“Let her go, Man-Jaw, or I’ll be forced to kick myself in the head!”

§ December 27th, 2010 § Filed under cartoons, superman § 13 Comments

So I was watching the episode “Mxyzpixilated” from season 2 of Superman: The Animated Series, featuring, as you might guess, Mr. Mxyzptlk. At one point during the story, Clark Kent is scanning the Daily Planet funny pages, into which Mxyzptlk has inserted himself as one of the strips:


Thanks to the miracle of DVD technology, and my obsessive need to repeatedly pause and look at details of cartoons that otherwise would just flash by onscreen, only barely noticed by the viewer, I was able to get a better look at the other strips on the page. According to the episode’s commentary track, the other strips are in-jokes and references to members of the production team, in addition to being parodies of popular comics.

Of the production team members referenced, the most recognizable is, of course, Paul Dini, one of the prime movers behind DC’s animation initiative. Here he is in a parody of Calvin & Hobbes:


The next strip is, of course, a parody of Peanuts, where the “punchline” is (again, according the commentary) a direct quote from the person being caricatured:


The next parodies Dick Tracy, and I’d almost rather read this than what’s going on in the real Dick Tracy strip right now:


And here’s the Mxyzptlk strip, credited to Superman’s (and Mxy’s!) creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster:


And the last looks like a parody of, if not the strip Momma, then at least of cartoonist Mell Lazarus’s style, with a pretty brutal last panel (what you can see of it) which they probably only got away with due to it only appearing onscreen for a split second:


Whenever brief gags like this flash by, I wonder if there were kids watching this as it originally aired, or during reruns, who were tantalized by the quick glimpse they were able to grab, who knew there was more there than what they saw, but missed their chance to see what was there. Even if they recorded it on their VCR, getting consistently clean stills when pausing the tape was never a sure thing. And beyond even that, I wonder if the people behind the cartoons ever thought there’d come a time when in-jokes like these would ever become easily accessible to anyone outside of the team that actually produced these shows.

Well, okay, they probably did, fans being obsessive about this sort of thing and all (like, oh, say, screen-capturing the frames in question and straightening them out). But I certainly wanted to show my appreciation for the extra level of detail and humor added into what is already an excellent cartoon.

EDIT: I’m being told in the comments section here that the Modern Masters Volume 3: Bruce Timmbook includes the above artwork in full, and is much more clear than in my screenshots. So check that out if you get a chance!

13 Responses to ““Let her go, Man-Jaw, or I’ll be forced to kick myself in the head!””

  • You should look up the “McGurk Effect” on Wiki. It makes the strip even more surreal.

  • Mike says:

    Oh man this is great!

  • John says:

    So Fearless Fosdyck decided to modernize his image? At least now we see why he wears the bowler.

  • Rich Handley says:

    That is fantastic–thanks for posting those, Mike. Brilliant stuff!

  • Rob March says:

    Those are cool! They make me think of Ruben Bolling’s work.

  • Andres says:

    Note to self: If watching a DVD with Mike Sterling DO NOT GIVE HIM THE REMOTE.

  • Tom Mason says:

    My OCD is impressed by your OCD!

  • FoldedSoup says:

    Man, I love it when you take the time to do these things… on behalf of us all, thank you for your obsessiveness!

  • ExistentialMan says:

    After a five year break, I watched the Charlie Brown Christmas show last week with my son. I love how yelling in the Peanuts universe creates such forceful sound waves it causes characters to tumble backwards arms and legs akimbo. I picture Mike as constantly using this ability at the store on Employee Aaron.

    Michael, how in Rao’s name did you know about the McGurk effect? That’s impressive.

  • TeamSmithy says:

    I think these are printed in the Bruce Timm Modern Masters book. I know I’ve got them somewhere around here…

  • Tim O'Neil says:

    I wonder if that’s a Robert Redford reference in the faux-Calvin strip.

  • DeBT says:

    TeamSmithy, you beat me to it! I was going to say the same thing too. I knew that a book of various cartoonists was published, but couldn’t recall the name. That book could’ve saved Mike some effort and time, and would’ve filled in the missing bit of the Momma parody. But then, we wouldn’t have an amusing story to hear, would we?

  • BobH says:

    Yeah, the full page is printed on page 56 of the Timm Modern Masters book, if you wnat to get sharper complete copies.