50's Captain Marvel

random73

hey gang!

So, the guy behind me at my new job says his dad Stan Wojda was a line artist for Captain Marvel in the 50's. He said before it belinged to Marvel I assume in the Fawcett days? Anybody able to produce some examples of this guys art? I'd be curious to see this and it would even be nice to show my buddy. Apparently his grandmother, Stan's mom threw out all the original art a number of years ago. any help would be appreciated.

[Deleted User]

Well, there was another Captain Marvel, in the late 50's, early 60's, from a small publisher called MF Enterprises... Billy Baxton could yell the word SPLIT and his body would fly apart. I guess for that, they promote you to captain.

Anyways, maybe that's the one.

random73

get out of here! thats crazy! Does he bear any relation to Arm Fall Off Boy?

Chuck_Melville

I remember and had copies of that series. That was strictly the early 60's and only ran a few issues, somewhere about '65 or so. It didn't sell well, was discontinued, and the trademarks expired -- which Stan Lee immediately snapped up and created the Kree-born warrior, Captain Mar-vell. (If I remember correctly, and I can't swear to it, the series was drawn by Carlos Burgos, creator of the original Human Torch.)

I believe that Fawcett, the original publishers of the original Captain Marvel (Shazam!), did so through the mid-50's, at which point they were forced to discontinue because of the lawsuits brought against them by DC. DC acquired the character in the early 70's, revamped him slightly and resumed publication. But without the trademarks, which is why the series has gone under the general titles of Shazam! instead.

None of which answers your original question about Stan Wodja. I'm afraid I just don't know.

random73

He had said he drew Captain Marvel "before it was bought by Marvel" so I'm assuming it was fawcett.

DarthKramer

But DC bought Fawcett, not Marvel...

random73

Exactly! You see my confusion. Now I don't know of this is a non-geek getting his history wrong or if there is some additional part of the story I'm missing. This is apparently a family story and sometimes those deviate a little from the actual historical record if you know what I mean. We may have the generational equivalent of the telephone game here. Details have been muddied over the years.

phansford

I'm not sure if Fawcett gave credit to the artists. I only had one Captain Marvel Adventures in my collection and I do not recall seeing any credits. It might prove difficult to find a comic with credit being given to Mr. Wodja.

random73

Yeah that was my fear.

phansford

Plus - a lot of work was done in a bullpen/studio fashion and credit would only be give to the leader artist. ie: Eisner and the Spirit. Caniff and Steve Canyon. So depending on what Mr. Wodja did, we might never find any work credited to him.... say if he filled in backgrounds.

nweathington

I would suggest getting in touch with P.C. Hamerlink, editor of the “Fawcett Collectors of America,” which runs in Alter Ego, and The Fawcett Companion. If anyone would know about the Fawcett production staff artists, it would be him.

random73

Huh, neat. I asked some follow up questions and apparently Stan did the backgrounds and the regular artist did the central characters. So, layouts, then?

WetRats

Is the father still around?

WetRats

nweathington said:

I would suggest getting in touch with P.C. Hamerlink

What a great name!

Sounds like a Discworld dwarf.

random73

Is the father still around?

No I'm afraid he passed away a few years ago.

nweathington

random73 said:

Huh, neat. I asked some follow up questions and apparently Stan did the backgrounds and the regular artist did the central characters. So, layouts, then?

No, not layouts. What usually happened in the studios back then was that one of the top artists, say C.C. Beck, would pencil the page and ink the figures—or at least the main figures. Then one of the less talented or less experienced guys would ink the backgrounds and sometimes the secondary figures. Occasionally a penciler would leave some of the background details up to the background inker—it depended on the situation and how tight the deadlines were. I would say Mr. Wodja was a background inker.

random73

Gotcha! so line artist in this case doesn't mean penciller it means he inked the backgrounds. That's makes sense. Jim (Stan's son, the gentleman I work with) said he only did it for a couple years as a second job while also working in a department store. Eventually, he did go into advertising. Apparently, he was responsible for the Texas Instruments "owl" calculators.

[Deleted User]

random73 said:

Exactly! You see my confusion. Now I don't know of this is a non-geek getting his history wrong or if there is some additional part of the story I'm missing. This is apparently a family story and sometimes those deviate a little from the actual historical record if you know what I mean. We may have the generational equivalent of the telephone game here. Details have been muddied over the years.

I suspect this was the case.

phansford

he only did it for a couple years as a second job while also working in a department store. Eventually, he did go into advertising

Classic. If you've read enough 'histories" about comics, a lot of the artists wanted to get into advertising and did comics as they waited for their big break.

random73

Hey, I just wanted to say I really appreciate everyone's insight and knowledge on this thread it has been fascinating. I wish I could come you with some examples of Stan's art either from Jim to show you guys or you guys to show Jim!

nweathington

random73 said:

Hey, I just wanted to say I really appreciate everyone's insight and knowledge on this thread it has been fascinating. I wish I could come you with some examples of Stan's art either from Jim to show you guys or you guys to show Jim!

If you do find anything, let us know. From the sound of it, it will be impossible to identify any comic book work as his. A lot of times pages would pass through several artists. One guy might be especially good at inking foliage for instance, so he might do ink that part of the background and then pass it off to someone else who was good at inking cars. You'd probably have a little better luck tracking down his advertising artwork—that owl calculator design, for one.

random73

He finished up as Art Director for Ziff Davis if that has any meaning for anyone.

nweathington

Ziff Davis was primarily a magazine publisher, starting with Popular Aviation in 1927. They later got into pulps, most notably with Amazing Stories. They published comics from 1950 to about 1957—mostly horror, westerns, etc., and no superheroes. G.I. Joe (no relation) was their longest running title. They had a lot of big names work for them, like John Buscema, Sid Greene, Mike Sekowsky...

As an art director, he probably didn’t draw much himself—maybe some covers—and he wouldn't have gotten a credit anywhere. Unless, of course, he was art director for one of their magazines rather than for the comics.

random73

apparently he did a lot for Easter Seals as well.