League of Melbotis

A special belated Thank You to Randy (who recently described The League as kooky...).

Randy located a DVD of the 1940's era Superman cartoons at Wal-Mart.

These cartoons were created by Fleischer Studios, and are a hallmark of animated achievement. In fact, the 1990's Bruce Timm/ Paul Dini batman series tried very hard to emulate the original quality of the these Fleischer cartoons in the art-deco style, dark atmosphere and Golden-Age America feel.



For my dollar, I'd just as soon catch these one-reel adventures as watch nearly any other motion-picture version of Superman. This is pure, unaltered, Seigle/ Shuster era Superman, when Superman was a sci-fi idea with limitless potential. In these cartoons, the Superman insignia (the familiar yellow and red "S" shield) is still black, yellow and red. Superman CAN'T FLY. He can jump astounding distances, but he's not really, truly airborne (ever wonder why "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound" was part of the Superman intro...?)

For more info on the cartoons, check out this link and this link to the Superman Homepage.

Thanks again, Randy! And I encourage all you folks who might see these DVD's on sale to pick them up. Cool stuff.