For years I have been trying to find clean copies of the Fantastic Four cartoons that originally appeared on Hanna-Barbera's World of Super Adventure. I've only ever seen wobbly VHS copies of them. I was hoping they would show up on Disney+, but they aren't among the various FF cartoons offered there. Recently my hopes were raised when I saw that HBO Max had the original Jonny Quest and some other HB cartoons on there. Still no FF though. These cartoons were taken directly from Stan Lee's first stories and stuck close to Jack Kirby's designs, I'd love to see crisp versions of them someday. I wonder who is holding on to the rights?
I feel so bad for Aquaman in these circumstances. It's bad enough that he's in a desert, but then Johnny "I can heat things up and dry things out even more!" Storm comes flying in to exacerbate the situation. I mean, I guess Zan can help out, but that leave Aquaman swimming around inside of a colleague. Ugh. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI would guess that W.B. owns the H.B. rights now. They are probably not in a rush
ReplyDeleteto give Disney more exposure ....UNTIL the F.F. movie comes out. Then they will milk the animated series for all they can.
Lovely juxtaposition of images and teams. The story that would spin out from this cover flows so naturally that it takes several seconds before reality kicks in and you realise that this is an STF cover ...and that story doesn't exist!
ReplyDeleteDet. Tobor took the words right out of my mouth. Or is that "...out of my typing fingertips?"
ReplyDelete:-)
HBO Max has Aquaman from the 60s; weren't there also Batman cartoons from that same era? I wonder where those are.
ReplyDeleteWhile WB owns the rights to the HB characters, I imagine that ownership of those Fantastic Four cartoons is in a grey area. Tobor's probably right in that we'll start seeing them on either HBO Max or Disney+ as excitement over the new FF movie heats up. (Or maybe someone can write directly to Disney's legal department to ask.)
ReplyDelete@Reg: Zan could just become a raincloud every hour or so to keep Aquaman moist.
@Anon@8:58: I even have vague memories of a 60s Justice League cartoon predating the Super Friends, or at least something with the Flash and the Atom in featured roles.
@Bob & Anon858: The "Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure" was the 1967-68 expansion of Filmation's "The New Adventures of Superman" (featuring Bud Collyer as the voice of the title character). Marvin Miller was the voice of Aquaman; Gerald Mohr was the voice of GL Hal Jordan; Vic Perrin was the voice of Thanagarian Hawkman; Cliff Owens was the voice of Barry "The Flash" Allen; and Pat Harrington was the voice of Ray "The Atom" Palmer.
ReplyDeleteEach of the latter four characters had three individual adventures along with three adventures banded together, with Superman, as the Justice League. And it's this quintet that first attracted me to JLA (v.1) #'s 91 and 92 in Aug./Sept. 1971!
P.S.@ Anon858: "The Superman/Batman Hour" debuted on CBS the following year. With Olan Soule and Casey Kasem as the voices of Batman and Robin, respectively.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, it was basically a continuation of the live-action Bat-series from ABC.
@Anon@9:57: Thanks for the refresher! I need to hunt that series down.
ReplyDeletePS @Ross: Has Spider-Man '67 appeared on the blog? It might be fun to team him with the above-described Justice League '67 ("the comics adaptation of the lost two-part crossover adventure!").
ReplyDeleteThere were also three Filmation Teen Titans cartoons (with Speedy in the Robin role, since Batman & Robin were licensed by another studio at the time), along with the JLA, Flash, Atom, Hawkman, and GL cartoons, for a total of 18 eight minute cartoons.
ReplyDeleteWhich makes Speedy and Wonder Girl two sidekicks who made it to TV years before their adult partners.
ReplyDeleteWhat cover of the Super Friends comic are you using?
ReplyDeleteSplash page to Super-Friends #24
ReplyDeleteOh,okay. I thought you were limited to pre-existing covers only.
DeleteI remember the 60s cartoons, didn't see FF but my brother did! I enjoyed the adventures even though I only knew Superman and Batman. I think writer Andy Mangels did a book on Filmation, he might know about the rights and whether we'll see the cartoons again someday.
ReplyDeleteSome of them are on YouTube.
ReplyDelete@Reg: Since Zan from the Wonder Twins can turn to water, Aquaman should be all right.
ReplyDeleteDiana and Sue ought to have an interesting conversation at some point. GREAT cover.
ReplyDeleteThose Fab 4 cartoons were in many ways my entry into the land of comics and I too have been hankering for a good DVD copy. I had taped them all off Boomerang decades ago on VHS but I no longer have a working VHS player. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteRip Off
@Bob Buethe: And Filmation's Kid Flash remains the only _non-ginger_ Caucasian version of him I've ever seen.
ReplyDelete