Sensation Comics, (digital) #26, (print) #9, June 2015
Continuing our celebration of Wonder Woman for the next few posts — no matter when the new film finally releases.
Plenty of reboots. Rebirths. New universes. New timelines. Old characters return. New characters die. Old characters becomenew characters.
Rinse. Repeat.
And yet somehow, through all of this, the dynamic duo art team of Chris Sprouse and Karl Story are not illustrating a mainstream superhero comic book on an ongoing basis.
The ONLY —and I mean ONLY – reason this should be possible is speed. Plenty of talented art teams have trouble with long-term monthly output. (As they say, I have the gray hair to prove it.)
But that can fixed with some long-term creative planning and execution.
Meanwhile, even if it’s a rare sighting, it’s definitely a welcome one.
Like this Wonder Woman splash, from a “digital First” Sensation Comics series featuring multiple creative teams.
The pages have to work in both digital and print format, and that’s certainly not a problem here. Good, clean storytelling from a fun tale featuring Diana and Lois Lane.
We continue to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the original Captain Marvel, now known as Shazam.
In 1972, with a nostalgia craze in full swing in the US, DC shocked the fan world by announcing that they had acquired the rights to the original Fawcett Comics characters. So… after 20 years, the Captain was back. Unfortunately for DC, a little company called Marvel had added its own Captain Marvel character and title to its line-up, and so at first the DC comic’s title was called Shazam. Ultimately, the character himself became named after his own magic word to avoid additional legal battles.
Title aside, Shazam presented a challenge for DC. The audience that had grown up on 50s and 60s comic book stories had in fact… grown up. And in a universe of Kirby, Steranko, Adams, et al, the golden age Captain Marvel was simply too quaint. Shazam #1 sold like proverbial hotcakes, because of the nostalgia craze and curiosity factor — and the burgeoning collectors’ market — but it was clear that the struggle to keep the character true to his roots AND somehow contemporize him created enormous editorial and commercial challenges. (One that’s challenged DC for nearly 50 years.)
In this terrific page by Schaffenberger, we see the classic Captain Marvel art style, only updated very slightly from the stories that Kurt had drawn 20 years previously. Although Schaffenberger was a more accomplished artist at this point, his clean and uncluttered style is still his trademark.
Fun fact: As you can see from the inscription, this page was originally acquired from Kurt by my friend and former colleague Len Brown (Mars Attacks, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents). Len ultimately sold it, and it made its way through the collectors market until I spotted it about 10 year ago and purchased it. I offered it to Len in case he had any regrets, but he doesn’t collect art anymore, so he declined.
Leaving it in my hands, with some interesting provenance as a bonus.
DC made a major marketing effort for Captain Marvel — announcing the title at the 1972 NYCC in July, and working closely with fanzines for support, including Jim Steranko’s Comixscence (Ultimately Mediascene).
Schaffenberger provided the cover for the first issue of the Isis spinoff, showcasing both his spot-on anatomy and his willingness to borrow inspiration from a previous DC comic — the first appearance of Green Lantern (by Gil Kane) about 15 years prior.
Shazam and Isis — remembered fondly by many — in their television incarnations.
This week we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the original Captain Marvel, (cover dated in 1940, although the issue likely appeared on most newsstands in late 1939) now known as Shazam.
Captain Marvel (Shazam to you kids) appears in every panel in this ebullient pagepencilled and inked byKurt Schaffenberger.
Schaffenberger went to work as an assistant in the Jack Binder studio in 1941 just as Fawcett’s Captain Marvel was soaring, eventually outselling DC’s Superman. When Schaffenberger returned from World War 2 military service, he ultimately penciled and inked complete stories.
His wholesome, uncluttered and often whimsical style was a
perfect fit for Captain Marvel, who was nothing if not wholesome and whimsical.
Schaffenberger drew many of the stories that capped the end Captain Marvel’s amazing run — and 10 years of legal battles with DC.
In fact, despite the seemingly never-ending copyright lawsuit that alleged that the Big Red Cheese was a knockoff of Superman, The Captain outlasted many of his spandex-attired peers, publishing longer than most competitive superhero titles.
But, by 1954, declining sales meant that Fawcett no longer had the will to fight. They settled with DC, and called it a day for Captain Marvel.
As they say… To Be
Continued.
Fun Fact: After Fawcett left the superhero business, Schaffenberger ultimately went to work for DC, and became best known for his 10-year run on the Lois Lane series, setting the DC house style for the character for much of the silver age.
From the first issues to the last, Captain Marvel proved to be an immensely popular character.
Schaffenberger’s well-remembered run on Lois Lane includes the 1966 return of Catwoman (still wearing her Golden Age costume) to the DC Universe, (She was immensely popular on the Batman TV show at that point.) It’s a wild and wooly story with Lois hypnotized into thinking she’s Catwoman, and Superman transformed into a… black cat. No, really. How far was DC behind Marvel editorially in 1966? Across town, the Fantastic Four had already tangled with the Silver Surfer, The Inhumans, Galactus, and oh, introduced a black cat of their own. A princely superhero from Wakanda called the Black Panther. Nuff said.
Captain Marvel became the very first superhero to appear on the silver screen, edging out Superman, Batman and others for the honor. It’s a pretty good serial featuring Tom Tyler and still very watchable today.
I love looking at comic book covers — I can easily head down the rabbit hole on-line or at a convention scanning through them. To my mind, no one shook up the comic book cover world more than Neal Adams.
I was a kid when Neal’s realistically dynamic DC covers transformed the line, modernizing and freshening many titles pretty much overnight. 1968 rolled in, and suddenly Lois Lane wore contemporary clothing and had fashionable haircuts, Superboy’s foes looked genuinely menacing, and… Batman and Green Arrow?” The rest as they say, is history.
This is the unpublished cover for Lois Lane 87. Neal told me that any unpublished DC covers are “self-rejected,” meaning that he decided he didn’t like them himself, as opposed to any editorial dictate. Either way, you can see the switch makes sense. The “rejected” cover has Superman breaking up a scuffle. The published cover, where the characters are flying, rather than on the ground, makes it much clearer that two super-powered women are trying to kill each other. (Although Superman never had to actually break up the fight in the story itself. Lois handled it herself, thank you very much.)
That said, I like the overall appearance of the unpublished cover much better and the “Fortress of Solitude” interior, with chair and control center, is especially cool.
