Here's a link to an obituary for Jay Morton, who was a writer for Max Fleischer's cartoon studio, and who is said to have coined the opening of the Superman cartoons where they said, "Faster than a speeding bullet…more powerful than a locomotive, etc."
I don't know if that's true but Mr. Morton had another achievement in the world of comic books. Those of you who read my history of the Fox and Crow comics (reprinted in my new book, Wertham Was Right) saw the name of Jay Morton in the following context. I was writing about how cartoonist James F. Davis moved down to Florida to work for the studio. There, he began moonlighting for a company called Editorial Art Service that was run by two men named Sangor and Hughes and which produced comic book material for various publishers…
A writer at Fleischer's named Jay Morton had a connection with Sangor and Hughes. He wrote stories for them and enlisted others at the animation studio to write and/or draw for E.A.S., the work appearing mainly in Standard books like Coo-Coo Comics. Most would moonlight, doing their work evenings and weekends, but a lot of it was done during working hours in the Fleischer studio. Davis became one of many who would hide his comic book pages when a supervisor came by, and hurriedly return to animating Popeye cartoons.
Then in 1941, Paramount Pictures, which released the Fleischers' output, did the same thing to them that Columbia had done to Charlie Mintz. Max and Dave were severed from their own studio and Paramount took control of it, eventually renaming it Famous Studios and moving it back to Manhattan…James F. Davis moved back to New York, but Jay Morton did not, electing to remain in Florida where he became, it is said, enormously wealthy in the real estate trade.
Back in Manhattan, Davis found a scarcity of animation work. But he reasoned that, with the dissolution of the Fleischer/Famous studio in Florida, and Morton's exit from the field, the Editorial Art Service might be getting desperate for material. He approached Richard Hughes and found this to be true. An arrangement was formed whereby Davis would act as go-between, receiving a commission whenever he could enlist animation talent to write and draw for E.A.S.
Davis soon moved out here to work for the animation studios of Hollywood, where he ran the same kind of moonlighting "shop" that Morton had run while at Fleischer's. It was very successful and filled hundreds of comic books with wonderful cartooning. And the idea should be added to Jay Morton's list of accomplishments.