R.I.P.

Jay Morton , a one-time writer and artist for the Fleischer animation studios who coined the famous “faster than a speeding bullet” introduction for the animated “Superman” cartoons, has died. He was 92.

Morton, who lived in Boca Raton, Fla., died of a brain aneurysm Sept. 6 in a hospital in Charlotte.

The New York City-born Morton studied art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn before going to work for the Fleischer studio in Miami in 1937. As an artist, he worked on Felix the Cat, Betty Boop, Popeye and other cartoon characters, said his son, Alex.

Morton also wrote about 25 of the early animated “Superman” cartoons, in which he initially described the comic book superhero as “faster than a streak of lightning, more powerful than the pounding surf, mightier than a roaring hurricane, this amazing stranger from the Planet Krypton, Superman.”

But he soon reworked the introduction to the now-familiar: “Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound…”

For those of you who haven’t seen them, you should definitely pick up this collection of Fleischer Superman cartoons :