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DavidCMatthews β First Family of AMZOT
Published: 2011-06-15 04:05:55 +0000 UTC; Views: 19948; Favourites: 203; Downloads: 519
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Today (June 14) marks the official release day of The Herculoids: The Complete Original Animated Series from Warner Archive. So in commemoration of this event - a DVD I've been waiting for ever since the advent of DVDs themselves - I drew this piece of fan art.And although I've drawn Tara several times before, this marks the first time (excepting perhaps some sketches I might've done as a child, and a Herculoids fan) that I've drawn Zandor and Dorno. I would've included the others - Zok, Tundro et al - but I wanted to get this posted before the day is over. (Doesn't look like I'm gonna make it, though.)
BTW: the title is my rebuttal to the name of the bonus feature on the DVD: a short featurette entitled "The Herculoids: The First Family of Quasar." Here's why I not-so-cordially dislike the name "Quasar" for the Herculoids' home planet, and why it'll always be "Amzot" to me.
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Comments: 74
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One of my favorite cartoons from the 1960s. Loved the action. Loved the characters; especially Dorno. And I still love to jam to the soundtrack.
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I miss all of these cartoons from my childhood!!!!
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This is ridiculously amazing.
Tara looks fantastic, Zandor and Dorno you captured perfectly.Β I would love to see a regular comic of them done exactly this way, or even animated. Truly excellent
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Thank you!
I've thought about doing animation myself, but it's such a time-consuming process, especially with characters I don't own (so no way to make any money or even recoup expenses). (Not to mention I'm already juggling so many projectsβ¦)
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loved this as a kid.Any chance for more Hanna Barbera characters? they are my all-time favorite cartoons.Born in 1970, miss all the old shows.
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Dave, this is the hottest Zara I've ever seen!
She's so gorgeous!!!
Max
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I agree with you about the planet's name being Amzot not Quasar.
I seem to recall reading some publicity work for the second series listing the Herculoids as living in "the Kingdom of Amzot on the planet Quazar", as though the person who came up with the new name for the planet had never even heard of the astronomical phenomenon known as a quasar (which disputes a bit of your link's qualms) -- but I've never seen it spelled "Quazar" since then. Either way, I don't recall the reconciliation of "Kingdom of Amzot on the planet Quazar" ever appearing in the series itself, and metatext such as advertisements isn't usually considered canon.
Besides, Amzot was the original name, and there was no reason to change it to a sillier name.
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Nicely done overall!
However, the belts on both Zandor and Dorna are too high up on the waist.
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Were there any other humans on Amzot for them to be first family of? I only have vague memories of the show and it's the monsters.
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There weren't many human societies on Amzot; "The Raider Apes" later in the season showed a town of primitive humans besieged by the titular gorilla-like barbarians who want the gold the humans have hoarded in their caves. And I have to mention "The Gladiators of Kyanite": a idea that sounds like it was cribbed from the Star Trek series, a race that lived in Ancient Rome-style cities, and held gladiator games in colosseums, but with hovercraft and power beams instead of horses and swords. Their ruler was named "Neron"
But there did seem to be quite a few non-humans on the planet: the very first episode "The Beaked People" showed races of parrot-like beings and winged flying monkeys (the former trying to conquer the latter). There were "Mole Men" living underground, Spider People living in the Endless Caves, and a race known as the Reptons who'd built quite a technologically advanced civilization underground. (Wonder if they ever came into conflict with the Mole Men?)
But, yeah, the focus on the show did seem to be on the "invader du cartoon", the almost endless stream of pirates, criminals, would-be conquerors and others who set their sights on a) pillaging Amzot of its resources, b) conquering or destroying its inhabitants, or c) settling a score with Zandor and/or the Herculoids. (Sometimes d) all of the above!)
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Don't forget the humans whose primitive village was invaded by (artificial) monsters from the gravite pits.
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Oh, not forgotten. Over at my Herculoids blog [link] I intend to write a synopsis/review of every episode in the original series. (And if I can get my mitts on the 1980s Space Stars episodes, I'll do them too.) So I'll eventually get to "Island of the Gravites".
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About a year before the Hercuoids DVD came out, I bought a bootleg that includes the Space Star episodes as well - at least, those fully devoted to the Herculoids and not the ones where they merely appeared or shared with Space Ghost or the others. Quality isn't great but not too bad. Was going to supply a link in case you were interested. However, looks like whoever was producing those got driven out of business since. Good thing I got their Shazzan bootleg first! That show still isn't officially available!
Oh well, there's always Youtube! As far as I can see, all the Space Stars episodes are still available fr download from there.
[link]
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Thanks for the info!
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You're welcome.
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Outstanding! Thank you for the new wallpaper!
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I totally agree with your opinions of the Name "Quasar". It's so dorky! But since that "Space Stars" version was so watered down, it probably fitted.
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Wow! Great artwork!
I never deemed that i met a Herculoids fan like me
or perhaps better.
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Misquoted the name of an episode in my previous post; I was thinking of the one called "The Antidote".
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Just checked on my copy of the DVD, and "The Antidote" does have an intact prologue.
(My least favorite episode BTW, because of the horrible implication that Dorno has the right to for all practical purposes rob the Spider-People of their rightful possession - the antidote - just because Zandor needs it to survive.
(I'd have plotted the episode differently, to remove that moral deficiency: the antidote would have been in the possession of a race or society friendly to the Herculoids, who'd be all too happy to give Dorno the means to cure their friend Zandor. But... getting it back to Zandor involves crossing too close to the realm of the Spider-People who might consider this antidote a sacred potion of some sort; then they are the ones morally in the wrong for trying to deprive Dorno of what is now his rightful possession. And naturally, Dorno would be justified in taking whatever means necessary to keep the antodote out of the Spider-People's hands - so to speak.)
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Well, Dorno did ask for the antidote first. The Spider King refused to help because, with Zandor gone, his spider troops could increase their raids against the surface world. These are the same troops the Herculoids fought in an earlier episode (Two raiders took on the entire team?) when Zandor vowed to someday invade the Spider Kingdom and stop these raids. So Dorno's point of view was, "Hey, you keep raiding us, we're raiding you back."
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Hmmm, an interesting point.
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Not only that, but I remembered something else later. Dorno went into the Spider Cave alone to talk to the Spider King, leaving the team outside. And the King showed Dorno where the antidote was - so he could trap Dorno, and then bragged about what he would do after Zandor died. So the diplomatic mission became a rescue mission, as well as a counter-raid.
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Amazing, i saw that episode many years ago;
but i never heeded so many ethical implications.
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This is quite right. Dorno *did* try diplomacy first. Things got ugly only when the king sprung his trap, so as they say, "All's fair in love and war".
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Yes, my dvd has the prolog intact too. What I was saying (in my muddled fashion) was that Cartoon Network sometimes showed this episode (along with others) *without* its prologue - therefore adding to my confusion as to whether prologues simply go cut by them or were never created. But I am sure I reember seeing prologs for episodes that do not have them, despite what was shown on the dvd.
And funny; I've thought the very same thing about the moral implications of this episode whenever I've watched it as an adult; I'm not sure I saw things this way when I first saw it at age 11 however. But in the 1960's, it was standard for whites to always be in the right when dealing with non-whites or non-human raes. I loved the Jonny Quest cartoons but the racial poatronizing (Watch out for the Pohos; they are devils!!! the lady warns Race. I wish Race had retorted: So why do you live in their territory, lady?)
In any case; the spider people tried to kidnap Dorno in an earlier episode - presumably to eat him (isn't that what spiders do to captives?); so I can see why, especially being in a hurry, Dorno was in no mood to try to negotiate with them; time was running out anyway!
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VERY cool rendition of one of my favorite childhood programs!
By the way, since this obviously a great spot to talk to Herculoids fans who bought the recent DVD, I have a question:
Is anyone else puzzled by the fact that only half the episoes on the DVD have prologues? I mean, my memories are vague after all these years, but I thiought *all 36* episodes had prologues. Granted, some weren't much, but I distinctly remember there being one for them all, not just half (the second eposode of two for each program). Any older fans here with a clearer recollection than I do?
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Actually, my recollection of the show is that only the second episode in each show had the prologue. (This is what I remember: the opening titles; commercial break; beginning segment of 1st cartoon; commercial break; ending segment of 1st cartoon; prologue for 2nd cartoon; beginning segment of 2nd cartoon; commercial break; ending segment of 2nd cartoon; commercial break; end credits.)
There are a couple of episodes on the DVD that have me wondering if they're missing their prologues; "The Mole Men" and "The Time Creatures" particularly seem to start very abruptly. But if the list of episodes in the Wikipedia article is to be trusted, both of those episodes would be the first cartoon in the show for the week.
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Well, the second episode of each program as shown on the dvd has a prologue (if not always much of one) so assuming they are shown in correct order none of the others *ever* had one. Even so, there are some other episodes as well, such as The Mutoids and most especially Laser Lancers (where Zandor is already unconscious on the ground and about to get killed, for crying out loud!) which look like they had one. Cartoon Network further confused things by sometimes showing episodes with prologues without them (the Web and Malak's Metal Apes) for example, which makes the episodes as confusing as the others).
My impression was that there were prologs for first episodes which were shown *before* the opening theme song, then progressed to the first half of the episode before the going to the first commercial break, with t eh second commercial break *between* episodes 1 and episode 2's prologue, t=which then went right to the title card and the first half of episode 2. But I may be wrong; it's been over 40 years and I believe the commercial arrangements were different with the rebroadcast of the show in the 1970's which I think also did not show all the episodes anyway).
It's interesing that some episodes (The Pirates; Mekkano) seem to need no prolog, others have one that are totally superfluous (Sarko the Ark Man), while still others have none but desperately need one (Laser Lancers, Attack From Space, etc.). Also, the Time Creatrures episode; it seems to me I remember the villain giving some reason *why* they wanted to change the past and wipe out the Herculoids (something about it delaying the establishment of their civiliation or something) that is not present in the episode as shown on the dvd oron Cartoon Network!
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As you say, 40+ years is a long time to try to remember something from, and the fact that there seems to be no reliable rebroadcast in the meantime that can be pointed to as provenance for the prologue/no-prologue question just makes things more frustrating.
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Very frustrting indeed. I'd hoped the dvds would solve the mystery (i wand to see how the lazer lancers managed to knock out Zandor for instance); but they only seem to have added to them as far as I'm concerned! *sigh!* Oh well.
Another thing that puzzles me a bit is that I am reasonably sure that Sarko the Arkman was the very first story broadcast; not the second as the DVD shows it. Which would imply I am right about the prologues. Also, it seems to me I remember the pirates in 'The Pirates' actually attacking the vessel in a prologue, which is not shown in the dvd.
Oh well. I'll quit harping on the subject now anyway before I get *too* boring (if it's not too late already). Unless Warner Brothers decides to put out a remastered verson of the show somehow, I guess the new dvd set is as good as this is ever going to get!
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Lucky! I'm still waiting for mine to be delivered.
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There is one where Tara is tied up for a sacrifice. She's not gagged but she makes these wierd grunting nosies. Like she's struggling against her rope but she's not even moving. Of coure Doorknob and Zandor come to the rescue.
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I believe that's "Temple of Trax", if I'm not mistaken.
BTW, just got my copy today!
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