Captain Marvel discusses the issues of the day (in 1945)

Which turn out to be a lot like the issues of the day seventy years later.

From Captain Marvel Adventures number 39.

The only Captain Marvel Story adapted into a Fox News Series

Fawcett always had a unique approach to marketing

Fawcett presented themselves as part of the popular mainstream, comics from the people who brought you Mechanix Illustrated and other fine magazines.

Even as early as the mid-Forties, Fawcett was heading off charges of comics' corrupting influence with its "Editorial Advisory Board."

A MAD in-joke?

This came out shortly after the debut of Mad. That and the font and the style leave me pretty sure that this cover (which does not match the tone of the rest of the story that follows) is an in-joke directed at some friends at EC.

Kids, sock the Axis with this wastepaper punch!

I think I've mentioned this before but whenever I come across one of these ads I'm struck by how strange that sense of common purpose and shared sacrifice seems today.

From Captain Marvel Adventures number 38

"Open all night for war workers"

One of the things you notice in the popular culture of the early Forties is how every aspect of life was focused on the war, even things like keeping shop open all night to accommodate the around the clock work of the defense plants.



from Whiz Comics #53

The end of the original Marvel era

Whiz Comics ran for 155 issues and every one of them featured Captain Marvel, arguably the most popular of the Golden Age, at times outselling even Superman.

This final story, printed in 1953, is unusually dark for a Captain Marvel story but that was the direction the industry was headed in -- 1953 was the height of the horror trend with EC titles like Tales from the Crypt peaking in sales and quality.

There are no decapitations in this story, but the monster's plan are genuinely disturbing and the story is tight and well drawn. Not a bad note to go out on.

Golden Age recursion

Unlike most comics companies (which generally came from the pulp side), Fawcett was the publisher of major magazines like Mechanix Illustrated and Family Circle (as well as racier titles like True Confessions). It's not surprising that Fawcett's comics were a bit like MGM movies -- well crafted and entertaining with good production values if sometimes a bit stiff. You won't find many of the flashes of (often dark) genius that you saw from artists like Eisner, Cole, Simon&Kirby*, Briefer, Ayers, Meskin, even Shuster. What you will find are stories that are beautifully drawn (particularly those by Mac Raboy), charming, clever and often gently and subtly medium-pushing.


From 1947:


From 1951:

Though Simon and Kirby did a brief stint on Whiz Comics.

A bit of Golden Age whimsy with the big red cheese

By some measures, Captain Marvel was the best selling character of the Golden Age. His adventures (like this one from 1949) were always whimsical, clever and well-drawn. There was something about the character that lent itself to a light and cartoony touch. Perhaps it was his innocence (he seemed, if anything, less worldly than his young alter ego).

When this artist (Kurt Schaffenberger) became the artist for DC's Lois Lane story he was arguably my least favorite artist with a major publisher; here he's just about perfect.

More adventures in intellectual property -- the other other Captain Marvel

Comic books have always been the badlands of intellectual property law, but even by the slack standards of the industry, MF Enterprises' Captain Marvel was exceptional.

The man behind the other other Captain Marvel was Carl Burgos, who had created the original Human Torch back in 1939. Burgos had tried to sue Marvel when the Fantastic Four came out with a reworked version of Burgos' Golden Age creation (an approach that Stan Lee and publisher Martin Goodman had appropriated, with remarkable if not acknowledged fidelity, from DC's Julius Schwarz).

Perhaps it was bitterness over the suit that prompted Burgos not only to name his character after arguably the most popular character of the Golden Age (the original Marvel's titles had often outsold even Superman), but to use the names of other famous comic book characters to fill out the book.

Despite Burgos' role and a seriously goofy power (you really have to see it), this magazine came and went almost unnoticed except, according to some comic historians, by Stan Lee who immediately brought out his own Captain Marvel as soon as MF dropped the title (despite the fact that the original Captain Marvel was not in the public domain). The land grab worked, which is why DC has the right to publish the Golden Age character but not to use his name in a title.

Somehow, I suspect that Burgos didn't get a lot of satisfaction out of this particular contribution to comics history.

(If all of this isn't weird enough for you, check out the story of the MF behind MF Enterprises... Strange, strange stuff.)