Is this the beginning of the Adrian Fenty comeback? Not sure, but either way, the former mayor’s old pal Sinclair Skinner, pictured here, is back promoting Fenty. Oh, sure, in the past Skinner’s Fenty hype has included some epic press releases, public statements and campaign tricks, but this is different.

Cartoons.

Yep, Skinner has written and produced a 12-part series of animated shorts about Fenty’s life and career, the first of which went online yesterday at the Post’s The Root D.C. section. The scene is spring 1990 at Oberlin College, and Fenty is joining the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Of course, Fenty’s application to join the frat is opportunity for his questioners to mount a full-scale indictment of Washington’s crime and drug problems of the day.

The animation style is, well, pretty flat. The blocky characters painted move around like the talking bears in an Xtranormal clip and speak with computerized voices, though there are voice credits at the end of the clip. OK, Skinner probably isn’t going for an Annie Award here, but the Microsoft Paint color scheme and schlocky earnestness of the script are a bit much.

“Why are you even here? This is not like hanging with your homies on the block,” one of the big brothers asks.

“D.C. is not the wasteland the media makes it out to be,” young Fenty replies. And when Fenty, presented here as a meek college freshman clad in a red hooded sweatshirt tries to evade accusations that because then-Mayor Marion Barry had been caught smoking crack, the entire population must be a bad lot, another of the inquisitive frat brothers retorts with this:

“Even your basketball team is called the Bullets.” Music swells, and Skinner leaves us on this cliffhanger. Cartoon Fenty’s response—which will surely be another aspirational speech—will come in part two.