Episode 1540 Talkback - Spotlight on SHAZAM! in the Golden Age, Part Two
Adam_Murdough
Posts: 506
Lightning strikes twice, as we revisit the Forties adventures (1942-45) of the original Captain Marvel for a second helping of Big Red Cheese! Welcome Mary Marvel, Uncle Marvel, and Hoppy the Marvel Bunny to the growing Marvel Family! Tag along on Captain Marvel's 'Tour of Cities'! Boo-hiss at the introduction of bad guys like Ibac and Mr. Banjo! And meet the malevolent Mr. Mind, breakout star of the greatest multi-chapter saga of the Golden Age of Comics, 'The Monster Society of Evil'! (2:58:14)
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Comments
One of my favorite covers ever!
I totally accept Adam's comments on the Lt. Marvels. The old English major in me cannot resist picking a few nits now and then. This was another wonderful and informative episode. I just finished reading the Geoff Johns Shazam stories that ran in JLA. They are very strong. I like his take on Sivana as his evil nature leads to his physical deterioration. Even the decision to make Freddy Freeman a blonde was ok with me.
I had a thought though, @Adam_Murdough, you say Cap and Billy have a falling out in some of the issues, as they are different persona's. With Hulk not being created until 1962, and also having this two persons split, albeit not a voluntary change in most cases for Hulk. Is there any evidence to suggest maybe Captain Marvel played some role in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby creating that character? There are some similarities.
https://archive.org/details/fawcett-comics
https://archive.org/details/captainmarveladventures
I'm having so much fun reading these. Makes me really hope Morrison's Thunderworld becomes a series because it has this same spirit.
http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=23
"Fascist fauna" nice one Adam
Mxyztplk made his first appearance in the Superman newspaper strip as early as February 23, 1944 in the Amarillo Globe (and on March 1, 1944 in most other places I could find. I'm not sure why Amarillo was ahead or if anywhere else was, too).
Mxyztplk would not appear in comics until Superman #30, cover dated September/October 1944 and released around July 5, 1944, again according to Mike's. So Mxy and "The World of Largeness" were being created at close to the same time, depending on how much lead time each publication needed.
Bat-Mite would not appear until Detective #267, cover dated May, 1959.
I also liked Murd's enthusiasm. I don't think there was a drop in the whole 2-3 hours. Such a goofy time for comic stories in the Golden Age but now I wants to seek them out because of Murd's energetic summaries..
So here is my contribution....
Back in 1994, 21 years ago, I was working officially for the San Diego Comic-Con as one of their photographers. I'm thankful that I got to cover a lot of Golden Age creator panels and meet the creators before they passed on a decade or so later. Sadly, I think we are quickly at the point where we won't have any more Golden Age panels with Golden Age creators anymore. But anyway, in 1994, I got to meet Chad Grothkopf, creator of Hoppy the Marvel Bunny/Captain Marvel Bunny!!
Grothkopf was the nicest person. He had just gotten back from San Miguel de Allende in the heart of Mexico, a mountain artist's retreat with an art university that attracted former U.S. G.I.s since the end of WWII. By luck, I had gone myself through my former school for two weeks the year before and we hit it off talking about it.
Grothkopf had long moved on from the comic industry and someone must have done some digging to find out where we was living then and bring him to Comic-Con. And, like many of the Golden Age creators, they were dumbfounded by the success in the 90s of all these funny books that they worked on 50 years earlier. And because of that, he was a humble man, not spoiled or jaded from growing up in the industry as a rock star or a hardened convention pro.
So, for the 24 years that I went to Comic-Con, Grothkopf was the nicest of all the creators I met. Not one of the big names of the Golden Age, you can find some of his other funny animal cartoons in some of the Timely books in the 1940s like Captain America Comics.
Here a couple photos from 1994 including him with Shelly Moldoff....
Grothkopf also worked in animation for a time. In fact, he created the first animated cartoon specifically made for television, “Willie the Worm.” And actually he did more work for DC, which is where he started in comics, than he did for Marvel, but it was mostly for lesser known backups like “Radio Squad” and “Federal Men” He did do a couple of “Sandman” and “Johnny Quick” stories though.
He left comics in 1947, and mostly did television (animated) and print ad work after that. He drew the Howdy Doody newspaper strip in the early ’50s, and illustrated a few children’s books, and he came back to comics to do a little bit of work on Captain Carrot. Beyond that, I think he may have taught art somewhere.