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I stumbled across something last night. A few weeks back, my wife gave me the 1973 Ideal Superman playset. The playset has many cardboard figures of Superman and his friends and foes, all drawn by comic legend Murphy Anderson (who also did the majority of artwork associated with Ideal's Captain Action packaging).
I was looking at the stand-up of Mxyzptlk. He is in a very similar pose to the Mxy artwork seen on Mego packaging, but it's clearly been redrawn by Anderson. The original appears to be the work of longtime Superman artist, Kurt Schaffenberger, and captures the look of the character as he usually appeared throughout the 60s and well into the 80s. I believe the Mego artwork was probably lifted from a late 60s/early 70s issue of a Superman title. It reappears in Michael Fleischer's "The Great Superman Book" (aka The Superman Encyclopedia) from 1978.
Anyway, I was looking at Anderson's Mxy face, and it hit me. It looks like Mego's original smirking Mxy sculpt!!!
The somewhat sinister eyes, the longer hair, and that Penguin-like nose. Mxy rarely (if ever) looked like this in the comics, so I've always chalked up Mego's sculpt to them just not knowing much about the character, and not having good reference material at the time. But now I have to wonder if DC didn't send over Anderson's art for reference during the sculpting phase. Or mabye Mego was left to their own devices, and someone picked up that Superman set for reference?
Since the Ideal set was released in 1973, and Mxy debuted in 1974, I think this is entirely plausible.
Of course, Mego changed the Mxy sculpt to match it's own packaging artwork, which also matched the usual look of the character in the comics, apparently at DC's request.
I think the look of the standee and smirking Mxy are too similar, and unique, for there not to be some kind of connection.
Chris
I was looking at the stand-up of Mxyzptlk. He is in a very similar pose to the Mxy artwork seen on Mego packaging, but it's clearly been redrawn by Anderson. The original appears to be the work of longtime Superman artist, Kurt Schaffenberger, and captures the look of the character as he usually appeared throughout the 60s and well into the 80s. I believe the Mego artwork was probably lifted from a late 60s/early 70s issue of a Superman title. It reappears in Michael Fleischer's "The Great Superman Book" (aka The Superman Encyclopedia) from 1978.
Anyway, I was looking at Anderson's Mxy face, and it hit me. It looks like Mego's original smirking Mxy sculpt!!!
The somewhat sinister eyes, the longer hair, and that Penguin-like nose. Mxy rarely (if ever) looked like this in the comics, so I've always chalked up Mego's sculpt to them just not knowing much about the character, and not having good reference material at the time. But now I have to wonder if DC didn't send over Anderson's art for reference during the sculpting phase. Or mabye Mego was left to their own devices, and someone picked up that Superman set for reference?
Since the Ideal set was released in 1973, and Mxy debuted in 1974, I think this is entirely plausible.
Of course, Mego changed the Mxy sculpt to match it's own packaging artwork, which also matched the usual look of the character in the comics, apparently at DC's request.
I think the look of the standee and smirking Mxy are too similar, and unique, for there not to be some kind of connection.
Chris
This info should be added to the museum.
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