Almost 40 years ago Marvel found itself in a similar position to their current media ownership issues. When making a Fantastic Four cartoon, they couldn't use the Human Torch because he had been licensed to another studio (Universal? Columbia?) for a possible movie. So they replaced Johnny with H.E.R.B.I.E., which was an acronym for Who Gives A Crap? We hated the cartoon before it ever hit the air because of that stupid looking robot taking Johnny Storm's place. Animation as a whole was at a low point, and pretty much everything sucked, it was only a question of how hard.
Memories of the cartoon are so vague now, i truly cannot recall the quality at all. I'm not even certain i watched them. I was starting a family at the time and working multiple jobs back in those days. I missed a lot of shows - we didn't even have VCRs yet.
But, y'know - look at some of Jack Kirby's storyboards for one of those old toons (episode 9 - The Frightful Four, for the curious among you):
I look at those, and now i want to see those old cartoons. If only to see how badly they screwed up Jack's storyboards, but hopefully to see how much of his original work carried through to the final cartoons.
And i absolutely Love that shot of Ben running in that next to last row of panels. I want to see how that looked animated!
storyboards by Jack Kirby for Fantastic Four Season 01 Episode 09 (1978)
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