For this week's "Wacky Wallpaper Wednesday" I'm proud to say that the artwork for these 2 Batman Wallpaper Backgrounds were supplied by a friend to the Bat-Blog named Tom DeRosier. He said that when drawing them he was being inspired by the Comic Book Art of Alex Toth. Looking at them I can totally see the influence, especially the "painted brushstroke" black line. Toth worked in comics, on & off, for many decades. He was also a Lead Designer for Hanna-Barbera Animation. He worked on the 1970's SUPER FRIENDS Cartoon & this is where our friend took inspiration. Mr. Toth died in 2006 at the age of 78. I met him once, at a Comic Book Convention in the late 70's. He was extremely nice & a lot of fun to talk to. Plus, he was a GREAT Artist.
OK, this is pretty cool! In response to a few SUPER FRIENDS Model Sheets we posted recently another Bat-Blog Fan named Nick sent in some more that he has. These feature the artwork for Action Poses or "what Batman looks like in action", the dashboard of the Batmobile, & another mock-up of the Batmobile car (full-length). Of course the artwork is done by none other than the master, Alex Toth! Thanks goes out to Nick for submitting this wonderful pieces of bat-history.
Fisher Price has come out with a new DC Super Friends Playset called "Joker's Fun House". It's from their Imaginext line of toys so it's made for very little kids but I gotta say that I think it's pretty cool & wouldn't mind having one myself, ha! Here's what the official FP website has to say about it:
Imagine a showdown between Batman and The Joker! There are plenty of traps and surprises around every corner of The Joker’s Fun House—Batman better watch out! The giant hammer slams down, the cannon fires, and there’s even a secret jail behind the moving hand! Will Batman end up The Joker’s captive, or will he be able to have it the other way around? Includes The Joker figure and getaway car; Batman figure not included.
Here are some amazing examples of the fantastic artwork of Alex Toth! Most of his fans know him for his Golden Age Comic Book Art but he was also a leading Graphic Designer in the World of Animation. In fact, he created most of the visual look for the Super Friends Cartoon TV Show back in the early 1970's & here are 3 totally awesome "Model Sheets" to prove it! A Model Sheet is something used by an Animator to keep an exact idea of what certain things are suppose to look like. It helps to make artwork consistent & sets the correct scales, sizes, & colors too. In these examples you see the ones for Batman himself, his Batmobile Car, & the famous Bat-Jet! I totally love this old animated cartoon & when I was a very little kid I really loved it too. I wanna thank our friend Scott for sending these great pictures & reminding me of my childhood. Also, I'm a HUGE Alex Toth Fan so seeing anything by him is a great treat.
Oh Yeah! You know those Character Plush Toys that are made for Toy-Crane Vending Machines? Well, there's a new company called SUGAR LOAF & they're gonna have some of the DC SUPER FRIENDS. In fact, if you're lucky, you might be able to find some right now, & if not, then very very soon! They have already started to pop-up on eBay so I suspect they're, like, totally available! In the 1st Wave of Plushes they made Batman, Robin, The Joker, The Penguin, Aquaman, Superman, & the Flash! These kind of remind me a little bit of the Beanie Babies sold by the Warner Bros Store many years ago...but way more cute. If anyone out there sees any different superheroes or villains then please let us know!
The other day I did a post about the intro to FAMILY GUY where they made the show look like the old 1970's SUPER FRIENDS TV Cartoon Series. Well, here's a side-by-side comparison to show how great it really is!!
In a recent episode of FAMILY GUY, in the beginning of the show, they do an amazing parody of intro to the 1970's classic animated series SUPER FRIENDS. Peter Griffin is Superman, Lois is Wonder Woman, Chris is Aquaman, and Batman & Robin are played by Brian The Dog & Stewie. The animation looks just like the old TV show & the sounds effects are exactly the same. Now, because the Bat-Blog is "all about Batman & Robin", I'm just showing a few screen shots of them. But if ya wanna watch the whole episode, for free, then check out the video on HULU by clicking HERE! One last thing, I know HULU doesn't work in certain countries & I apologize for that but I bet you'll be able to find it on MySpace Video or YouTube.
In response to a recent post here at the Bat-Blog, where we had a video of this subject, we got this Vintage Comic Book Advertisement. ( You can see the video by clicking HERE! ) I remember this ad! It was always on the backs of comic books in the1980's. It advertised a "DC Superhero" Water-Ski Theme Show they had at SEA WORLD. I always lived way too far away from these things to go & was always bummed-out by the distance, ha ha! But, other than remembering a serious childhood trauma, I do wanna sincerely say Thank you for sending it in, it's really a cool piece of Bat-History, from the "comic book character + Amusement Park" angle. I know lots of people will remember it fondly. Maybe they went. If you're a Bat-Blog Reader who has some photos or stories like this then please share them.
Back in 1979 some tourist shot this video so that, in the future, we could see it! This is the SUPER FRIENDS event at the Cypress Gardens Water Amusement Park. Performers dressed up as Batman, Robin, Superman, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Mr. Freeze, The Joker, The Penguin, etc. all get totally crazy. Finding video, or even any information, about this event is really difficult. Plus, I don't think there is any audio in this video. That, or my speakers are broken, ha ha! But really I think the best part of the video is seeing the cool Bat-Boat! If you saw this event as a child then this video will bring back some great memories of a fun summer vacation!
