Attack of the Cartoon Heroes series! Part 1

Last year ago, we took a long look at the live-action representations of some of our favorite heroes over the years. They weren't all flattering, but it was nice to see them moving. Now I thought we'd look at the flip side of the coin: cartoons.

Believe it or not, some superheroes have given us great cartoons over the years. While I can't possibly cover them all, I wanted to hit several that I think deserve mentioning.

Superman (1930's)

Superman was the first superhero to see animation, and what a great job they did. Using a process called "rotoscoping", the cartoons were drawn over live actors in places, giving it a realism that makes each of the cartoons fun to watch even today. In all honesty, these cartoons look better than most of the "anime" style we're seeing in stuff like Teen Titans and such.



The Filmation DC Heroes (mid-1960's)

Long before they were on Cartoon Network, heroes like Hawkman, The Flash, The Atom, and the Teen Titans were on television in short cartoons. These weren't ground-breaking in animation (but much better than their Marvel counterparts, as you'll see in a minute), but the stories were fun. Kid Flash had a really weird look that combined the comic book version and something else. See what you think:



The Marvel Heroes (mid-1960's)

The animation here is incredibly weak (mainly just animated panels of comic books at times), but the chance to see the heroes in action was a huge draw.



Here's something you might not know: the first animated appearance of the X-Men was in one of these old cartoons. Sub-Mariner needed help in one of his episodes, and the X-Men answered the call. It was the classic version with the yellow-and-blue suits, but it happened.



And let's not forget Thor!



Spider-Man (1967)

This one is particularly special to me. I watched this in reruns in the early 70's as a kid, and it was the absolute highlight of my Saturday morning. When my mom took me to someone else's house for them to babysit me, they were told that Spider-Man came on at 10 (no, I'm not Rain Man or anything...I just loved that show!). I can still dramatically remember the morning I sat in front of the television at the appointed time with my cereal and orange juice only to see "The Addams Family" come on. My world was shattered! This was a decade before something called a VCR, so you watched what came on and when it was taken off the air, it was GONE, baby! Of course, thanks to the wonders of DVDs I now have the complete series in my collection, but there for a while it was painful.

The animation was pretty good here, the villains were fairly close to the comic book versions of themselves, and they even got Spider-Man's quirkly little comments during the fights right. Sit back and enjoy the ZZZZZZEEERRRPPPPP as Spidey goes swinging by!



The Super Friends (several incarnations over the 70's - 80's)

There were so many versions of these guys over the years it's hard to concentrate on any one era. Basically, this was the first real super-team I saw on television as a kid and every time I went swimming during the Summer I was Aquaman!

Casey Kasem (the voice of Shaggy) did the voice of Robin, and I always wondered how much fun it must have been to see him doing the voice recordings for that Scooby Doo episode where he met Batman! "Zoinks, Scoob! It's Batman and Robin!" "Holy Talking Dog, Batman! It's Scooby Doo and Shaggy!" "Like, wow, man!" "Holy Zoinks!..no, wait, I'm sorry, I got that wrong. Cut!"



Plastic Man (1979-1981)

We close out today with a look at one of the more obscure heroes to actually get a series. Don't get me wrong, I loved Plastic Man! But how he was chosen for a series I'll never know. It worked though (well, until Plastic Baby came along and killed it for everyone). I just wish Woozy Winks would have made an appearance.




That brings us to the 80's, but there are still a lot of folks who need mentioning! Next week, we'll talk about more modern heroes including: Justice League, Batman the Animated Series, Superman, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (second appearance of the X-Men), The X-Men and more!

Before we go, here's a little something that proves anyone can get on the internet if you have a video camera, imagination, and a lot of time on your hands:

Happy Birthday to Us!

Well, today this blog officially turns 1 year old! Sorry about the lack of updates lately, but college finals sucked the life out of me for a couple of weeks. We should be back up and running as usual next week though.

One year ago while on vacation in a little B&B on a cliff (long story), I came up with the idea for this blog and began filling it with rants, reviews, and ravings. It's taken a while to find my rhythm with it, but I'm having fun and hopefully you are too.

In the biggest news of this little blog's lifespan...

My oldest son, Khristian, has won the first round of the 2009 Design Scholarship Challenge! He now has a $5K scholarship and we are both being sent to the San Diego Comic-Con so he can present his final-round work to DC Comics judges there! If he wins, he'll be working as an intern for DC Comics on an upcoming project!

I wish I could post the work he did for DC's "Absolute Justice" hardcover ads, but we might be violating copyright so I'm not touching it. Maybe after it's all said and done I can put it up. Suffice it to say, it's cool!

This is one awesome geek moment for me as I've always wanted to go to the SDCC but have never had a reason (or the finances) to get there. This is something we're both excited about, and for the first time ever I'll be able to give live updates from a comic book convention! This all hits next month, so be sure and check back during the SDCC for daily updates and possibly some breaking news from the comic book world!

Ok, the "proud papa" brag is over. Please forgive me.

Here's to another great year of fun heroics and great comics!

The Greatest Fan-Made Movie Trailers

Ok, let's admit that comic book fans can be a little rabid about their favorite heroes from time to time. That being said, we're also an incredibly creative bunch. Thanks to the innovation of cool programs like After Effects, Photoshop, and hey, even Windows Movie Maker, we are able to see trailers for films that would be so awesome it takes the breath away at times. We'll never actually see these films, but at least for two minutes and thirty seconds we are getting our dreams fulfilled. Here's a quick list of some of my favorites:

Thundercats

I know you've heard of this one. It's arguably the first high-quality mash-up to get a lot of media attention. Brad Pitt as Lion-O, Vin Diesel as a bald guy with no discernable personality (a big stretch for him, by the way), and more!



Nightwing Vs. Batman: A Fallen Hero

For some reason, it looks like Nightwing remains one of the favorite cosplay heroes out there. And I know the acting in this one isn't so hot, but it's a fun concept.



The Greatest Fan Film of All Time

This is the preview trailer for it, but it's actually done. It lasts about 45 minutes, and there are some moments of absolute sheer brilliance in it! I don't want to spoil it for you, but any movie that has Stan Lee punching Galactus has got to be good. Seriously though, this isn't for kids. It has some bad language in parts, and the violence goes waaaaaaaaaay over the top in places, but I have to give them points for originality and guts. It starts out funny, but after the Batman/Joker scene in the blimp you see this thing take a serious turn to the dark side. If you have the time and the kids aren't around, check it out and stick with it until it gets serious.



Green Lantern

This one is only the end of a film the guy was putting together rather than a complete trailer, but it deserves mention because it's a CGI work that looks like it could have been pretty cool if he hadn't lost it when his computer crashed.



Grayson

In terms of sheer love for a character and cosplay galore, there is simply no greater film clip than this one. The guy put a long time into filming this and getting some great people to join with him. Kimberly Page plays Catwoman, and I have no idea who the Joker is but the man is scary sick at times. Unfortunately, the guy sold his suit and props on Ebay a while back so he has no plans of actually taking this trailer to full-length production, but you can download the entire screenplay on his website to see what might have been. I've read it, and it has some good moments--particularly the identity of Batman's killer at the end. Unfortunately, he makes Barry Allen's Flash look completely out of character and the ending is so abrupt it makes you think he just got tired of writing and quit.



Day When Superman Die

The grammar here isn't the best, and the sound track is straight from the Superman movie, but you can see where this might have had promise if he'd stuck with it.



Green Lantern

And here it is: my favorite of this little collection. Another Green Lantern post? You betcha! Last year I put together my dream cast of a JLA movie, and my choice for Green Lantern was Nathan Fillion. Well, someone else had a similar idea except they ran with it in a big-time way! The quality on this video is really good, especially for a fan-made film. When you see the shots of the other GL's like Tomar Re and the little squirrel guy it makes you forget this is a fan trailer. It's too bad we'll never actually see this one for real. Nathan's a natural!



Hey, there are so many of these out there I'll have to do this again soon. Got any favorites you think should make the next list?