Comic of the Week - Shazam! #8

The Shazam! Comic of the Week is Shazam! #8 which was published on September 11, 1973  and had a cover date of December 1973.  

This issue was a 100 page Super Spectacular!  All the stories are from various Captain Marvel comics from the 1940s, there were no new stories at all.  

The first story, "A Twice Told Tale", was originally printed in Captain Marvel Adventures #80 (October 29, 1947).  

The second story, "Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel", which was originally printed in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (November 3, 1942).

The third story, "The Mighty Marvels Join Forces" was originally published in Marvel Family Comics #1 (November 21, 1945) and introduced us to Black Adam!

The fourth story, "The Vest Pocket Levitator" is a Captain Marvel Jr tale that came from the pages of Captain Marvel Jr #14 (November 19, 1943).

The fifth story is a Mary Marvel adventure, "The Dog Nappers" which was originally published in Mary Marvel #17 (August 8, 1947).

Our sixth story is "The Adventure in Time" which came from Captain Marvel Adventures #71 (January 31, 1947) and featured the Lieutenant Marvels.  

The final two stories are "The Talking Tiger" and "The Return of Mr. Tawny" which are both stories about Captain Marvel's friend, Tawky Tawny the talking tiger!  These stories were originally published in Captain Marvel Adventures #79 (September 26, 1947) and Captain Marvel Adventures #82 (December 31, 1947).  

The final feature of the comic is the Super Spectacle letter page which featured letters from readers with the editor's response.

This was a good collection of stories and followed DCs strategy of reprinting stories to give the comic readers of the '70s some insights into the characters and adventures from Captain Marvels golden age.

Comic of the Week - Shazam! #7

The Shazam! Comic of the Week is Shazam! #7 which published on August 16, 1973 and had a cover date of November 1973.

This issue featured two new Captain Marvel adventures and the continuation and conclusion of a golden-age Marvel family story.

The first story features one of my favorite characters, Tawky Tawny, in "The Troubles of the Talking Tiger!'  I won't go into detail as I have already written about that story in my article Captain Marvel and The Troubles of the Talking Tiger!  

The second story is "What's in a Name?  Doomsday!"  A rumor gets started that if you simply say the name, Captain Marvel, it will bring on doomsday!

The third story is a reprint from Marvel Family #53 (September 22, 1950) entitled, "The Man Who Changed the World."  In this issue they give the conclusion of this adventure which was first printed in Shazam! #6.

There are two additional features in this week's featured comic.  First, we have Shazamail which had several readers commenting that they are happy to see the original Captain Marvel back in print!

The second feature is the Superman - Shazam Battle Page.  The page lists the intent of the section, "Here's a sampling of the mail we've received on the great battle to see who'll be the top-selling hero of the 70's - Superman or the original Captain Marvel!"  On this page are letters from readers either voting for Superman or Captain Marvel.  I just don't understand why DC did this.  Captain Marvel was just into his 7th issue after being out of print for decades.  Why would you pit one against the other when you have barely given Cap enough time to build a following?  Unfortunately, Cap's comics didn't last and it could be this gimmick was part of his demise.

This was another nice issue and my favorite story was with Tawky Tawny!  DC was doing a good job of creating new stories and including some original stories to help people learn all about Captain Marvel.

Comic of the Week - Shazam! #6

The Shazam! comic of the week is Shazam! #6 which published on July 19, 1973 and had a cover date of October 1973.

This comic featured two new Captain Marvel stories and one golden-age adventure featuring the Marvel Family.  What's special to me about this issue is this was my very first Captain Marvel comic I ever purchased - it's the comic that introduced me to the World's Mightiest Mortal!  The pictures in this article are from my copy that I've fortunately held on to all these years.  It has a rolled spine and some staining, but to me it's a treasure I will not part with!

The first story pits Captain Marvel against his long-time nemesis - Dr. Sivana - in the story, "Better Late Than Never!"  The world's maddest scientist goes toe to toe with the World's Mightiest Mortal!

The second story is "Dexter Knox and his Electric Grandmother."  Please note that Dexter Knox, the boy scientist, also appeared in Cap's golden-age comics.  For example, he appeared in Captain Marvel Adventures #135 in the story, "Captain Marvel and the Mystery of the Space Switch!" (June 4, 1952)

The third story is a reprint from Marvel Family #53 (September 22, 1950) entitled, "The Man Who Changed the World."  This story wasn't complete in this issue and readers were advised it would be concluded in the next!

Another feature of this comic is the "Shazamail" section.  There were a few letters written by Cap's golden age fans that seem to be enjoying Cap's new adventures.  One very interesting letter concerns Black Adam!  I was totally surprised that even though he was only in one golden age comic, fans remembered him and wondered if he'd be back in the 1970's editions!

My favorite story from this issue is "Better Late Than Never!"  It's always good to see Cap and Sivana battle - and have Sivana lose again!

Shazam! The Complete Live-Action Series on DVD

On September 7, 1974, Captain Marvel leaped into action on TV screens with the premier of the Saturday morning show, Shazam!  DC had already brought Cap back in comics in December of 1972 with the first issue of Shazam comics.  For me, the Shazam TV show was my first introduction to Captain Marvel and I loved watching the show each Saturday and started reading the Shazam comics.  (I still have my original copy of Shazam #6!)

The Shazam TV show only lasted three seasons with a total of 28 episodes.  The last episode aired on October 16, 1976.  Fortunately for fans, all 28 episodes are available on DVD!  

Here are some pictures of my DVD collection which was a Christmas present for me a few years ago.

The menu selection for the DVDs is pretty basic.  You can play each episode individually, or just have them play back to back.  The only extra feature is you can also play them all back to back but include Captain Marvel's "moral of the story" play at the end of each show as well.  Below is an example of one of Cap's morals.

The DVD collection is still available, I recommend you check with your favorite retailer for a copy!  On the Warner Brothers on-line shop, I noticed that you can order the collection with exclusive cover art by one of my favorite Captain Marvel artists, Jerry Ordway.  Here's a look at that special art cover.

I've re-watched these episodes quite often and always enjoy them.  I hope Warner Brothers produces the entire collection in the blu-ray format - that would be awesome!  

The Comic That Never Was - Captain Marvel Battles Evil Incarnate!

When DC Comics brought Captain Marvel back in the 1970s, they did well to have one of his creators handle the artwork.  C. C. Beck, who drew Captain Marvel for Fawcett in the 1940s and 1950s was once again doing Cap's artwork in the '70s.  However, Beck would soon leave the Shazam! series after a small handful of issues.  He did not like the direction DC was taking the character he created and so Beck and DC parted ways.

As I was doing some research for my blog I ran across an interesting article that tells how DC reached back out to Beck in 1974.  E. Nelson Bridwell invited Beck to submit a script for a new Captain Marvel story.  If the editorial board at DC approved the script, they would let Beck draw and create the comic story.

Beck went to work and created the story, "Captain Marvel Battles Evil Incarnate!"  The story was in the vein of Cap's golden age adventures and included Billy Batson, Captain Marvel, the 7 deadly enemies of man, a witch, and magic spells.  It also included the Marvel Family - Mary, Captain Marvel, Jr and Uncle Marvel. 

Finally, after six months, DC's editorial board sent Beck back his script.  Unfortunately, there were major re-writes and changes.  According to the article, "Beck returned the rewritten script to DC and told them that he wanted nothing to do with it. DC's invitations to Beck stopped and they never contacted him again."

What a sad story!  I would have loved to read that comic as created by Beck.  It would have recaptured Captain Marvel and the Marvel family in all their golden-age glory once again.  If you would like to read the entire article, you can read it here:  The Marvel Family Battles Evil Incarnate

Comic of the Week - Shazam! #5

The Shazam! comic of the week is Shazam! #5 which published on June 19, 1973 and had a cover date of September 1973.

This comic featured two new Captain Marvel stories and one golden-age adventure featuring Captain Marvel, Jr!  The comic cover is an almost exact duplicate of Captain Marvel Adventures #119 (February 2, 1951)!  I wrote a brief article about that whcih you can read here.

The first story is "The Man Who Wasn't!"  In this story, the world's mightiest mortal matches whits with a leprechaun!  

The second story is "The World's Toughest Guy!"  I've written about this story and you can read it here.

Finally, we have a reprint of a golden-age Captain Marvel Jr story, "Captain Marvel Jr Fights the Champ."  This was originally published in Marvel Family #25 which originally published on May 21, 1948.

I personally liked "The World's Toughest Guy!" story the best.  And also keep in mind, many people may not have been aware of Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family from the 1940s and 1950s, so that's probably why DC kept including reprints from their golden-age adventures.

Going On Hiatus

Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to stop by this blog and read it.  I appreciate it!  I'm going to take a break from posting here for a while...not sure when I'll be back.  I've been trying to maintain several social media sites for Captain Marvel from blogs, Facebook and Instagram and have found that I just don't have the time to manage them all and really need to cut back.  I'm still a huge fan of Captain Marvel, but I just don't have Cap's powers and abilities to keep up with multiple social media sites!

Thank you again for reading my blogs - I greatly appreciate it!

Yours for old Shazam,

Jeff