#golden age shazam

[kenandeliza]

shotgun crutch doodle

A silly shazam doodle based on this comment by @puppetwoman17

in this post

I have never dealt with shotguns before, so this drawing might be inaccurate

[alternateworldcomics]

Shazam! # 21, Published by RGE in Brazil, 1950.

[gallimaufryish]

[weepingfishturtledragon]

I want to hear Billy Batson and/or Captain Marvel with a transatlantic accent! From what I've read it seems possible, Shazam was created in 1939 and the transatlantic accent ended after world war ii which was 1945. This means that it is entirely possible that the golden age Captain Marvel/Billy Batson could have had a transatlantic accent!

Imagine Billy with his Golden boy personality, iconic all American boy next door looks, and his transatlantic accent, like no matter what he does he comes off as adorable! He could burn someone's house down and all he would have to do is say "Oh, I'm terribly sorry! I didn't see that candle there." and he'd get away with it! Captain Marvel would probably give off the vibe of an alien who learned everything he knows about Earth from old Hollywood films!

[im-not-buying-it-ether]

Friend says I could just say anything happened in Captain Marvel/Shazam comics and they’d believe me bc it’s so ludicrous

Like oh hey, the RoE has paradoxically been described as existing outside space and time, at the center of space and time, or at its very edge in space when sometimes it has its own quasi-dimension. Sivana was born in the 1890’s, Mr. Mind was held accountable for over 150,000 deaths when he worked for the Axis powers in WW2 and sentenced to the electric chair, and every other hero either made their superpowers or got gifted them by taking random potions/powers/or pills from strange old men

Also Tawny was a normal tiger that drank a potion when he was little and grew to be more humanoid bc of the potion

[wanderingmind867]

To list all the characters DC never reprinted would require me to sit here all day, but I can start a basic list: We should probably get all the Superman stuff from the 40s, 50s and 60s. We should get all the Captain Marvel stuff from Fawcett Comics reprinted. We should get the 40s Plastic Man stuff reprinted. All the 40s Green Lantern stuff. All the Justice Society characters stuff, honestly. Maybe even give us all the Green Arrow stories from the 40s to the 60s. Plus Johnny Quick and Ibis the Invincible and these other obscure 40s and 50s characters.

But even after we cover them, we have some great silver age comics too. Metamorpho. The Metal Men. Even thing like Sugar and Spike, if we want to reprint that fun old comedy series. Because DC had almost way too many comics, and we need to do something with them. We can't consign them to the scrap heap forever. That's just a waste of those old writers and artists, who put their hearts into their work!

[comicavalcade]

Ah, the De Luxe Tickle!

Normally you have to pay extra for that.

Also Caps got 🍑

[chernobog13]

CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES #47 (July, 1945). Cover by C.C. Beck.

[cgbcomics]

[oliveroctavius]

Eel eyed the drunk, trying to work out if it was someone he knew. Didn’t seem to be, but you couldn’t assume in his line of work. That bottle in his hand wasn’t terrible stuff, he noted. A fella who had that much to spend on blackout fuel might have something worth pinching in his pockets. He leaned down. The sound of a very young voice clearing its throat echoed across the empty platform. O’Brian glanced over to see the kid in red sitting at the bottom of the station’s steps, watching him over the wilting top edge of a newspaper headline. I’m not mad, the boy's eyes said. Just disappointed.

Using a quick scene I had to cut as a trailer for the Eel-meets-Billy Batson fic I finally hauled out of drafts.

[kryptonbabe]

Hope you are having a great day.

Thank you!

I'm having a nice day so far, drank some coffee, sent some emails and since I don't know how to answer this nice ask any other way, I'll share something that's been on my mind the past couple of days and I was going to keep to myself, but here you go: The unjust erasure of Mr. Hogan from comic book history!

Mr. Hogan, the monkey, on the shoulder of the adventurer Lance O'Casey in their first appearance (Whiz Comics #2).

But who is Mr. Hogan? As I was curious about Captain Marvel (Shazam) first comics I started a journey of looking for his first publication on Whiz Comics #2 (fun fact: this is actually their 1st issue not the 2nd, for convoluted reasons). Finding these comics is easy for they are public domain, and I had a little help too (thanks @justletmeon12!), so I started reading the issues when Lance O'Casey's stories caught my attention, not because of the main character's originality, there's nothing really special about his naval exploits, but I was amused by his monkey side-kick Mr. Hogan and just how relevant he is to the stories. Ever since I was a kid I really liked animals in comic books, especially primates. I don't know, they are cute and fun and I won't apologize for it.

I read this first Lance O'Casey story expecting nothing, so it was quite surprising to realize it was a good story for its limited length and time period. Captain Marvel was a huge success back then and Whiz Comics had a long run - 13 years total, from 1940 to 1953 - until they were ruined by the famous DC lawsuit. But honestly I'd never heard of Lance O'Casey and admittedly he was not the most famous of the other feature characters in Whiz.

However, from 1946 to 1948, Lance O'Casey had a 4-issue mini-series at DC, and after reading a few of his Whiz stories I was slightly curious to see how this series would explore the extra pages... How disappointed was I to find out Mr. Hogan, the monkey side-kick, had been completely ERASED from O'Casey's stories, as if he had never existed...

And ok, why should you care? Why should anyone care? What's so special about Mr. Hogan. Well, I'm glad you asked, because I have some panels to show you... (all from Whiz Comics #2)

O'Casey and Mr. Hogan arrive at this island after some unknown adventure, the island is empty and they investigate, they find a guy passed out, he tells them some white people were kidnapped, they need to save them. The details are not important, but look how Mr. Hogan engages in the investigation... looking at footprints, holding the victim's head. You might argue these are passive actions though, O'Casey could be guiding him...

Take a look at these panels then, they show a careless Lance O'Casey absentmindedly running through a dark forest before Mr. Hogan astutely warns him of the death trap in the way, saving O'Casey from certain doom...

Later is Mr. Hogan who climbs a palm tree to reveal the enemy's hideout to clueless Lance O'Casey waiting on the floor...

Let me tell who saves the victims at the end... After arriving at the place where the kidnapped white people are, it is Mr. Hogan who releases them while O'Casey fights some guy. I'm not denying O'Casey's importance, I'm just trying to highlight that without Mr. Hogan's help Lance would not even be able to accomplish his feats...

Close to the end of the tale, in a impressive accomplishment of acrobatics and intelligence, we see a quick Mr. Hogan being catapulted to the drifting boat (their only escape from the enemy's island) and, by himself, maneuver the boat to the coast, saving the humans.

He even had a panel to introduce himself to the kidnapped victims they just helped.

I've only read a few of the Whiz Comics issues and Lace O'Casey is not featured in every issue, so it will take me some time to figure just when exactly they ditched Mr. Hogan for a human side-kick, and if any good reason is given for it. I just know he's absent from the #155 (and last) issue of Whiz, from Lace O'Casey mini in the the late 1940s and from the post-crisis cameo of O'casey in The Power of Shazam. I also have this quote about Mr. Hogan from his page at the DC Comics fandom wiki:

"Mister Hogan was the unofficial first mate on O'Casey's first ship, The Brian Boru. After several adventures, Lance moved on to a new vessel, the Starfish and brought on an actual first mate, Mike Bellow. Mister Hogan's actions from that time onward remain unknown"

The last sentence is certainly worrying. But rest easy, I'll be keeping a close eye on this, I will know what happened to Mr. Hogan, or at least his last appearance in the comics.

I must say, at the end of this little essay, that Mr. Hogan was not without his flaws and complexities, in Whiz Comics #5, after being bitten by a turtle, he had no reservations punching the creature. More room for character development and improvement I say, Mr. Hogan was a golden age character after all, and it's time to bring him back.

But yeah, thanks for the completely non-related ask, hope you're having a great day too!

[kenandeliza]

a random thought?

Sometime after the suspendium, Kid Eternity would show the marvel family his books, comic and art collection he'd accumulated throughout the decades, for nostalgia's sake.

Then they come across some eye-catching posters

Billy:" oh hey look at this red monster, It's horrifying!"

Freddy looking at a poster of a blue monster tearing down boats and planes:"There's a blue one too!...why does it look uglier ?"

Kit and Mary contemplating if they should tell them those are war propaganda posters depicting the two boys:"....."

[acecluckart]

The World's Mightiest Mortal!

[webshootersandwingdings]

Whiz Comics #2 ⚡️

[wolfsbanesparks]

I need “ A Day Worth Celebrating “ with context.

Hi anon!

A Day Worth Celebrating is a oneshot I wrote a couple months ago for Captain Marvel’s Leap Day birthday!

I'm assuming you saw it on my 10 First Lines post, so the context for the opening line is that Cap has just saved Beautia Sivana from a rogue attack that had crashed her elaborate birthday party. She's a bit shaken up from the explosions but also upset that her birthday was ruined.

After some reassurances from Cap, she mentions that she hopes they could enjoy their birthdays together in the future (minus the rogue attacks).

We don't see Beautia for the rest of the fic, but it's a conversation that gets Cap thinking about how he doesn't have a birthday (because he is separate from Billy in this) which leads to the rest of the fic where he (with the help of Billy, Superman, and all of Fawcett City) decides when to celebrate his birthday .

It's loosely based on a Golden age comic where Billy and Cap asked readers to help decide his birthday.

It was really fun to write with lots of flluff and golden age vibes. And since this year was the first leap year since I started writing Captain Marvel fics I couldn't pass up the opportunity to write about it!

[incorrectpowerrangersquotes]

Trini: And let's see what you're made of, mister!

Zedd: Bones - what do you think?