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Episode 1538 Talkback - Spotlight on SHAZAM! in the Golden Age, Part One

With one magic word, the complexion of superhero comics was changed forever in 1940 by the introduction of that mythically-empowered champion of justice and decency, the original Captain Marvel! Now, 75 years later, CGS pays homage to the World's Mightiest Mortal in a new series of historical Spotlights! Comics scholar Shazama Cum Laude Adam Murdough leads this discussion of Captain Marvel's first two years in comics, from Billy Batson's first utterance of 'Shazam!' to the origin of Captain Marvel, Jr. (2:30:37)

Listen here, folks!
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Comments

  • Thor_ElThor_El Posts: 136
    That was absolutely spectacular. The Spotlight episodes you gentlemen produce are always both fun and informative, but I think this one stands out simply due to Adam's obvious enthusiasm. He really did seem SO excited to talk about this material that as he said it was almost pouring out of him faster than he could formulate. I'd imagine that if he actually allowed the information to flow from him as quickly as he would have liked it would have ended up sounding like an old dial-up modem; the words and excitement blending everything together into a shrill binary tone. Just an amazing amount of fun.

    My own first exposure to the Captain is most likely similar to that of Chris and Shane in that I seem to recall watching episodes of the SHAZAM!/Isis show in my youth. I also remember reading SHAZAM! #1 which I think reintroduced him back into DC continuity but those memories are fuzzy at best and my copy long buried in a long box somewhere. I do however remember his many appearances in DC Comics Presents Annuals which remain some of my absolute favorites to this day.

    I'm really quite looking forward to hearing about the legal battle in full in the future. I know very little of it aside from what is commonly known, so that will be a fun and educational episode.

    Looking forward to the next part with great fervor, hopefully sooner rather than later.
  • nweathingtonnweathington Posts: 6,748
    edited February 2015
    Geez, guys! That was god-awful! Reprehensible! You left out so much! You should be ashamed of yourselves, especially you, @Adam_Murdough! Ugh!



    Just kidding, guys. Nice job.

    Re: Mac Raboy, though he was born in New York, his parents were originally eastern Romanian Jews with the surname Raboi, which in Romania would be pronounced “rah-BOY,” with a rolled R.

    It's funny you mentioned his worked looked carved, because when he was in high school he took WPA (Works Progress Administration) art classes where he learned wood engraving and print making. I've seen a few of his wood engraving prints, and they're quite good.

    His Captain Marvel Jr. stories had a Peter Pan quality to them, I think. Junior fighting Nazis always makes me think of Pan fighting Hook and crew. Otto Binder once said that Raboy always complained that there were too many action scenes, and that, “He wanted beautiful fairyland scenes for Captain Marvel Jr. to float through.”

    Of course, Raboy left comics in 1947 or ’48. He took over the Flash Gordon newspaper strip in ’49 and drew it until he died in 1967 from cancer. As an admirer of Alex Raymond, that was probably as close to a dream job as he came. I don't know if he had the mindset for a fine artist, but he could definitely have done well as an illustrator.
  • JaxUrJaxUr Posts: 547
    edited February 2015
    Nicely done boys. I wrote the Captain Marvel entry for the Icons of the American Comic Book (vol. 1) that came out recently. I'm just starting to listen to the episode. A good book to check out is Chip Kidd's 2010 coffee table book "Shazam! The Golden Age of the World's Mightiest Mortal." The Marvel stories were more like fairy tales than straight on superhero stories.

    One of the main differences with the Golden Age stories and those from recent years is that Billy Batson and Cap were distinctly different people. Captain Marvel did not have the mentality of child in an adult's body.



    CGS listeners should check out the 1940s serial (the 1st time a comics superhero was done in live action):
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNKMbxLcuac
  • JaxUrJaxUr Posts: 547
    Some may recall that "Captain Billy's Whiz Bang" is referenced in the song "Trouble" from The Music Man. It's said to be a tell-tale sign of corruption. The reference comes about 3:30 min into the clip below:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJZlBmpgHL4
  • rebisrebis Posts: 1,820
    I had wondered why there wasn't a Captain Marvel radio program. The material would have lent itself to the medium perfectly. The problems that Republic Pictures had answers that question.

    I've come to an appreciation of the Marvel Family withing the last 10 years, or so. However, when I was much younger I had a friend who's Mom would buy him any comic he wanted. I discovered Captain Marvel through the Square Bound 100 Page books and Treasury editions that DC released in the 70's. I remember not liking the "modern" stories at all. However, the Golden Age reprints drew me in. When I got older and could afford back issues, those books were top on my list.
  • rebisrebis Posts: 1,820
    JaxUr said:

    Nicely done boys. I wrote the Captain Marvel entry for the Icons of the American Comic Book (vol. 1) that came out recently. I'm just starting to listen to the episode. A good book to check out is Chip Kidd's 2010 coffee table book "Shazam! The Golden Age of the World's Mightiest Mortal." The Marvel stories were more like fairy tales than straight on superhero stories.

    One of the main differences with the Golden Age stories and those from recent years is that Billy Batson and Cap were distinctly different people. Captain Marvel did not have the mentality of child in an adult's body.



    CGS listeners should check out the 1940s serial (the 1st time a comics superhero was done in live action):
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNKMbxLcuac

    Captain Marvel throwing suckers off of buildings and mowing down the bad guys with a machine gun. Gotta love it.
  • JaxUrJaxUr Posts: 547
    edited February 2015
    Anybody recall "Joe Millionaire"? I always thought he looked like Capt. Marvel:

    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/node-gallery-display/2012/07/joe_millionaire.jpg

    One minor nitpick from an old English major: Fat, Tall, and Hill Billy should be referred to as the "Lieutenants Marvel" and not "Lieutenant Marvels." DC made this error in the recent Multiversity issue. It's similar to "Attorneys General" or "Mothers-in-Law."
  • Now that was FUN! Awesome episode guys. Murd you knocked this one out of the park. I really appreciate all your hard work. I know how much time and effort it takes to put out spotlight episodes. Especially when there is a MOUNTAIN of material to sort through and read. Not too mention wanting to get all the facts straight.
  • 2 and 1/2 hours for part one! Murdrific!
  • I'm an hour and a half in so far and am loving it!

    Didn't realize how closely the New 52 version stayed to the original origin story, with the underground Subway, etc.
  • Loved the quick shout out to Fred MacMurray. The Apartment is one of my all time favorite movies, if not the favorite. Apparently MacMurray received such a plethora of negative feedback for his portrayal of a cad that he decided to only pursue "nice guy" roles.
  • JaxUr said:

    Some may recall that "Captain Billy's Whiz Bang" is referenced in the song "Trouble" from The Music Man. It's said to be a tell-tale sign of corruption. The reference comes about 3:30 min into the clip below:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJZlBmpgHL4

    If I remember correctly, it was also something of an anachronism, as the magazine wasn't published until several years after the events of the musical.
  • Mr_CosmicMr_Cosmic Posts: 3,200
    Epic! Thanks guys.
  • Fantastic episode. Although I've always liked Cap (at the very least, it's one of the greatest costume designs of all time), he's something of a blind spot in my reading history, so this was absolutely fascinating. Well done, Mr Murdough!
  • dubbat138dubbat138 Posts: 3,200
    Loving this episode. As a kid my 3 favorite superheroes were Shazam,cause of the live action show. Plastic man,because of the cartoon and Green Arrow,because my father was a bow hunter.

    Murds enthusiasm and knowledge of this time period is amazing.
  • I know more about Captain Marvel than I ever did before. And I'm the better for it! Job well done, fellas.
  • rebisrebis Posts: 1,820

    I know more about Captain Marvel than I ever did before. And I'm the better for it! Job well done, fellas.

    That makes my heart feel good.
  • LibraryBoyLibraryBoy Posts: 1,803
    Awesomely encyclopedic episode, @Adam_Murdough!

    My own discovery of the Captain and his family is similar to most folks around here, thanks to Filmation. But although I enjoyed the live action show as a kid, the one that really stuck with me was the animated version that aired alongside Hero High as part of the short-lived series "The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam!". Those cartoons get so much right - you not only get Cap, Mary, and Junior, but also Uncle Dudley, Tawky Tawny, the Sivanas, Mr. Mind, Ibac, Black Adam... cousin Freckles even shows up for an episode (no Lieutenants, though). It's a Filmation cartoon, so you'll recognize pretty much all of the voices and the background music, but it's all kinds of good and easily the most accurate representation of the original comics until probably those episodes of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. They've never been released officially on DVD and I have never even seen them from bootleg DVD dealers at cons (I always ask), but you can find a lot of them on YouTube.

    Anyway... I loved the show and cartoon but kind of forgot about them after awhile until I stumbled across Roy Thomas's attempt to revive the franchise after COIE, Shazam: The New Beginning. It's not the best version of the characters, but credit to Roy where it's due for trying hard, and it's the series that made me remember how much I loved the characters and it led me to start tracking down what appearances I could, especially the 70s series and, once it started, Jerry Ordway's The Power of Shazam OGN and subsequent series.

    Looking forward to the future episodes!
  • I know this isn't for this episode, but it suddenly occurred to me that Jerry O'Connell has played both Captain Marvel AND Superman in animated form. Bet that's something that would have never happened if DC hadn't sued Fawcett Comics into oblivion.

    Oy.
  • They've never been released officially on DVD and I have never even seen them from bootleg DVD dealers at cons (I always ask), but you can find a lot of them on YouTube.

    I have a 30-minute VHS tape they released back in 1989, which is how Adam would prefer to watch it anyway. I know they released at least a couple of tapes, but I don't know if they ever released every episode.
  • luke52luke52 Posts: 1,392
    This might be my favourite Spotlight so far. Great work guys.
  • This was a great episode it really makes me want to try and read some of the golden age Captain Marvel. I have never read any comics from that era because I didn't really think I would be interested in them but these sound fun.
  • bralinatorbralinator Posts: 5,967
    Cape Television (available free via Roku devices) has the The Adventures of Captain Marvel available to stream in nine chapters. I watched episode one last night and was amazed at how well done the special effects were for a series done in 1941. The flying scenes with creative editing were splendid for the time. Worth the time of any Captain Marvel fan.

    http://www.capetelevision.com/support/now-playing-on-roku

    Another great episode, and another great character to Spotlight @Adam_Murdough Thanks!
  • rebisrebis Posts: 1,820
    Just a quick aside.
    Tom Tyler was also a champion weight lifter. The scenes from Adventures of Captain Marvel where he's picking people up and throwing them were done without the help of wires, pulleys, etc.
  • rebisrebis Posts: 1,820
    I wonder if Warner Bros. regrets the missed opportunity of not having Patrick Warburton play Captain Marvel?
  • rebisrebis Posts: 1,820
    Another quick aside. Regarding the Filmation animated series. You will notice that Paul Dini wrote a fair amount of the episodes.
  • rebisrebis Posts: 1,820
    Are GA Captain Marvel & Billy Batson the same person or 2 different people?
    I like to think of them as the same. However, when you consider the transformation to an adult and the abilities of the members of Cap's pantheon they will act like 2 very different people. A good example would be Hickman's run on FF and how he handled the relationship between Franklin Richards the child and FR the time travelling adult. The same individual coming from two very different places.
  • rebis said:

    Are GA Captain Marvel & Billy Batson the same person or 2 different people?
    I like to think of them as the same. However, when you consider the transformation to an adult and the abilities of the members of Cap's pantheon they will act like 2 very different people. A good example would be Hickman's run on FF and how he handled the relationship between Franklin Richards the child and FR the time travelling adult. The same individual coming from two very different places.

    I took them as being the same person, just one being not only older, but imbued with the wisdom of Solomon, etc., etc., which would certainly have an effect on one's personality. So Cap is Billy, but also something more than Billy would be if he simply grew up.
  • JamfebJamfeb Posts: 24
    If there is anything better then a Spotlight episode then I don't want to know about it!
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