A lot of original art was used to develop the Super Powers collection, and define the direction that the look and style would be in. Some of comics' biggest names contributed to the concepts, such as the great Jack Kirby, who in 1982 was involved in the very first pitch to Kenner for a toy line and submitted a series of designs for his Fourth World characters, including Orion, Steppenwolf and the Female Furies. You can find the full scoop on Jack's involvement (and larger versions of these pictures) in issues of the Jack Kirby Collector. While most of Kirby's ideas for accessories and characters didn't pan out, his redesign of the Parademon was used. Sadly, he had proposed his original Orion design but it was dropped in favor of a design that worked with the action feature better. Jack of course ended up plotting and penciling 2 of the comic tie-in series.

Kirby wasn't the only old hand working on preliminary art for the line. Ernie Colan also made these rough model sheets for internal DC use. They were earmarked for Joey Cavalieri, who wrote some of the comic series.

Now, most of the art used throughout the entire run of Super Powers was by the great Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. Garcia-Lopez did DC's style guide art, and also most of the merchandising art. Almost all the pictures on the cards and packages came straight out of the style guides. This however is a nice rare find. It is one of the concept designs for the Super Powers logo. What makes it really unique is that it includes Supergirl!

Here is the original mock-up of a card (packaged with a bogus Superman figure) that Kenner showed to DC in their bid to win the license. Apparently it was the emphasis on art that convinced DC to go with Kenner, a lucky days for all Super Powers fans. This card contrasts to the final version with the name change and cleaner design that emphasizes only the packaged character. Most of the illustrations used for the mock-up ended up on the mail-in poster offered with the first wave of figures and came straight from the style guide.

This picture and many others are featured along with the full story on the origins of the Super Power Collection in issue #24 of the great Tomart Action Figure Digest. Click on the picture to order this back issue from Tomart.