OK, kids: It's time for cartoons

We promised.

And as the always excitable Joe Cool might say: “Mmmmmm …”

Yes, it’s back to the business of having good ol’ fun with a reader poll — and this time we’re making it really tough.

We want to know your favorite cartoon character.

You only get one, which seems almost unfair. There are so many choices, going back more than a half-century.

I mean, who hasn’t watched cartoons at some point in a lifetime?

Childhood, maybe. Adulthood, for sure.

I gave away my choice right away, I suppose, with a reference to Snoopy as laid-back Joe Cool.

In another life, I would have begged Charles Schulz to draw me as a World War I flying ace.

Call it serendipity, but I actually got to meet Schulz. He was creating a special program cover for the San Jose Sharks hockey club, and I was writing a book on how this young team had become such a marketing success.

With more good fortune, I got to sit next to Schulz in the press area — and probably bugged him with questions about how certain characters developed their personalities and so on.

Of course I admitted that — like millions more around the world — I was hopelessly smitten with Snoopy.

That earned me a minor scoop, actually.

“You know, I never thought Snoopy would be a major character in the strip,” Schulz said. “But I wanted Charlie to have a dog that, like everyone else in his life, would let him down.

“Somehow, Snoopy grew into a star of his own — which probably was just another way to disappoint poor Charlie Brown.”

OK, so I’m on board with Snoopy, who probably would be the Vegas favorite in our poll.

But there are so, so many more.

Think of all the Disney characters, including animated movie stars.

THAT DOESN’T even touch all the Looney Tunes stars, or the army of fantastic characters created by Hanna and Barbera.

Or …

The unfortunate but hilarious Wile E. Coyote, who has been bruised and battered by the cunning Roadrunner in more ways than anyone can count.

My favorite recurring scene in that series takes place each time Wile races unknowingly off a cliff, realizes he’s about to fall thousands of feet — and somehow produces a useless umbrella to slow his descent.

“Poof!”

That’s Wile hitting the canyon floor. But no worries, he’ll recover to be tricked again.

Besides all the timeless characters (Tinker Bell, Goofy, Tweety and Sylvester, Bullwinkle, Yogi, Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jerry, etc.), I also got hooked on a couple of oddballs from the comic strip “Bloom County” — Opus the penguin and Bill the Cat, who was a drug-ravaged rock star, of all things.

On and on they go.

I mentioned Snoopy, but what about the rest of Schulz’s gang?

Given the chance to ask the man himself if Lucy ever would let Charlie kick the football, he merely smiled and said: “I like the fact that everyone’s waiting for it.”

There are so many characters to love, for various reasons.

What about Simba from “The Lion King?”

Now it’s up to you.

Don’t send lists. Be tough on yourself and …

PICK ONE!

This will be as tough as the top songs, so we’ll give you three weeks and keep you up to date on what’s happening.

Meanwhile …

“It was a dark and stormy night …”

•••

Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press. A Brand New Day appears Wednesday through Saturday each week.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com.

Twitter: @BrandNewDayCDA

Go on: Do it. Pick your very favorite cartoon character and email your choice to Steve Cameron: scameron@cdapress.com