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.
Today is the 100th birthday of the late, great Curt Swan, one of DC’s all-time storytellers. And while the internet is blowing up with great Swan Superman images, (and there are literally thousands of those) let’s instead pull this splash out of left field. (Ouch, wrong sport.)
It’s a Hall of Fame page from this fun 70s series, with story by Frank Robbins, inks by Dick Giordano and the whole shebang edited by Julie Schwartz.
Merlin? King Arthur? Knights playing football against contemporary players? Somehow the whole thing made perfect sense — to me, at least.
Thanks for all the magic Curt — here and everywhere else.
Today concludes our special series celebrating Batman’s 80th birthday.
I’m not a child of the ’50s. Didn’t make the cut.
But… I was a little kid in the ’60s when DC published many great 25-cent annuals (80 pages!) and specials reprinting classic tales of classic characters.
Like Batman, for instance.
It was in these annuals that I learned abut Giant Batman, Rip Van Batman, Rainbow Batman and more. I had no idea when these stories first appeared, and I didn’t care. It also didn’t matter that they didn’t quite fit in with the “new-look” Batman. They were goofy fun, and I was a kid, and goofy fun was a job requirement.
I hadn’t thought much about those iterations of Batman in recent years. Many of those stories have yet to be reprinted in the current DC omnibus collections because of, well, pesky chronology.
Then at SDCC, Preview Night, Michael Cho’s art representative put this original of Detective #1000 on display while I was chatting with him.
It floored me.
Michael captured so many of those wondrous Batman moments in one stunning and giant (Its drawn on a double-size board) original. And as noted previously, I’m a passionate admirer of his art.
I asked the price. The dealer answered. I gulped. My art budget would be shredded.
But I understood the pricing — it’s obviously a one-of-a-kind piece. A classic cover for a milestone comic book.
I hesitated for one millisecond. And then I was smart enough to say: “Yes, I want it.”
Good thing too. Turned out there was another buyer literally right behind me. (Typically, I’m the collector who just misses out, so this was unusual.)
I confess that I didn’t recognize ALL the Batmen on the cover at first. (Some of course are covered by the final trade-dress.) But fortunately, with Michael’s help, it’s now sorted out:
17 visible front-facing Batmen surrounding “Conventional” (Regular? Traditional?) Batman and Robin, and seven additional Batmen with a back view to the reader. Below is the complete list, with the original appearances noted as well. The art gallery features the original covers, as wells Michael’s preliminary art, created digitally.
These are not all the odd versions of Batman. Michael himself laments that he couldn’t fit in Batman Jones (Batman #108) or Batman Creature (Batman #162), and a few others, but hey, there’s only so much room.
As for Invisible Batman? (Detective #199.) Who’s to say he’s not also on the cover somewhere? I’m certainly not ruling it out.
Detective 1000 by Michael Cho:
Front view (17):
Jungle Batman – Batman 72
Rainbow Batman (full) – Detective 241
Mummy Batman – Detective 320
Giant Batman (leg) – Detective 243
“First” Batman (Thomas Wayne costume) – Detective 235
Alien Batman (weird face & body) – Batman 140
Alien Batman (orange ears) – Detective 251
Bat-Baby – Batman 147
Genie Batman – Detective 322
Swindle Batman – Detective 222
Captive Planet Batman (weird helmet) – Detective 256
Rip Van Batman – Batman 119
Scuba Batman – Detective 253
Robot Batman – Detective 239
Dragon Society Batman (tunic with #1) – Detective 273
Scottish Batman (kilt bottom) – Detective 198
“Original” Batman (cape open like wings) – Detective 195
Back View (7):
Bronze Batman – Detective 302
Clayface Batman – Detective 312
Zebra Batman – Detective 275
Interplanetary (space helmet) Batman – Detective 165
White Snow Suit Batman – Detective 165
Luminous (radiation) Batman – Detective 165
Rainbow Batman (pink) — Detective 241
Young brains explode — at a bargain price of a quarter!
Michael’s cover jarred my memory into recalling this 1994 cover by Jon Bogdanove which features many different versions of “traditional” Batman in one place, and the matching “reverse” version featuring Batman surrounded by Supermen. I think that one appeared as a poster only. Not as cool, certainly, but fun in their own right.
Presenting the final post in our series celebrating Supergirl’s 5thseason premiere tonight on the CW.
As noted previously, Ian Churchill’s run on Supergirl was terrific, and his brief return here, is still a welcome one.
On this dynamic page, Supergirl shreds Cyborg Superman, who is (I think) actually Supergirl’s father, who is under the mind control of Brainiac, who is… never mind. This “prequel” to the complicated DC convergence crossover is convoluted, and the less said, the better.
Continuing our series celebrating Supergirl’s 5thseason premiere on the CW on Sunday,
Jose Luis (not to be confused with the artist Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez) illustrates a lovely and simple moment with the super team of Superman, Supergirl, and Krypto. I can’t recall when I saw a similar published page, especially in contemporary comics, where Krypto has shifted in and out of continuity more than a few times.
Supergirl’s 5thseason premieres on the CW on Sunday, so our next few posts will take a look at the cousin of steel.
Here’s my unsolicited story idea for the terrific art team of Chris Sprouse and Karl Story: A Superman Family “Elseworlds” limited series that includes Superman, Supergirl, Lois and Jimmy, The Super Pets, The Legion of Superheroes, Kandor, Bizarro… And a full line-up of classic villains. Pretty much everyone who populated the mid 20th century Superman comics.
In other words, a longer form story that’s similar to Alan Moore’s and Curt Swan’s classic “Whatever Happened to The Man of Tomorrow,” but with —- spoiler alert — no fatal tragedies involved.
In 2020, that’s about as likely to happen as Perry White yelling “Great Caesar’s Ghost”, or Jimmy Olsen turning back into a giant turtle, but a guy can dream, can’t he?
Much like Steve Rude, Chris Samnee, and a handful of other artists, Chris and Karl take classic styling and adapt it into a modern form. It’s both retro and contemporary.
In many ways, it’s the best of both worlds. (Hey — that could be the name of the series.)
In the meantime, we have these two great covers: Supergirl and “Superwoman” (long story) gracefully flying, and Metallo and Reactron defeating the super cousins. Cyborgs rarely look this menacing on a super-hero cover.
And, if someone at DC miraculously likes my idea, and Mark Waid is tied up, it’s pretty easy to find me…
We interrupt our multi-part look at Spider-Man vs. Mysterio in honor of today’s “Batman Day” (9/21) celebration. Our regularly scheduled programming will continue tomorrow.
Neal Adams first Batman story appeared more than 50 years (!) ago in World’s Finest Comics #175. The art blew my mind then, and still does today. Happy Batman Day, Neal, and thanks for all of it!
Tomorrow, we conclude our multi-part look at Spider-Man vs. Mysterio with none other than “the Dude” — artist Steve Rude.
Jack Kirby and Steve Rude, Jimmy Olsen: Adventures by Jack Kirby – Volume 1
Today, let’s celebrate The King’s birthday with some help from an unabashed professional Kirby admirer — Steve “The Dude” Rude. Steve completed a previously unpublished Kirby Jimmy Olsen cover rough for a TPB collection in 2003. I love the power and playfulness in this image, and Steve’s inks nailed it.
Interesting that the initial color version of the cover, used for solicit purposes, is realized in the “classic” style, while the final printed version is digitally rendered in the “modern” style.
Anyone want to guess which version I prefer? Anyone?
(On the subject of Superman’s likeness in the DC Kirbyverse, Kirby expert and author Mark Evanier has some illuminating background here.)
Happy Birthday Jack!
Preliminary color
Published color
Original (previously unpublished) cover rough, likely an early version of Olsen #145
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.
