Favorite Covers - The Mighty Heroes!

The Mighty Heroes were created by Ralph Bakshi when he worked for Terrytoons. The story goes that the guys at Terrytoons were making a pitch for Saturday morning shows and nothing was going over with Fred Silverman, one of TV's big kahunas at the time. Then a young and brash Bakshi jumped in and whipped up this superteam on the spot. It sold and they got a show, albeit not for all that long. The cover above by Rurik Tyler and Larry Mahlstedt is the best in the very short comic book career of the Mighty Heroes. This is cover from a 1998 one-shot which featured new stories about the team. 

For the record the members are Diaper Man, Strong Man, Tornado Man, Rope Man, and Cuckoo Man. 

Beginning in 1967 The Mighty Heroes had rated a four-issue series from Dell Comics. They shared the book with other Terrytoon characters such as Mighty Mouse and Hector Heathcote. No information is available that I can find on who worked on the feature. Here's a link where you can find the fourth issue. 

This new team of superheroes also appears as a back-up feature in the pages of Mighty Mouse in issues #170 and #171 after their own title ended. 

In 1987 during the black and white comic book glut which savaged the direct sales markets, the team rated a single issue from Spotlight Comics with a new story. Jim Engel's cover is pretty good. Joe Gill is credited with the story. 

 

The Mighty Heroes have never been released on a sanctioned DVD, an easy thing to package since only twenty-one episodes were ever made. But a fan can get a slim volume dedicated to the team. It's pretty comprehensive given their brief existence. I recommend Ralph Bakshi's The Mighty Heroes Declassified to any fan of the team, which I surely am. Bakshi did participate in this production. 

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