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Artist/Director Vinton Heuck Talks Failed "Superman Family" Animated Series

In a recent interview with Newsarama, animation artist/director Vinton Heuck ("Justice League," "Harley Quinn") talked about his failed pitch to Warner Bros. Animation for a new animated series titled "Superman Family" which would have featured stories based on the Silver Age of comics.

Heuck also shared several character designs created by comics/animation artist Sean "Cheeks" Galloway for the series. Check out an excerpt from the interview below:

Newsarama: Vinton, you and Sean Galloway worked on a pitch for a Superman Family animated series. Sadly it didn't get picked up, but it is great to enjoy and think about what could have been. Can you tell us your pitch of what the show would've been about?

Heuck: I came up with it while directing on season three of Young Justice. I drew some pitch art that was basically an animation friendly version of Superman: Rebirth, with Jon (a.k.a. Superboy) front and center.

My angle was to combine these new storylines with a lighter tone inspired by all those crazy Silver Age stories I read as a young lad. Seeing for instance how Jon and his mom Lois would deal with his dad being turned into a Super-Merman was something I dearly wanted to see. There are so many dark, adult-themed DC stories I felt the company needed something that got back to its roots and was made for kids.

The people at Warner Bros. Animation liked it and had me try out a bunch of talented artists to help design the look of it, and settled on Sean Galloway for me to pair off with and develop the final pitch for DC. Unfortunately, they passed, but I'm hopeful the success of Shazam! will help open the door for more fun, kid-friendly stories.

Newsarama: You've been working recently on DC Universe's Harley Quinn, and previously worked on everything from The Batman to Avengers, and even Transformers: Prime. If Superman Family would've made it, how do you think it would've been received?

Heuck: My Superman Family was inspired by the comic book version I grew up with. I wanted to create something that captured the same fun and excitement I got reading those stories.

Like anything done well I wanted something that older audiences could appreciate as well, but my focus was having it be for a young audience. I actually love working on the more adult shows like Harley, and much of my own work follows a mature approach, but I felt it was time for a new Superman-based cartoon that was all-ages.

Check out the complete interview at Newsarama.com.