Super Friends Coloring Book Original Art by Alex Toth

Check this out! Later this month there's an auction of original preliminary drawings the master, Alex Toth, did for a 1975 Super Friends coloring book! I'm amazed stuff like this is still around, considering material like this was usually used in-house and then discarded. But of course, this is Alex Toth we're talking about here--even his napkin scribbles were worth preserving.

(h/t: F.O.A.M.er Ilke Hincer)

Whitman Coloring Book Display - 1980

I found this little curio for sale at a Hake's auction last week--a header card for a coloring book display made by Whitman.

This was one of those cardboard displays (or "dumps", as they are less-than-charitably known) that sat in department stores, just eye-level for kids. They worked on me, that's for sure. Even without the color yellow, Wonder Woman and Aquaman are easily recognizable, thanks to Alex Toth's genius character designs.

I think we can all agree, it was great when The Lone Ranger joined the Super Friends. Wait, what?

DC Super Friends In Action!

F.O.A.M.er Russell Burbage is really good at finding all the myriad DC Super Friends items out there and sending them in, like he did with this coloring book DC Super Friends In Action!

Despite the action figure line drying up, there's still a ton of other DCSF-related stuff being produced; one look on Amazon shows there's several new titles on tap for this year alone--which means more Aquaman in book and toy stores, which is always good.

Aquaman appears throughout this book, along with his super-cool Aqua-Sub:

I really wish there was a DC Super Friends cartoon; I'm dying to see the Aqua-Sub in action, even if it is completely unnecessary!

Thanks Russell!

DC Super Powers Coloring Book, Ctd. - 1980s

Earlier this month, I did a post featuring the cover to this DC Super Powers coloring book, provided for the Shrine by F.O.A.M.er Jon Knutson. Jon didn't have anything except the cover, and I couldn't find any info on it either, so its contents remained a mystery.

That is, until F.O.A.M.er Chip Cataldo wrote me to say he had a copy of the coloring book (of course he did, its a Super Powers item...more on that in a moment). Chip helpfully sent two scans of the book, the first (above), showing danged tiny the thing is! That's only about 4-5" high, way smaller than your typical coloring book.

Chip also sent the one page featuring Aquaman, which is opposite a page starring Famous Merchandising Hog, Captain Marvel:

As Chip pointed out, Aquaman gets the last laugh here: not only is Captain Marvel called Shazam, but they don't even spell it right!


I mentioned above that Chip would have this item because its a piece of Super Powers merchandise. For those of you not familiar with Chip's collection of SP merchandise, here's just a tiny glimpse of it:

If you think that's impressive (and it is), check out this interview with Chip which features even more photos of his amazing, staggering, unbelievable (take your pick) collection of Super Powers stuff. It has to be seen to be believed--its like if you took an 8 year-old's brainwaves and turned them into a toy showroom.

Thanks for the scans Chip!

DC Super Powers Coloring Book - 1980s

Another from the collection of F.O.A.M.er Jon Knutson, this one's a real riddle--Jon didn't have anything from this except the cover, and I've not been able to dig up any further clues to its contents.

Judging by the...wobbly cover art (traced over Jose Luis Garcia Lopez stock art shots by someone who had a few too many Whiskey Sours at lunch), this looks like a bootleg item, but there's DC's copyright right there in the corner, and ABC books was a real children's book imprint, so this must be legit. Since it says "Super Powers" on it and Supergirl is rocking her Flashdance look, this book can safely be pegged as being from the 1980s. Other than that...its a mystery.

In any case, its nice to see Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Supergirl on the cover, since they didn't always get to be on the front and/or cover of whatever piece of merchandise was produced.

Thanks again Jon!

DC Super Friends Saving The Day Activity Book - 2010

When visiting my local Target, it doesn't take long before I inevitably find some small piece of DC Super Friends merchandise I've never seen before.

This is a 52-page coloring and activity book, and even though Aquaman doesn't appear on the cover, generally he gets his fair share of the spotlight on the inside:

There's also a little sheet of tattoos included, and Aquaman is one of those (Parents: be wary if your child chooses The Joker tattoo over the others).

I'm always a little chagrined when Aquaman doesn't make it on the cover/wrapper of a piece of DCSF merch, but I can't complain too much: he presumably lost his space to Hawkman, another criminally under-utilized character. So let's give Katar a chance to shine here, since Aquaman appears in so much more of the other DCSF stuff.

Super Powers Anti-Coloring Book - 1984

F.O.A.M.er Marc Tyler Nobleman assumed I had a copy of this, The Super Powers Anti-Coloring Book, when he casually mentioned it in an email, but I didn't!

Marc generously sent me a .pdf of it; sadly it only features Aquaman once in the entire book. But, as Marc pointed out, "The only page with Aquaman is 26, but even Flash doesn't get his own page, Hawkman appears only on the cover, and merchandising mainstays like Captain Marvel, Batgirl, Plastic Man, and Atom don't appear at all."

Here's the Aquaman page:

It looks like someone along the line took the Jose Luis Garcia Lopez stock shot and re-drew the head a bit so he's turning more to the right. Nicely done, considering how hard that must have been.

Glad I finally got to see this book, thanks MTN!

Canadian Tire Super Powers Coloring Page

I was sent this obscure piece of Super Powers merchandise by our newest F.O.A.M. member, Bob Vandenbrink. Thanks Bob!

Here's what Bob had to say about it:

"A friend found these old colouring contest sheets for Canadian Tire (you may or may not know Canadian Tire, there's not really an American equivalent from what I understand, maybe Pep Boys meets Sears?). The other side has Care Bears, and another sheet has Cabbage Patch Kids and Sectaurs(!)."

Sectaurs?? Ah yes, I remember that merchandising juggernaut. I wonder what the "surprise free gift" was?

I appreciate whatever anonymous designer put this together bothered to include Aquaman, especially since they don't even have him engaging in a fight with a villain, like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are doing. If only Kenner had produced a Black Manta for the Super Powers line...

Anyway, I love seeing really weird and/or rare stuff like this--thanks again Bob, and welcome to F.O.A.M.!

DC Super Friends Coloring Book

"Danger From The Deep!"

This super-fun color and activity book was sent to me by my pal and F.O.A.M. members Charles Howell, who found it in a place we've come to call "The Magic Grocery Store"--a supermarket that, often as not, seems to have hard to find items like JLU or Brave and the Bold figures, when they are nowhere to be seen at the local Target. It is presumably located behind a bureau of some kind.

Anyway, I didn't even know this book existed, so it was a great treat to find it in my mailbox one morning.

And it was just as nice to see that Aquaman has a major presence in the book:

...that's how I would look, if Aquaman came and rescued me.


A week or two later after this book arrived, Darlin' Tracy and I went to visit some friends of ours, whose son absolutely loves comic books, superheroes, etc.

I always bring him (and his younger sister) some comics when we come to visit, so I added this book to the pile of stuff I brought along. You can imagine my delight when he spent the entire evening running back and forth, showing me each new picture he just finished coloring.

The Super Friends bring people together!

DC Comics Super Heroes Coloring Book, Part 1 - 1998

This is one of a handful of Aqua-Centric pages from a DC Comics Super Heroes coloring book. I've never seen this particular book, but the pages were scanned and sent to me by F.O.A.M. member Doug Zawisza(author of the upcoming TwoMorrows' book The Hawkman Companion). Thanks Doug!

Sure, Aquaman is in his pirate/Wolverine look, but what the hey--I'm just happy he was included. And I love that goatee Ocean Master is rocking there!

He also sent the cover, which sadly does not feature the Sea King--but it does have the mullet Superman, so there's that.

Total Justice Coloring Book, Part 2 - 1997

More from the Total Justice coloring book, courtesy F.O.A.M. member Damian Maffei.

Interesting that they bothered to work in Barbara Gordon, who seems even more dignified when posed next to the heroes of the DCU in their uber-silly "Fractal Tech-Gear."

And on the second page, all I can of think of is: "Ok everybody, stop playing on Darkseid!"

Total Justice Coloring Book, Part 1 - 1997

My pal and F.O.A.M. member Damian Maffei emailed me a few weeks ago asking me if I owned the Total Justice coloring book, since it did feature some Aquaman stuff in it.

My reaction was swift: "There's a Total Justice coloring book?!?" Why had no one informed me of this?

Apparently there was a bit of a marketing push for the (IMO) ill-advised and downright goofy TJ line, and no line of tie-ins is complete without a coloring book(I think there was even--Neptune help us--some sort of audio adventure book and cassette set. I've gotta track that down someday!).

So Damian helpfully sent me a few pages of coloring/game pages, and they are every bit as goofy as the figures themselves--even more so, I'd say, since the coloring book is trying to look all kid-friendly and happy, and yet it's based on a toy line all about Channeling Your Rage and/or injecting steroids into your buttocks(sorry, Roger Clemens has been in the news a lot lately).

Super Friends Coloring Book - 1975

From the prices this commands everytime it surfaces on ebay, I would say this Super Friends coloring book from Whitman is one of the most beloved childhood items of a lot of people. I had no intention of paying as much for it as I did, but I simply got tired of not having it in the collection!

The first thing I notice about this is the fairly unusual cover--you've got Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman to use, and instead you show off Marvin and Wendy?

The story concerns a race of underwater people that Aquaman runs afoul of, and they kidnap him (what is this, Justice?), which of course gets the Super Friends involved. Luckily, its all a big misunderstanding (what is this, a Marvel book?), and the whole thing is settled with just a few punches thrown.

Since the story is water-based, for once Aquaman gets the lions-share of the action! And while I compliment the writers heartily for putting Aquaman front and center, it's kind of a one-step-up, two-steps-back kind of thing. Bad enough that Aquaman gets kidnapped, but:

...he gets rescued by a swordfish. A swordfish. C'mon, Aquaman can withstand the deepest ocean pressure, and a friggin' swordfish gets him out a jam? I think it's stuff like this that convinced a whole generation that Aquaman was pretty lame.

...you said it, Dick.