Shazam Sunday

A few weeks ago when I did a post on the Shazam movie, I referenced that one of my favorite single issues of a comic book back when I was a kid was Shazam#35. 

Today I want to present the story from that issue. 

Remember, this is when Billy Batson said Shazam to turn into Captain Marvel. 

Again, my thanks to the Ol' Groovester from Diversions of the Groovy Age for page scans. My own copy of Shazam#35 is buried deep somewhere in storage at my mom's house.

After the story, I will pontificate a bit on why this issue is so significant. 

Meanwhile, let's get to it. By E. Nelson Bridwell, Don Newton and Kurt Shaffenberger, "Backward, Turn Backward, O Time In Your Flight".   

OK, some background. 

When DC Comics obtained the rights to publish the original Captain Marvel, the comic book itself could not be called Captain Marvel. Seems Marvel Comics has locked down the trademark on that. The character could be called "Capt. Marvel" but the book was called Shazam. 

Early issues did reference "The ORIGINAL Captain Marvel" on the cover but Marvel Comics said no dice to any reference to Billy Batson's adult alter ego by name on the cover. Eventually, the phrase ""The ORIGINAL Captain Marvel" was replaced on the cover with "The World's Mightiest Mortal" which was a frequent descriptor used for Cap. (Like Superman is called "the Man of Steel" or Batman is called "the Caped Crusader".)  

The decision was also made to evoke the style of the original Captain Marvel stories of the Golden Age. Cap's co-creator and original artist C C Beck was brought on board. Beck employed a very stripped down, cartoonish approach to the art.  

Interior art from Shazam#1 by CC Beck 

C C Beck left Shazam after about 8 issues or so. Subsequent artists like Bob Oskner and Kurt Shaffenberger continued that approach. Shaffenberger was no stranger to the Marvel Family mythos, having drawn the adventures of Cap and his friends for Fawcett Comics back in the day. 

Cover by Bob Oskner

Cover by Kurt Shaffenberger

The Shazam title struggled with declining sales, despite having a live action TV show on CBS on Saturday mornings. 

Perhaps the decision to mimic the style of the classic comics limited Shazam's appeal to only young kids and the most nostalgic of older comic fans. The declining art inside the book wasn't helping. The interior art for issue #33 was pencilled by Tenny Henson* whose spare and open layouts looked more suited to a child's coloring book. If there was any detail to Henson's art, I'm sure inker Vince Colletta erased it.   

*Henson's name usually popped up in the credits of DC's mystery and horror titles where he usually delivered far superior work.  

With Shazam#34, there was a sudden and abrupt change in art style.  

Artist Alan Weiss provided the cover and pencilled the interior with inks by Joe Rubinstein.  

It was a spectacular look to these classic characters beyond the more kid friendly approach Shazam had followed to that time. E. Nelson Bridwell who was the writer at the time rolled with the punches and delivered a script with a bit of an edge. Witness Freddy Freeman's determined intent to seek revenge in the page above. 

But as much as it was cool to see art like that from Weiss and Rubinstein, it seemed too dramatic a course correction. 

But Don Newton paired with Kurt Shaffenberger was just perfect. 

Newton got his start at Charlton comics drawing their Phantom comic book.  He moved over to DC where he joined writer Gerry Conway in reviving Jack Kirby's New Gods. He would also draw Aquaman and contribute to a long series of Batman stories before his untimely death in 1984.  

From The Phantom#74, Newton's last issue before going to DC.

A two page spread of the New Gods pencilled by Newton and inked by Dan Adkins 

More Newton/Adkins, this time on Batman

While Newton was a detail oriented artist, his style still had a classic sensibility like that of John Buscema.  

By adding Shaffenberger as inker, there was a bit of a softening to Newton's pencils that evoked classic Captain Marvel while moving the strip forward. 

Sadly, the title Shazam! ended with issue #35 but the Bridwell/Newton/Shaffenberger team did get to continue the strip for awhile longer in the pages of World's Finest Comics.

Unfortunately over time, Shazam's share of page space in WFC was tight which seem to constrain Bridwell's efforts at a more expansive soap opera storytelling approach. By the time the series ended in WFC (with a few stories being burned off in Adventure Comics Digest), the page count was down to 8 or 9 pages a pop, leaving little room for long term character development in a strip shared by Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. Even though constrained, Bridwell and Newton continued to deliver some solid Shazam stories that were both modern and respectful of the past.