# 4084a - 2006 39c DC Comics Super Heroes: Superman

 

Issue Date: July 20, 2006
City: San Diego, CA
Quantity Issued: 12,500,000
Printed by:  Avery Dennison
Printing method: Photogravure
Perforations: 10 ½ x 10 ¾
Color: Multicolored

 

Happy Birthday Max Fleischer

Fleischer was the second of six children born to an immigrant tailor. The Fleischer family moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 1887. Fleischer attended the Mechanics and Trademan’s School and trained in commercial art at Cooper Union (the site of Abraham Lincoln’s famed 1860 Cooper Union Address). He then worked as an errand boy and later cartoonist at The Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

After marrying his childhood sweetheart, Fleischer took a job as an illustrator for a Boston catalog company before returning to New York to serve as Art Editor of Popular Science magazine. During this time he also wrote books, including Noah’s Shoes.

Soon Fleischer’s interests turned to animation. In 1914, Fleischer invented “rotoscoping,” which was a method where animators traced out live-action movements captured on pictures to create cartoons. Fleischer first used rotoscoping to trace the movements of a man in a clown suit – with the man being his brother, Dave. The character created by Max and Dave became Koko the Clown (sometimes spelled “Ko-ko”). Fleischer patented the rotoscope in 1915 and used it extensively for his early animation series, Out of the Inkwell for Bray Studios.

In 1924, Fleischer introduced the now-famous “follow the bouncing ball” technique in his animated sing-along Song Car-Tunes series. The first cartoon to synchronize sound with animation, My Old Kentucky Home (1926), included a cartoon dog telling viewers to sing along as the ball landed on each letter. This short introductory clip preceded Disney’s Steamboat Willie by two years.

In 1928, Fleischer joined the film industry in its transition to sound. He created the Talkartoon series and its star dog, Bimbo, in the cartoon Hot Dog. In 1930 he introduced Bimbo’s girlfriend, a poodle-human hybrid. The following year her dog ears became hoop earrings and she became a human woman named Betty Boop, dubbed the “Queen of the Animated Screen.” She grew so popular, Talkartoons was eventually renamed Betty Boop Cartoons.

By this point, Fleischer was one of two leading animation producers, with the other being Walt Disney. But their styles were quite different. Fleischer’s cartoons were sophisticated and surreal and featured dark humor and adult psychology.

Fleischer received another patent in the 1930s for his Stereotipical Process, a three-dimensional background effect. To create this effect, a circular diorama was placed behind the main action cells and rotated a click with each frame, creating a dramatic sense of depth.

One success during this period was Superman. Paramount had wanted to capitalize the comic’s success with a cartoon series. However Fleischer was busy working on his two films and didn’t want his staff to be overworked. So he asked for a budget of $100,000 – about four times the usual budget of one of their shows. To his surprise the studio entered into negotiations, settling at $50,000 per short. In spite of his initial objections, Fleischer committed his team to the Superman cartoon, which proved to be one of the studio’s most popular. It featured very realistic drawing and intricate scoring seldom-seen at the time. The first episode was even nominated for an Academy Award, but lost to a Disney cartoon. As an interesting side-note, the Fleischers introduced Superman’s ability to fly. In the comics he could leap from place to place, but they thought this looked silly in animation, so they got permission to make him fly.

Fleischer went on to work as head of the animation department of the Jim Handy Organization. There he produced training films for the Army and Navy for the war effort. After the war, he supervised the production of the first Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer screen appearance – a cartoon short sponsored by Montgomery Ward. Fleischer then revived his Out of the Inkwell series, producing 100 color shorts for television. He reportedly formed a friendship with Walt Disney, who now employed many of Fleischer’s former animators.

After suffering failing health for many years, Fleischer died on September 11, 1972. Time magazine later dubbed him “The Dean of Animated Cartoons.”

Click here to see some of Fleischer’s cartoons.

 

With the exception of Supergirl, who appeared in 1959, all the super heroes on these 2006 stamps were created during the Golden Age of Comics (the late 1930s to the early 1950s).

 

Superman first flew in Action Comics in June 1938. Disguised as Clark Kent, a journalist in Metropolis, Superman used his super strength, speed, vision, and hearing to save the innocent and to capture the bad guys.

 

Superman was followed in May 1939 by Batman, in Detective Comics. Batman was Bruce Wayne, a rich industrialist living in Gotham City. He had no super powers himself, but his technological devices, like the Batmobile car, made him a powerful crime fighter.

 

The success of these characters led to the creation of three more fantasy heroes in 1940. In January, The Flash and Hawkman appeared in the first issue of Flash Comics, and in July, the Green Lantern came to the pages of All-American Comics.

 

The following year, Plastic Man, Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Wonder Woman found ready audiences with children and with young adults. World War II soldiers relaxed with these comic books just like kids back home.

 

Since their creation, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman have become perennial, popular culture favorites.