Shazam! The Golden Age of the World's Mightiest Mortal

[GeorgeC]

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page ... e&id=27645

A new book about the original Fawcett Captain Marvel character is being published this October. Written by Chip Kidd with photography by Geoff Spears, it's a look at the only character to outsell Superman during the Golden Age of Comics and the comic book character with the fastest adaptation to screen. Within two years of his first comic book, Captain Marvel was featured in a serial bearing his name.

A panel about the character and the new book was held at Comic-Con International with Michael Uslan and the new book's co-creators. The way it looks from the pre-publication stat copy, the new Marvel book will in the style of the Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman books written by Les Daniels for the 60th anniversary of those characters. A short time after those books debuted, comic creator Art Spiegelman wrote a similar book about Plastic Man.

Uslan is the self-appointed producer for the Captain Marvel feature film which is currently in limbo.

There was also talk about the cancelled DC Comics Library reprint of the classic "Monster Society of Evil" storyline that was also reprinted by Titan Books in the late 1980s. There is talk that the DC reprint of the same storyline is not necessarily a dead project although solicitations for it were cancelled. My own speculation is that being later in the publication history of the Captain Marvel comics --- later than the Archives' series have managed to restore and reprint stories --- the story art needs significantly more color and ink restoration than DC anticipated. It's a huge storyline that ran for over a year in the Captain Marvel comics! The Titan Books reprint sidestepped the restoration issue by photographing the original comics and presenting them in their current non-restored state...

(SO... Hold on to your slip-cased Titans' Marvel edition, Rand! I know I'm NOT getting rid of my copy even if the DC version shows up!)

[droosan]

Cool! I'm definitely gonna buy that Kidd book ..

The local Burbank comics shop House of Secrets recently purchased a huge collection of vintage Whiz Comics starring Captain Marvel .. I was fortunate enough to wander into the store the next day, when the owner had arranged them along the main wall for display. Nearly 200 issues -- most of 'em in 'pristine' condition. Just looking at that many 'golden age' Captain Marvel covers was a fun experience!

Too bad I didn't have a camera with me that day .. because, by the end of the week, pretty much all of those comics had been 'snapped up' by the Disney artists from down the street. For mucho moolah, you can be sure.

[GeorgeC]

Droo,

I'm at the point where I believe a lot of older comics will only survive if they're digitally scanned or photographed and released in digital archives for people who want to read them.

Of course, I'm not against people who WANT to own the physical issues but for a lot of us space is at a premium and I'm not crazy about having boxes of stuff that roams over 25 years of collecting!

My days of collecting single issues ARE OVER. No more. It's either trade or hardcover, or better yet something durable and digital...!

I'd prefer hardcovers for deluxe restored editions, or something like the microfiche and DVD collections done years back. ('Fiche is dead, but there need to be more durable formats than the current plastic 5-inch optical discs. They're prone to rotting just like laserdiscs are...)

Something's got to give... I hate the cheap Showcase/Essentials B&W reprints of COLOR comics but can't afford to get everything in deluxe hardcovers even with 50% discounts!

A digital release of some kind is most ideal...

You just know Marvel and DC will NEVER reprint all their stuff on their own. There's no interest by the higher-ups in reprinting everything and they're only exploiting their most popular (and most overused) characters the way they want to.

I'd rather they hired an outside company with experts/fans to do this the RIGHT way and then allow them to release decent collections (at least photographed comics!) at a good price-point.


P.S. -- If anything, the recently shut-down pirate website showed that there is a HUGE demand for some kind of online archive for comics. Granted, the guy who ran that site was a kook and was in the wrong but the 1.6million hits or so that his site was getting regularly showed that there is a pent-up demand for digital comics that is not being met by the current subscription models and meager offerings of both DC and Marvel.

I'm most interested in the unseen-since-first-publication Golden Age comics and the adventures of not only Captain Marvel but lesser characters like Johnny Quick and Midnight, the clone of the Spirit created by Jack Cole.

[Randall]

I was already planning to keep that Titan Monster Society of Evil book, George. It's just too cool to get rid of, even with its iffy binding. It's proudly displayed on top of one of my bookcases, with the golden lightning bolt side showing. The new retrospective book looks very nice. I've had it on my Amazon wish list for a couple of weeks now, so that I don't forget to buy it.

I also would love to see more digital archives. I've already stated my gratefulness for all those (now out of production) Marvel DVD-ROMs, and wish I had some DC ones. Or, can you imagine having a DVD for the entire EC line? That would be cool. Archie has some out now of 1970s material, but... well, who cares? If it went back to the beginning, that might be tempting. (Incidentally, I picked up the Archie as Pureheart the Powerful book today! Kooky fun.)

I also know the fun feeling of browsing a comic book shop, just to peer at the rare, vintage stuff. With the cost of it though, I'll settle for reprints.

[GeorgeC]

I'm satisfied looking at covers of Golden Age and Silver Age milestones myself.

I have no interest in BUYING something that old and that expensive.

Reprints? Yes! The originals... eh, no!

I've seen some Golden Age Batman, Superman, and Captain Marvel but none of their critical milestone/first appearance issues. The stuff I saw was 3-5 years into their runs --- maybe around 1943-1945. I've seen way more Silver Age Marvel... I've seen practically every major first issue of 1960s Marvel including Amazing Fantasy #15 in the flesh 3 times, most of the original Hulk comic book run (it was only 6 issues), a lot of the 1960s FF, X-Men, and Avengers.

For me, the big one was Amazing Fantasy # 15. I've seen a copy in decent shape but the other two had ripped covers. As for the other Marvels, they seemed to be in decent shape.