Superhero Sunday: Superman – The Mad Scientist (1941)

Copyright Warner Bros.
Copyright Warner Bros.

Superman captivated the world in the 1940s. Fleischer Studios, most famous for producing Popeye cartoons, made several Superman animated cartoons that were shown in theaters.

This entry, The Mad Scientist, has the style at its finest. Every frame was hand drawn back in the day. This was truly an animated cartoon.

Superhero Sunday: Superman (1941)

Superman captivated the world in the 1940s. Long before the George Reeves TV series, Superman was hitting the big screen in short form animated features. Fleischer Studios, perhaps most famous for Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons, produced the first several episodes.

This entry, The Mad Scientist, was released in 1941, a mere three years after the character’s comic debut. As you can see below, it has the early motion picture animation style at its finest. Every frame was drawn by hand. In fact, the episode was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short that year.
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Superhero Sunday: ROM Spaceknight

The cover of ROM Spaceknight #1, art by some guy named Frank Miller
The cover of ROM Spaceknight #1, art by some guy named Frank Miller

In 1979, Parker Brothers were trying to market a new sci-fi action figure. Rom The Space Knight was a large figure by today’s standards, standing in at a whopping 13 inches. Even by 1979 standards it was big. Most Mego figures stood at 8 inches, and the average Barbie was 12 inches.
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Superhero Sunday: The Phantom

The Phantom is about as old school as you can get for superheroes. In fact, he predates Superman by two years.

In addition to his comic serials spanning over 1600 (?!!) issues, The Phantom has appeared in many other comics. He was even part of the animated superhero team Defenders Of The Earth with Flash Gordon and Mandrake The Magician.

Billy Zane played him in a 1996 theatrical film, back when almost all superhero movies sucked.

Here, courtesy of Archive.org, is the first live action adaption of The Phantom. The complete 15 part 1943 serial for your old-school enjoyment. Grab some popcorn, invite some friends, and check out one of the original superhero movies.

Superhero Sunday: Pryde Of The X-Men (1989)

If you frequented arcade games in the early 1990’s you probably saw that monstrosity. A SIX PLAYER arcade game devoted to The X-Men. Not only was this giant quarter muncher a favorite among fans, it’s also one of the few, if only, game where Dazzler is a playable character.

However the story of the game is a bit older.

Before the classic 1990s X-Men animated series that aired on Fox, there was an attempt by Marvel to produce a syndicated series through Sunbow. Animation fans may remember Sunbow as the company that made the Transformers and GI Joe syndicated series 80s kids grew up on. Some of the regulars from those series even showed up here, including Michael Bell (Duke in GI Joe) as Cyclops, Frank Welker (Megatron in Transformers) as Toad, and Alan Oppenheimer (Skeletor in He-Man) as Blob.

The animation is classic Sunbow, as is much of the music. Only a Pilot episode was produced, but did not get picked up after the initial airing during The Marvel Action Universe. However, through the magic of The Internet, it is preserved on YouTube. The basic plot of this pilot episode became the premise of the classic arcade game, though the game of course had far more depth. And bad guys.