Affter the Captain Marvel family of comic book titles debuted in 1940 it soon became a favorite."The Big Red Cheese " as Cap was called frequantly outsold Superman and Batman at 5 million copies sold per avaerage comic book during the forties. Fawcett Publications made millions of Captain Marvel. This infuriated D.C. which claimed Fawcett copied Superman. They lost initially to Fawcett due to his success. But D.C.'s lawyers dug-in and were determined. Eventually they legally had Fawcett under-seige defending Captain Marvel's right to exist. Allthough Captain Marvel made millions of dollars in the U.S. and internationally in the U.K.,Israel,and abroad the company Fawcett Publications lost millions defending him. Finally in 1953 Fawcett lost to D.C. in court and the last Marvel Family Comic ended the Captain's original run at Fawcett.
Other companies expermimented with the name. An action figure name which also made a comic book and Marvel Comics which had it's own comic Captain Marvel which was about a Kree Captain, Mav-ell.And in the mid seventies the original Captain Marvel returned under new D.C. ownership with a new comic book called Shazam with a new comic which went along with a new live show on screen same name.During the ninities a Jerry Ordway series, few mini-series,graphic novels, and Shazam had a cult status among D.C. charachters. Captain Marvel was an artist favorite. The thunderbolt and red shirt were cool the cape and sash differant. Electricity not tights and an upset millionaire crying about mum and dad. A boy done good and even his job was cooler. Instead of roving reporter Shazam was a D.J. on WHIZ Radio.
No comments:
Post a Comment