Sharing My Story

Comics Researcher part 2

Captain Marvel, Jr.

In 1967 I became aware of a comics fanzine being published
in Washington State called Concussion. It was published for
around two years by Mike Robertson who lived in Maple Valley.
It was an article mimeo zine which meant it contained no
amatuer comic strips though it did have spot illos. The articles
ranged from commentary on currently published comic books,
to opinion pieces and to historical articles covering different aspects
of comic book characters. It was at least a second tier fanzine put
out by enthusiatic comic book fans.

It boasted articles by future pros like Mark Evanier (who was very
prolific as a fan writer and later as a pro) and some pro future artists
like Klaus Jansen. I started contributing to Concussion what came
to be a series of articles on an obscure 1940s magazine called
Dynamic Comics. The several issues that I obtained contained
characters like Dynamic Man, Dynamic Boy, Mr E, Lucky Coyne,
Dan Hastings and others. Under the series title of Glimpses of the
Golden Age I wrote brief accounts of these characters giving as much
analysis of the strips as I could (not having a complete run). While
these articles were better than a random single issue review they left
a lot of questions that only a more complete inspection of the series
would answer.

During this time I purchased via mail order for a number of 3/4 cover,
post-1945 issues of Captain Marvel, Jr. and Master Comics. The term
3/4 covers were issues that the retailer tore off the title cover logo of
unsold copies and sent the logos back to the distributor for credit.
These copies were meant to be discarded (not sold) but some of them
did survive over the years. My plan was to do a fairly comprehensive
article on Captain Marvel, Jr. I wanted to find out why the Fawcett
characters (especially the Marvel Family) were so popular in the 1940s.
On a visit to Portland, Oregon in 1963 (or 1964) visiting my brother
LeRoy we stopped by a secondhand book store and I purchased two
copies of Captain Marvel Adventures (circa 1946). The issues were in
good condition and I took them home and read them. I wasn't as
impressed as I should have been as I'd heard and read such wonderful
things about Captain Marvel. The artwork was cartoony and simplistic
and the stories were, well frankly, corny and cheesy. My first impressions
of the World's Mightiest Mortal wasn't a good one. These comics were
from another generation and they were from different from what Stan Lee,
Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Gardner Fox, John Broome, Gil Kane, Carmine
Infantino, Murphy Anderson, Russ Manning and others were doing
currently.

However the Fawcett Marvel Family comics held and maintained a
certain mystery and intrigue about them. Why were they so popular
in the 1940s that DC Comics forced Fawcett into a 12-year long court
battle over copyright infrigement. I decided to explore Captain Marvel's
official knockoff, the blue boy, Captain Marvel, Jr. When I received the
issues in the mail I probably read a few of them and thought I'd get
around to doing the article within a few weeks or months. However,
about that time Mike Robertson ceased publishing Concussion and I
did a lenghty study (sort of a swan song to my fanzine writing) on the
1950s Atlas Comics jungle heroine, Lorna which was published in
another zine called Comicology (1970).

At that time my life was taken up with college studies and after graduation
with working with Campus Crusade and eventually moving to Southern
California. The CMJ article got put on the back burner for many years.
Over the next several decades those issues of CMJ and Master Comics
traveled with me on my many moves in Southern California and eventually
to Texas. Finally in the fall of 2001 I pulled these issues out and started
writing summaries of each of the stories. I felt this would help me to become
familar with the character. I began writing the article in 2002 and mentioned
it off hand in an e-mail to PC Hamerlinck . PC is the editor of the Fawcett
Collectors of America section in the fanzine Alter Ego. Alter Ego was perhaps
the most well known super hero fanzine from the 1960s and was originated
by Jerry Bails and Roy Thomas. Thomas regained the ownership of the title
in the late 1990s and started publishing it again under the Two Morrows Imprint.
PC asked if he could publish the Captain Marvel Jr article after it was written.
The article centered on the post-war era of CMJ. Most articles about CMJ
center on his early Master Comics issues because they were drawn by the
outstanding draftsmen Mac Raboy.

The issues that I had were from 1946 and later so I decided to use this post
World War II period as a jumping off point to explore the Junior saga
in depth. I had enough stories in these issues to come to some general
conclusions about the character and what made him as popular as he was.
First he was a knock off of one of the most popular heroes of the Golden
Age of Comics. he was also a boy's hero that presented a character who
young readers (especially tween and young teen boys) could readily identify.
Also care was taken by the editor and writers to give a great variety of themes
and genre within the stories. There were human interest, fantasy, science fiction,
crime, horror, mad scientist, crime, super villain, war, and many other genres
were explored. While Captain Marvel Jr never attained the circulation heights
of the Big Red Cheese (Captain Marvel) he produced around 600 stories and
lasted until Fawcett ceased publishing their super hero books in 1953. Of any
of the fan writing that I'd done this was probably the best and most satisfying.

It was published in four parts in Alter Ego #19-22 (December 2002, January,
February, March 2003). Having this published in a resurrected Alter Ego was
like I had finally made it in fandom after 35 years.