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| Is there a Supermouse cover where he doesn't look like an evil villain? |
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| DOES he look like an evil villain? Perhaps from the perspective of a cat fancier, I guess. But the context of SUPER MOUSE is exactly the same as that of Mighty Mouse (who was actually *called* Super Mouse in his first animated cartoon)... which is to say that on "Mouseworld", ALL the cats are evil villains, no ifs ands or buts about it -- "good cats" simply don't exist. That makes this cover exactly analogous to the dozens of WWII covers where superheroes are shown gleefully kicking Nazi and Japanese butt. And now that I just typed that, it occurs to me that cats were the Nazis in Art Spiegleman's MAUS as well, as if to put a finer point on it. But I digress. Just bear in mind that when you see a cat (any cat) depicted in Super Mouse or Mighty Mouse, that cat represents "evil". And I apologize if the foregoing seems to be a little overbearing. It's just that when I looked at the cover, I honestly couldn't figure out what you were talking about. My immediate thought was "What does he mean, Super Mouse is being an evil villain?" I guess maybe its because I grew up watching the Mighty Mouse cartoons, so I don't see a cat that might be somebody's housepet, or just some random cartoon animal that doesn't appear (in this image) to be doing anything deserving of such mean treatment. Anymore than I need an explanation when I see a Nazi in uniform getting his butt kicked, regardless of whether he appears to be doing anything evil or not. In the context of the world of cartoon mice, cats are just evil, no explanation needed. |
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| Looks like that cat's gonna plummet maybe 6 feet. |
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| Yes, he does look like an evil villain here. Look at his eyes. I'm a cartoonist. Those are the eyes I would draw for someone doing evil. True the cat doesn't look that good either, but it's Supermouse who's the reader's eyes go to. The last bunch of Supermouse covers have had this guy acting like a bully. It's kind of like the Superdickory thing. Show people covers of Superman doing nasty things out of context and Supes looks like a dick (& sometimes even in context). But to answer my own question, yes there are covers of earlier issues where he doesn't look like an evil villain. |
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| The expression is one element, but that just can't counteract the basic character design, which is reinforced by the mouse vs. cat relationship. Super Mouse is just not a villain by his basic design; he's meant to look cute, despite whatever range of expression the artist is capable of applying within that -- while the cat (despite the worried, anxious expression) IS a villain, by design. You can read into it whatever malevolence you want, but I'm going to say that whatever is villainous or not is this drawing is subject to the context, not focusing on SM's eyes and ignoring the rest of the picture. Also, animated-type cartoon characters have a wider range of moral flexibility than Superman. It's inherent in their initial premise - characters are designated by default as either protagonist (which means the audience is on their side) or the antagonist, and the implicit assumption is that the antagonist deserves whatever he gets. If the result of Super Mouse's actions are that the cat plummets to earth, there's a small mushroom cloud explosion, and a semi-transparent cat with wings and a halo goes floating upwards playing a harp, nobody's going to call Super Mouse a vicious murderer. He's still the hero, and the cat's still the villain. That's just the way things work in the cartoon world, regardless of anyone's facial expressions. So yes, he can literally get away with murder, and how much he enjoys it or doesn't isn't going to change a thing. |
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| Additional Information |
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| Publication | February 1952 | Price: 0.10 USD | Pages: 1 | Frequency: bi-monthly |
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| Featuring | Supermouse |
| Content | Genre: Anthropomorphic-funny Animals; Superhero | Characters: Supermouse |
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| Comic Story | The Candy Crime (12 pages) |
| Featuring | Supermouse |
| Credits | Job #: A-1630 |
| Content | Genre: Humor; Anthropomorphic-funny Animals; Superhero | Characters: Supermouse; Mabel Mouse |
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| Comic Story | Goofy's Downfall |
| Featuring | Goofy Gander |
| Credits | Job #: A-1536 |
| Content | Genre: Humor; Anthropomorphic-funny Animals | Characters: Goofy Gander |
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| Comic Story | Ski Car |
| Synopsis | Roscoe's car breaks down in the mountains, so he straps skis to the wheels to get downhill. |
| Featuring | Roscoe |
| Credits | Job #: A-1645 |
| Content | Genre: Humor; Anthropomorphic-funny Animals | Characters: Roscoe; Mabel Mouse |
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| Statement of Ownership | Statement of Ownership |
| Credits | Letters: typeset |
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| Text Story | The Magic Ring (1 page) |
| Credits | Pencils:? (illustration) | Inks:? (illustration) | Letters: typeset |
| Content | Genre: Humor; Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Comic Story | Rodeo Rumpus (5 pages) |
| Featuring | Tommy Turtle |
| Credits | Job #: A-1378 |
| Content | Genre: Humor; Anthropomorphic-funny Animals | Characters: Tommy Turtle |
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| Comic Story | Cleaning Up |
| Featuring | Bill Bunny |
| Credits | Job #: A-1648 |
| Content | Genre: Humor; Anthropomorphic-funny Animals | Characters: Bill Bunny |
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| Comic Story | Who's Zoo? (5 pages) |
| Featuring | Supermouse |
| Credits | Job #: A-1541 |
| Content | Genre: Humor; Anthropomorphic-funny Animals; Superhero | Characters: Supermouse |
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| Text Story | Under Cover (1 page) |
| Credits | Pencils:? (illustration) | Inks:? (illustration) | Letters: typeset | Job #: A-1616 |
| Content | Genre: Humor; Anthropomorphic-funny Animals |
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| Comic Story | Good Deed, Indeed (4 pages) |
| Featuring | Custer Crocodile |
| Credits | Job #: A-1466 |
| Content | Genre: Humor; Anthropomorphic-funny Animals | Characters: Custer Crocodile |
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| Featuring | Puzzles |
| Credits | Job #: A-1471 |
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| The data in the additional content section is courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under a
Creative Commons Attribution License.
More details about this comic may be available in their page here |
