I have found some wonderful little tidbits posted all about the net, all of them Quest related, and I am happy to share them here with you. They make wonderful desktops, if not, at least terrific additions to your Quest art collection.(Remember that all the pictures and graphics on this blog can be double-clicked for a much larger version of the file. If your computer works like my wonderful Mac does, you simply double-click the image and when the larger version appears, drag it onto your desktop)
For instance, this first panorama above, is an original background and of course Bandit, Hadji and Jonny, from the episode "Riddle of the Gold." The title of the episode has been added - and in the exact fontfrom the actual "art card title" of the episode.
Another terrific desktop, this is the first page of the score of the Main Title from Jonny Quest. Note that the creator of this page, left composer Hoyt Curtin's name on the sheet music but removed Joe Barbera and William Hanna's, which were listed with him.Bill and Joe listed themselves as lyricists and so, co-creators, of all Hoyt's music for the entire Hanna -Barbera empire of the 60s. But, near as we can tell, the music to Jonny Quest, (over two hours of this dramatic and effective action/jazz score) had no lyrics whatsoever.
So why would Bill and Joe still take credit for Hoyt's music on Quest? A friend in the music industry suggested it was a way for Bill and Joe to retain the publication rights for the music, (and residuals for its reuse) that rightfully should have gone to Hoyt alone.
A panorama of Dr. Quest's Lab created for the Quest documentary that was the reason I started this blog. I was treated to a lot of the artwork created for that show, much of it never used.
This piece above, married an additional wall with photos and schematics added to this existing shot of the Quest lab from "Mystery of the Lizard Men," though as the creators of the doc are quick to point out, even the additions on the walls are all created from original 1963 artwork from the series.
A novelty item: Hanna-Barbera artist and sadly, recently passed on, Iwao Takamoto did these renditions of the Quest party. It is unclear whether Iwao was part of the Jonny Quest team back in the early 60's. Anyone know?
Some of you have asked me for the Hover Craft panorama that is the signature banner for this blog. Here it is in its largest size for desktop purposes.
Of course this is a shot from the Main Title of Jonny Quest, and, as is true for many of the shots in the opening sequence, this seems to be a handsomely reworked shot from an early episode.
In this case, the episode is "The Fraudulent Volcano". For this main title shot, the villians in the crafts have been redrawn to "graphic novel standards" and their uniforms changed to a deep red, while the stalagmite rock formations the crafts fly past are not from any known Quest episode.
A long panorama of the Quest jet on it's way to Isaiah Norman's island in "The Invisible Monster."
Here is a wonderful piece of Quest art, though we might not be able to call it that precisely. This is Doug Wildey's design for the angry natives used in the end title of the Quest show.
Which would mean these angry fellows were actually drawn and animated for the two minute test film JACK ARMSTRONG: The All American Boy. The clips of the natives and the hover crafts flying over the desert and into a jet, were all from the test film that later was abandoned for the series idea that became Jonny Quest.
This shot of Jonny looking skyward in terror, was part of the publicity art that was created to advertise the show, mainly in TV Guide. There is another variation of this sketch, that included Race standing next to Jonny as they stared up and the shadow of Turu the Terrible flew over them. The Doug Wildey signature here, did not appear in the original ad.
Shortly before his passing, Quest creator Doug Wildey was designing (and I am sure with great encouragement from many) a series of drawings or sericells as they are sometimes called, of his first, and most famous animated program.
Above, is a rare look at one that never saw the light of day. Race and Jonny on a boat checking out their surroundings.
Jonny and Bandit in another sketch done as part of a large body of publicity art that Doug Wildey did as the premiere of the show neared. Again, this is actual Wildey artwork, but the original did not include Doug's signature. In many cases here, Doug's signature was added to his artwork for the purposes of the documentary, though many of these pieces did not end up being used in the show.
A great example of how great the Quest show looked when the right artist was assigned to the right character. Benton never looked better or more serious. No one is certain who the artist is here, whether it is Wildey, or the enormously talented Alex Toth, or any of the other comic book legends that sometime did work for the show.
A snap shot taken of the Quest party, in the episode "Terror Island", though if you compare this snapshot to the one in the actual episode, you will again find that the heads of the quest Party, each one of them actually, have been changed - in order to make the snapshot more handsome and again, more appropriate for the documentary. Apparently since all the artwork for the show was taken from actual episodes, the creators often chose to replace heads with better rendered ones, when the shot had artwork that was clearly below Doug Wildey's standards.
As the doc points out, Wildey's chief complaint was that Hanna-Barbera didn't have the caliber of artist to create the Quest show, the way they intended and in the style Doug was hired to create.
Last but not least, here is a massive and very colorful desktop of Hanna-Barbera artwork. The actual sericel is very large and very expensive but here is a smaller version (though not much) that someone sent me to adorn my desktop.
The Quests were clearly invited to sit for this massive group portrait, except for poor Hadji. Let's hope he had good reason not to be there.
Enjoy fellow Quest fans,
Chris
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