CHALLENGE OF THE SUPERFRIENDS Model Sheets

[RSS]

Here's the original model sheets for CATWOMAN & RIDDLER done by Alex Toth for the CHALLENGE OF THE SUPERFRIENDS Cartoon ©1978 Hanna Barbera. As a little kid going to comic book conventions I met Alex Toth & he was really nice to me. I regret that I was too young to think about getting a sketch or autograph but we had a nice long talk. He was really impressed with how I was totally familuar with alot of his "Golden Age" artwork & comics. He asked what comics I was reading at the time & he said he read some of those too, it was cool. This was around the same time these drawings were done.



More...

[jemboy2004]

Catwoman didn't appear on COTSF but would have been cool if she did. I guess they wouldn't have put Cheetah and Catwoman on the show togehter though. I wonder why they chose Cheetah, Catwoman is more popular. I am glad to see a villian for WW on the show. I still wonder why they didn't use CW instead of Cheetah.

Cool to think they did think about though.

[The Toyroom]

Were some of the Bat-rights tied up with Filmation's New Adventures of Batman at the time? I wonder of that's why Catwoman didn't appear....but then again Riddler did and wasn't he on NAoB? I think the color scheme they were planning on was interesting for that style costume....one I don't think I've seen done before. The black/grey is usually reserved for the Julie Newmar style suit or the Frank Miller Year One suit.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Catwoman, Joker and Penguin were slated to be used on Challenge originally. Instead of Luthor, the Legion of Doom was to be led by Dr. Sivana. Why Sivana? Because the Super Friends were to be joined by...Captain Marvel! Yes, the Big Red Cheese himself. BUT, HB found out Filmation still had the animation rights to the Shazam! characters (which they eventually used), even though HB had gotten the live action rights after Filmation's live action series folded (remember he was in the HB "Legends of the Super Heroes" specials). HB also found out arch-enemy Filmation had sewed up the rights to most of the Bat-villains, so they only got to keep the Riddler. As far as I know, Riddler only appeared in the title sequence of Filmation's NAoB. And he's...red for some reason!!!

This information gleaned from Comicology's Kingdom Come Companion.

Chris

[The Toyroom]

Good info Chris! Thanks!

HB also found out arch-enemy Filmation had sewed up the rights to most of the Bat-villains, so they only got to keep the Riddler.

And the Scarecrow . I always thought "The Riddler + The Scarecrow = a poor man's Joker". Would've gladly traded in those two for the Clown Prince of Crime.

[palitoy]

Chris, thanks for that info. I watched NAOB religiously waiting for the Riddler to appear and never understood why he didn't.

[Earth 2 Chris]

How could I have forgotten the Scarecrow! Filmation had used Scarecrow on their 60s Batman program, but he didn't appear on NAoB either.

Chris