Category: Cartooning

Superman of Miami

Every so often I like to watch all seventeen of the remarkable Fleischer/Famous Superman cartoons from 1941-1943. Considering the Fleischer studio was originally based in New York, it’s somewhat ironic that all the animation showing Superman leaping, and then flying, around Metropolis was produced in Florida.

The official DC release is the only DVD set currently available that’s worth getting.

https://www.amazon.com/Superman-Fleischer-Clayton-Bud-Collyer/dp/B001OD8E4G/

I’ll include a few screen shots from the DC set, along with the first two cartoons from the DVD. They were upscaled and cleaned up by somebody using an AI video process.

https://youtu.be/LUFN1IjK4ww

https://youtu.be/Asc6329mx70

Palmer Art

Tom Palmer was as much a commercial artist and painter as he was a comic book inker. Here are a few examples.

I love these hard-boiled, cheesy magazine covers.

From short-lived Skywald Publishing, where Sol Brodsky continued in the tradition of his old Magazine Management boss, Martin Goodman.

From Marvel in 1978, this is the cover to the second comic book telling of the Beatles story. Joe Sinnott illustrated the first one, in 1964.

The Silver Age Slips Away

Another old comic book pro, Tom Palmer, has passed away. There aren’t too many names left from the 60’s. Palmer arrived to the business later in the decade, earning immediate recognition, especially for his inking on Neal Adams’ run on X-Men. Those issues are among my most all-time favorite comic books.

https://www.cbr.com/tom-palmer-avengers-xmen-tomb-dracula-obituary/

The Uncanny X-Men #58 p. 1
The Uncanny X-Men #59 p. 6
The Uncanny X-Men #59 p. 18
The Uncanny X-Men #60 p. 16
The Uncanny X-Men #61 p. 7

Swiping the Sunday Funnies

The updated Washington Post application adds a nifty feature to its comics page. You can swipe back to see the previous six days of strips, as I demonstrate on my Kindle Fire HD 10 tablet.

With the end of my Boston Globe home delivery subscription — along with digital access — just two days away, I will be relying more on the tablet for news. In addition to the Post, I have started subscribing to the Kindle edition of The New York Times. For $20/month there are no ads and, thankfully, no comments. I can read it on the HD 10, but I’m finding the format easier to navigate with the Kindle Paperwhite.

The Other Harvey Witch

Following up on yesterday’s post about Sid Jacobson, I wasn’t certain if he edited Harvey’s horror comic books in the 50’s. His family confirms it in this remembrance of their late father.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/sidney-jacobson-obituary?id=35995758

This is Wendy the Witch that the Harvey comic books were based on. Wendy enacts a scene from The Red Shoes.

Wendy was quite a change from the Harvey witch comics Jacobson worked on in the 50’s.