Did you ever hear about the time Mary Marvel met a grizzled sailor/con artist who greatly resembled E.C. Segar’s immortal Poopdeck Pappy? Coincidence, or a rare instance of a Golden Age stealth cross-over??
You, the reader, can decide!
“Mary Marvel Meets Sinbad The Sailor” originally appeared in Wow Comics #47 (Fawcett Publications, Sept. 1946). The story and art are by Bill Woolfolk and Jack Binder respectively.
Annnnd we’re back!
I apologize for the long absence, but it’s been a busy month here at Time Bullet Central. Little time for comics I’m afraid…
To make up for lost time, here’s an Easter treat featuring that unsung member of the beloved Marvel Family: Hoppy!
“Candy Planet” - and how can a story that takes place on a candy planet NOT be awesome??? – originally appeared in Fawcett’s Funny Animals #36 (Fawcett, March 1946).
The story was drawn by Hoppy’s creator, Chad Grothkopf.
Although The Curse Of Shazam isn’t a series I plan on purchasing, your humble host has tried to refrain from joining the chorus - an admittedly small one, I must add – of outraged Captain Marvel fans decrying the wholesale reconstruction of a beloved Golden Age character.
After numerous failed attempts to revive a once-thriving creation that DC itself once put out of business, it seemed inevitable that the company would one day throw the baby out with the bathwater and rebuild the Big Red Cheese – errrrr, I mean “Shazam” – from scratch to better fit the needs of a modern comic book universe and its continuity-crazed fans.
To be frank, despite the noble attempts of such creators as Jerry Ordway and Jeff Smith, the classic Captain Marvel never really seemed to click with modern readers at any rate. I first discovered the Marvel Family during DC’s first revival in the ‘70s, and found myself far more captivated by the Golden Age reprints included in the comics than anything devised the creative teams of that period.
The gentle humor, quietly detailed characterization and old-fashioned thrills of the Fawcett era belong to an earlier age that seemingly can’t be recaptured by writers and artists – no matter how talented – in the 21st century.
So why not rename the character Shazam? The real Captain Marvel and family flew into the sunset back in 1953 anyway.
The following story is a nice example of how Golden Age Cap stories often dug a bit deeper than one would expect from a series featuring talking tigers and evil alien worms. I can’t imagine a tale like this playing to the far older and cynical audience comics are directed toward these days, but it remains affecting all the same.
From Captain Marvel Adventures # 38 (Fawcett, August 1944), here’s “The Man Nobody Loved” by writer Otto Binder and artist Pete Costanza.
*Sniff*
As conceived by writer France Heron and artist Jack Kirby, Mr. Scarlet was Fawcett’s answer to Batman, one that was every bit as cold and ruthless as Bill Finger and Bob Kane’s original depiction of The Dark Knight.
The tone of the series rapidly softened, however, as the Crimson Crusader (Hey, why not?) adopted a sunnier attitude and picked up a teenage sidekick, the unfortunately named Pinky. Competent, if unexciting, adventures ensured.
Somewhere along the way, though, somebody in the Fawcett bullpen came up with a brilliant idea: What happens when a masked crime fighter succeeds beyond his wildest dreams?
In the case of Mr. Scarlet, a district attorney in his civilian life, the hero finds himself standing in the unemployment line. The character was so good at his work that illegal activities in Gotham City – believe it or not, Scarlet’s hometown was identified as such in Wow Comics # 1 – ground to a screeching halt and the good citizens no longer required the services of criminal law attorneys.
The end result effectively lampooned the concept of millionaire crime-fighters as Mr. Scarlet literally became the “poor man’s Batman.” The remainder of his adventures, which lasted until 1948, found the super-hero struggling to support himself and his ward as he continued battling the threat of the month.
Until Peter Parker came along 14 years later, I’m not sure comics saw a more hard-luck super-hero than Fawcett’s Mr. Scarlet.
From Wow Comics # 21 (Fawcett, January 1944), here’s the excellently titled “Out To Lunch – With Danger.” The art is uncredited, but the story is provided by one of the medium’s greatest writers: Otto Binder.
Now that two-thirds of my family is in the throes of the dreaded December cold virus, today seems as good a time as any to spread a little holiday cheer around the Blogosphere.
So, for the entire week The Time Bullet will present vintage comics and other miscellany celebrating the obscure, Wintertime celebration known as “Christmas!”
First up, “Captain Marvel And Billy Batson’s Xmas” by the Hall of Fame team of writer Otto Binder and artist Pete Costanza. The story originally appeared in Captain Marvel Adventures #69 (Fawcett Comics, February 1947).
Captain Marvel, Junior and Mary face their greatest challenge – well, next to DC’s legal team – as The Time Bullet continues its pulse-pounding countdown to Oct. 31!
From The Marvel Family #79 (Fawcett Publications, January 1953), it’s “The Dynasty Of Horror!” The story was written by Otto Binder and drawn by C.C. Beck (pencils) and Pete Costanza (inks).
From the scandalous adventures of the Phantom Lady we turn to perhaps the most wholesome super-heroine in comics: Mary Marvel!
As longtime visitors of this blog have probably deduced, I’m a pretty big fan of the Marvel Family. Mary, however, has always been a personal favorite. I guess the concept of a super-powered Dorothy Gale is just too awesome for words, IMHO.
(Sadly, DC editorial in recent years has thought differently …)
From Mary’s Golden Age heyday, here’s “The Pictures That Came To Life”
The story, which originally appeared in Wow Comics #38 (Fawcett Comics, September-October 1945), was written by Otto Binder and drawn by Jack Binder.
Jack Binder was also responsible for the striking cover image shown above.
Hmmm … I guess Mary’s use of “commando tactics” against that magic replica of Billy Batson proves that wholesomeness doesn’t necessarily make one a wimp!
Despite what DC attorneys argued at the time, the Golden Age Captain Marvel wasn’t all that similar to a certain Man Of Steel. They could both fly, bend steel in their bare hands and laugh away a hail of bullets, but the Big Red Cheese’s cheerful outlook and whimsical adventures were far different from the more serious Superman’s.
(Grant Morrison makes an excellent case for just how different the two characters were in his must-read super-hero dissertation/memoir, Supergods.)
Such differences mattered little to DC, however, who viewed the Captain’s swift and massive success as a serious threat to the Superman franchise and filed suit. By the end of the ’40s, the two publishers had been locked in litigation for more than seven years and were headed for a courtroom showdown.
At that point Captain Marvel was no longer the cash cow of the World War II years (Adventures was published bi-weekly at its peak with a circulation of 1.3 million copies an issue), but still earned enough profit to support an entire line of comics. A judgement in DC’s favor would not only wipe out the Big Red Cheese but every other title published by Fawcett.
In their typical whimsical matter, Captain Marvel co-creator C.C.Beck and the equally legendary writer Otto Binder addressed this situation in Captain Marvel Adventures #97 (Fawcett Publications, June 1949).
Beneath an ingenious cover illustration of a photographed hand “wiping out” the Big Red Cheese, the issue contained the tale of a felonious artist who acquired a magic eraser that could eradicate any person or object.
As a plot device, the eraser worked on a variety of levels. It served as a seemingly unbeatable challenge for Captain Marvel while subtly acknowledging the hero’s entire world as nothing more than a series of drawings on paper.
(C.C. Beck himself even makes a one-panel cameo toward the end of the tale.)
I wouldn’t be surprised if the eraser was also a commentary on the ongoing DC/Fawcett lawsuit. And is it just me, or does the story’s villain resemble a young Jerry Siegel?
As we all know, Captain Marvel was indeed wiped out a few years later after Judge Learned Hand ruled against Fawcett. The Marvel Family and every other character and title published by the company disappeared from the face of the Earth for decades.
A few publishers trotted out their own Captain Marvels before DC revived the one and only Big Red Cheese in the early ’70s. Although a host of talented creators have taken their shots at the Marvel Family (including Jerry Ordway, Mike Kunkel, Jeff Smith, Mike Norton and C.C. Beck himself), no one has ever quite captured the artistic or commercial spark that made the Golden Age tales so memorable.
These days, the Marvels are barely a presence in the DC Universe. Those rare times when Cap interacts with The Man Of Steel – his rival of long ago – it’s usually in the role of a glorified sidekick.
It’s hard to imagine Cap ever being an upper-tier character for the very company that engineered his downfall. But then again, perhaps the Big Red Cheese has already enjoyed the final laugh.
After all, to steal an insight from Morrison’s Supergods, DC was eventually knocked off its lofty perch by a company named “Marvel.”
Here’s “Captain Marvel Is Wiped Out” by Binder and Beck.
Fawcett’s Captain Nazi was as bloodthirsty a villain as could be found in the Golden Age.
Sent by Hitler himself in Master Comics #21 (story by Bill Woolfolk, art by Mac Raboy) to “humble America,” the not-so-good Captain sought to undermine democracy by the most direct method possible: killing as many people as he possibly could with his bare hands.
Unsurprisingly, Nazi’s rampage attracted the attention of such heroes as Captain Marvel and Bulletman. After a particularly brutal battle against The World’s Mightiest Mortal in Whiz Comics #25 (story by France Herron, art by C.C. Beck & Raboy), the villain found himself helpless in the middle of the ocean.
An elderly man and his grandson tried to lend a hand, but …
Captain Marvel saved the boy’s life but was shocked to learn the young victim’s back had been broken. Billy Batson, the Big Red Cheese’s alter ego (but you already knew that, right?), subsequently decided to take matters into his own hands and brought the crippled boy to the wizard Shazam.
The result? A new champion of justice is born: Captain Marvel Jr.
Junior’s subsequent confrontations with Captain Nazi were understandably a tad more intense than a stereotypical Marvel Family adventure. Those Golden Age tales weren’t all talking tigers and evil worms, you know …
The following story concerns Captain Nazi’s attempt to fatally poison American soldiers, a macabre plan that Freddy Freeman vows to stop. “Captain Marvel Jr. Saves The Doomed Army” originally appeared in Master Comics #30, Fawcett (September, 1942).
The writer is not credited but the story’s striking artwork is rendered by the great Mac Raboy.
Hoppy The Marvel Bunny was one of the first “funny animal” super-heroes, debuting late 1942 in the first issue of Fawcett’s Funny Animals comic. As Hoppy’s appearance and “code name” indicates, the character’s origin is rather simple: He’s essentially Captain Marvel as a rabbit.
Hoppy was created by cartoonist Chad Grothkopf presumably as a way for Fawcett to extend the already kid-friendly Captain Marvel line to very small children. Despite such mercenary beginnings, however, the series often boasted charming stories and art that remain appealing to this day. For example, the following story depicts a roving gang of evil boxing kangaroos.
How awesome is that, Internet?
From Hoppy The Marvel Bunny #1 (Fawcett, 1945), here’s “Hoppy Vs. The Boxing Kangaroos.” The writer and artist of this tale are uncredited.
You know, if Grant Morrison threw Batman against an evil, boxing kangaroo the entire comics blogoverse would probably shatter into millions of pieces …
