A Orgy of Animated Marvel

[Mr. Satanism]

Had an unexpected day off, so I plunged into several Marvel cartoons someone gave me on VHS, including 1960's Cap and Sub-Mariner, 1966 Spider-Man, 1981 Spider-Man (the solo, not Amazing Friends), 1982 Hulk, RoboCop (huh?) and even the 1996 version of Spidey.

Best completely wasted day ever.

I still think the best Marvel cartoon of all time was the 2008 Spider-Man take, but what are your favorites?

[Luke Blanchard]

I watched the 60s Spider-Man cartoon as a little kid, but the only thing I remember about is Spider-Man taking photographs during the credits.

[Figserello]

I think the 60s Kirby 'motion comics' work well.

They bring Kirby's genius (almost) to another medium. I find myself enjoying Kirby's posing and hunchy anatomy and weird designs all over again when they made them move like that. They get a lot of stick, but I thought they were fun the last time I saw them.

It's possible to enjoy Kirby's art for what it is on those cartoons, but Stan's dialogue and narrative does seem hoaky and 'badly written' once you see people 'walkin and talkin' like that. You don't have to be cynically enjoying bad art to enjoy Kirby's artwork, whereas that's the only way to get Stan's dialogue, presuming they didn't change it much from the comic.

They're an interesting experiment in making comics move without completely changing what they are.

The 60s Spider-man has its charms (and almost definitely the greatest cartoon theme song ever), but Marvel was always too cheap to bring us great cartoons on the level of DC's Timm/Dini cycle.

Wouldn't mind seeing 60's Sub-Mariner. Were they like the Kirby Cap cartoons? Did they involve Gene Colan art adapted the same way?

[Mr. Satanism]

I was VERY surprised to learn that the 1966 Spider-Man actually had at least some continuity to it. In the one I watched, Spidey saves JJJ and the latter is shocked, claiming he thought Spider-Man was "just something the cops made up". It also shows Peter getting hired at the Bugle (JJJ hires him unseen and calls it his "good deed for the day")

Luke Blanchard said:

I watched the 60s Spider-Man cartoon as a little kid, but the only thing I remember about is Spider-Man taking photographs during the credits.

[Figserello]

Luke Blanchard said:

I watched the 60s Spider-Man cartoon as a little kid, but the only thing I remember about is Spider-Man taking photographs during the credits.

Who was it on the old board that reviewed all of them in great depth? I enjoyed that thread.

I'd thought that was you, Luke, but it seems not.

[Luke Blanchard]

That was Jeff, I believe.

[Mr. Satanism]

I once heard that the main reason the 1960's "Marvel Heroes" cartoons had such limited animation was because they had to be delivered in an extraordinarily short amount of time. Anyone know if this is true?

[Figserello]

Luke Blanchard said:

That was Jeff, I believe.

Of Earth J? I'd be surprised if it was. I think it was the Professor chap. Don't think he's been around lately. I just read the posts back then and couldn't really tell the different contributors apart until later.

[Cavaliere (moderator emeritus)]

Without putting a lot of thought into it, I'm going to say my favorite was Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.

[Mr. Satanism]

The Sub-Mariner cartoons I saw were indeed animated in the same way, but one of them was actually taken from an FF story so it may not be Colon art (I couldn't tell who it was, truth be told, but I'm bad at that).

And I like "...and his Amazing Friends" too, mainly because it was the first place I saw a lot of obscure characters in cartoon form. I mean, Shanna the She-Devil?

[Lumbering Jack (M'odd-R8-Tr)]

Put me on the "Amazing Friends" bandwagon. It was some good stuff for a kid just getting into comics. Iceman was funny as hell in that. The only atrocity was, of course, Ms. Lions/Lyons.
You know, I would buy the soundtrack to that series in a minute. Sure it would be something like six tracks long, but I still get a kick out of the bombastic music they used.