Born into comic books at the height of the Great Depression, Superman owes some of his early fame to Dave and Max Fleischer, the American studio owners who animated him for the silver screen in 1941. A defender of “truth, justice and the American way,” the Man of Steel became a patriotic symbol for a country at war. As a cartoon – all sharp angles and muted colours – he stood out from Betty Boop and Popeye, his curvier contemporaries.
Nicholas Sammond, a professor of cinema studies and English at U of T, teaches a course on the early days of American animation. Last year, he created a website that will soon feature biographies of dozens of animators from the first half of the 20th century, including the Fleischers, who worked extensively on Superman. What’s unique about the project (at www.rarebit.org) is that web users will be able to track animators’ careers as they hopped from studio to studio. Sammond intends to reach beyond the university’s walls to encourage collectors and fans to share their knowledge. He also plans to add videos and photographs of animators’ work.
The animated Superman short above, The Mechanical Monsters, was released by Fleischer Studios in 1941
Recent Posts
We Need a Green New Deal for Canada
Linking climate action to job creation, living wages and equality reframes the debate as a win-win – though tough political choices remain
The Madam Who Shot the Mountie
How a brothel-keeper in 1880s Edmonton crossed the law – and won
Doing the Devil’s Work
The local bishop called her a heretic. The Criminal Code deemed her work illegal. But Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw was more concerned with helping women at Canada’s first birth control centre
