![]() That's right, his name was Captain Thunder, he was to appear in the first issue of Flash Comics from Fawcett Publications, and an "ashcan" issue was produced to secure copyright and solicit distribution.Ĭaptain Marvel's comics went on to sell more copies than Superman. "Speak my name!" he commanded,Īnd in a crash of thunder and a flash of lightning, Billy was transformed into the mighty hero.Captain Thunder! Shazam proceeded to tell Billy Batson that he knew about his hard life but that since his heart was pure, he would pass on the responsibility for defending the weak and fighting for justice to him. At the end was an old wizard who introduced himself as "SHAZAM!" With a crash of thunder, a display on the wall revealed his name to be an acronym: ![]() The stranger took him to a long cavern lined with statues of "The Seven Deadly Enemies of Man" (more on that later). Without hesitation, the stranger said "Follow me!"ĪND FOR THE FIRST AND LAST TIME THAT THIS WAS EVER A GOOD IDEA the 10-to-12 year old orphan followed the mysterious stranger into the subway. A stranger in a dark coat and hat came up to him and asked "Why aren't you home in bed, son? The story he wrote began with Billy Batson, orphan newsboy, trying to sell his papers outside a subway station in the rain late at night. But it was decided that this would be too confusing, so Parker went with the single hero. Beck were assigned to create this hero (as well as fill up a 64-page comic book with additional stories).Īt first, Parker came up with the idea of a team of superheroes, each with a different power. Citing surveys that showed the largest audience for superheroes was 10-to-12-year-old boys, he laid out the dictum "Give me a Superman, only have his other identity be a 10-to-12-year-old boy rather than a grown man." He put art director Al Allard in charge of the project with the assistance of editorial director Ralph Daigh, and staff writer Bill Parker and staff artist C.C. Noticing the success of superhero comic books, one of Captain Billy's sons, Roscoe Fawcett, decided to get Fawcett Publications into that racket. (after its first all-original, single-subject comic book with ads, Detective Comics) and would later come to be known as DC Comics. About that time, the publisher, National Allied Publications, was reorganized as Detective Comics, Inc. In 1938, Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster, a writer and artist team from Cleveland, Ohio, finally found a buyer for their ground-breaking character, " Superman." Long story short, their character, generally acknowledged to be the first true comic book superhero, first appeared in Action Comics #1. But rather than log all of them here, I would just like to see if I can straighten this whole mess out and give researchers a one-stop shop for this history. ![]() ![]() There are plenty of other examples of inaccurate info being given as authoritative truth on YouTube, Quora, and Facebook and the mainstream press (which is not to say that they are dealing in "fake news." That's a whole 'nother thing). I don't want to assume that's what the writer did, but it is obvious that they did not go the extra step to find out the difference between a copyright and a trademark, or that Whiz Comics #1 was merely an ashcan and never released to the public. There are misconceptions and inaccuracies all over it. It seems to me, however, that it was written by somebody who did research on the Internet for a few hours rather than tracking down the source material. It was well written, with an air of authority. However, what with the upcoming "SHAZAM!" movie in post-production, as well as Marvel's "Captain Marvel" movie following hard upon, it seems that lots of people continue to post inaccurate histories as the authoritative truth. For regular followers of me, this blog, the Captain Marvel Culture website, the Captain Marvel Culture Facebook group and page, the Captain Marvel Culture YouTube channel, and who may have seen my posts and comments and answers on YouTube, Facebook, Quora, and pretty much any article or blog post that purports to tell the history of any Captain Marvel, what follows should be familiar history. ![]()
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