AN ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL: The first theatrical short premiered 85 years ago! — UPDATED 9/26/26: The first Fleischer Superman theatrical short premiered 85 years ago, on September 26, 1941! Perfect time to reprint this piece from July 2021 celebrating Max Fleischer’s birthday! Swell! — Dan — By FRED VAN LENTE The pioneering animator and inventor Max Fleischer’s birthdate is July 19, 1883, and is it any coincidence that on July 20, 2021, the trade paperback of The Comic Book History of Animation – by artist Ryan Dunlavey and me — arrived on store shelves worldwide? I mean, yes, it absolutely was a coincidence, Ryan and I are not smart enough to plan these things, but you hardly need an excuse to celebrate the achievements of Max Fleischer, a true pioneer in the field. In CBHOA, Ryan and I elaborate on his humble beginnings in the industry: After working for cartoon studio mogul J.R. Bray, Max and his brothers opened their own studio in Times Square, where they produced classic series like “Out of the Inkwell,” “Betty Boop” and “Popeye the Sailor,” adapted Einstein’s Theory of Relativity into an animated short, and even invented the famous “Follow the Bouncing Ball.” Unfortunately, labor troubles embittered Max against his own employees, and he moved his studio to more management-friendly Miami. Sadly, this was the beginning of the end for him. Even though he produced a well-received feature, Gulliver’s Travels, to compete with Walt Disney’s output, the studio’s remote (by 1940s standards) location caused constant cost overruns and personnel shortages. But the worst was yet to come. As Ryan and I explain: They may have caused huge challenges at the studio, but there’s a lot to love about the Fleischers’ Superman toons. With all due respect to Margot Kidder and Dana Delaney, they have my favorite depiction of Lois Lane, ever. The Fleischers’ Lois has the über-confidence of a cokehead on an all-night bender and the self-preservation skills of a toddler chasing a ball onto an eight-lane highway. How she survived this long before the guy from Smallville arrived is a complete mystery. For some reason she is the character with the fewest lines in her face, just daubs of color, so maybe she’s some kind of invincible pillow person? The corporate shenanigans behind these cartoons were so FUBAR that they fell into public domain...