top 100 comics list, where books such as Transformers, Thundercats, G.I. Joe, Battle of the Planets and Micronauts consistently perform well, and you know the ’80s revival isn’t just a fad but something that’s here to stay.

And two of the frontrunners in the ’80s comeback, Transformers artist Pat Lee and Thundercats writer Ford Gilmore, can’t stop talking about how much they love the cartoons of the ’80s that they’ve helped turn into the comic book sensations of the 21st century.

COTTON: What’s your most vivid memory of ’80s greatness in terms of cartoons and comic books?

LEE: The highlight must have been from the "Transformers" movie, when the "You got the touch!" retro song came on and Rodimus Prime installed the Matrix in his chest. It was like, "GO RODIMUS! SAVE THE UNIVERSE, DUDE!"

GILMORE: I don’t know if there’s a single memory that epitomizes the ’80s cartoons for me, but one of my clearest memories is watching that first episode of the first "G.I. Joe" miniseries and just being so totally blown away by it—and everyone talking about it at school the next day. None of us ever thought they’d make cool, action-packed cartoons for "big kids" like us 3rd graders. Little did we know there’d be a whole wave of ’em after that…

LEE: The coolness was that the toys had characteristics and the cartoons weren’t so complex. The stories were great, and I honestly believe that cartoons should go backwards like many industries and go back to the roots. At the same time being inventive and different -- just adding flavor to the retro times.

COTTON: What other currently published ’80s properties, besides your own, would you love to work on?

GILMORE: That’s a hard one…probably "Transformers," because their mythology provides so much fertile ground for stories in the past, present and future. I’d really love to do a story with some of those characters on Earth in a different time period.

LEE: Well, it was Transformers and I’m working on it now. Wooohooo!!!

COTTON: Who’s your favorite ’80s character and why?

GILMORE: As a kid, it was Panthro from the Thundercats. I just thought it was cool that the strongest and biggest character on the show was also the smartest—not a big dumb strongman like every other show or a scrawny nerd like on most every other show. Now, it’s ALF. Did you know that Terry Bradshaw thinks he’s real?

LEE: I would have to say Starscream in the cartoon. He was more of a jerk than Megatron. I love how the writers made Starscream so utterly annoying and evil.

COTTON: How long do you think the ’80s nostalgia will last, or do you think now that it’s back, it’ll be an ongoing genre of comics/cartoons/toys?

GILMORE: I think the market’s already reaching saturation, to be honest. I really don’t think there are many more properties that can be brought back, and I don’t think fans will support some of the lower-tier properties whose rights some companies are chasing right now. With that said, I don’t think the books that are out now are going to fade away, either; in fact, I’d argue that most of the big ones never went away even when there wasn’t any new product coming out. Online fan communities for Thundercats, Joe, Transformers and He-Man were all active before the nostalgia boom, and they’ve just been growing. Considering how well the new cartoons and toys inspired by many of the ’80s icons are performing, I think that a lot of these brands are going to be around for a long, long time.

LEE: I believe that as long as the industry produces high quality, the ’80’s properties will last for a long time.

COTTON: What’s your most prized piece of memorabilia from the ’80s?

GILMORE: I still have my Vectrex Arcade System and a dozen games with their overlays. Either that or my original teaser poster for "Ghostbusters." Or maybe my original "RoboCop" poster…Too many choices, so I’ll narrow it to those top three.

LEE: Sideswipe toy in a box in mint condition. Sealed, too!

COTTON: What do you think of the other ’80s properties? Do you check them out? What are your favorites?

GILMORE: I confess, I don’t read any of them regularly, but I’ve been impressed by most of the ones I’ve checked out. I dug "Transformers: G1" and think Dreamwave has really been doing a fantastic job with their books, and I’ve admired a lot of what Devil’s Due has been doing. On the horizon, I’m looking forward to the "Snake Plisskin" book and "Robotech—I’m lucky enough to have seen some of the latter and talked to Jay [Faerber, co-writer of the series] about his plans, and that book’s going to be sweet.

LEE: Oh, hell yeah! I love all of it! I check out all the ’80’s stuff.

COTTON: What’s an ’80s property that hasn’t been published that you’d love to take a crack at?

GILMORE: "Ghostbusters." No contest whatsoever; I’d like to take a crack at "Ghostbusters" more than practically anything else out there comic-book or otherwise.

LEE: Dragon’s Lair, the videogame.

COTTON: With the ’80s being so hot right now, what do you think will be the next big hit in comics? Japanese imports? ’90s revivals? Comics based on TV shows? What’s your prediction?

GILMORE: TV shows and movies are going to be the next boom. I think the new "C.S.I." book is going to surprise a lot of people, and that "Alias" is going to be a hit, too. After that, I think we’re going to see a lot of shows and some film franchises being snapped up.

LEE: I predict that the Japanese import stuff will last for awhile, as for the next hottest comic book? Could really be anything, it’s hard to say at this moment. Who knows, could be My Little Pony!

COTTON: What’s the strangest fan response you’ve gotten to your work on Thundercats?

GILMORE: I got this insanely belligerent e-mail from someone on a "Thundercats" message board about how we never should have brought the Thundercats back if we weren’t willing to explore their sexuality like all the fans have been demanding for so many years. When I commented that I didn’t think that all the fans have been demanding Thundercat sex, I was told I wasn’t a real fan or else I’d know they were.

COTTON: How about you and Transformers’ fans, Pat?

LEE: "Dude! Can you lemme take two pictures of you? One of you standing, and one picture of you crouching like a vehicle?"....Uhhh...OK.

COTTON: Which mainstream superhero would you love to have the Thundercats and the Transformers team up with (respectively)?

GILMORE: Superman, most definitely. There are so many similarities between their mythologies, and Lion-O and Superman have so much in common, too. Both characters read like case studies by Joseph Campbell, both are the last sons of doomed planets, both were rocketed away to safety by their fathers as their homeworlds were exploding, thundranium = kryptonite, Grune = Zod, and on and on and on and on… I’d have a lot of fun writing a Superman/Thundercats team-up.

LEE: Gobots. Hellllll yeah!

WRITER’S BIO: Mike Cotton is a staff writer for Wizard: The Comics Magazine. For more on the all of the ’80s properties and all the comic book news fit to print, check out Wizard on sale every month at comic book specialty shops and newsstands everywhere.