In 1978, CAPTAIN AMERICA was a series in a bit of trouble. After Jack Kirby's much-heralded return to the series a few years earlier ran its course, not quite capturing the classic Marvel flavor that was hoped for, a succession of different creators came on to helm the series, often on an almost ad hoc … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #220
I bought this issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA from my regular 7-11, though I'm not sure exactly why. I wasn't at this point a regular reader of the title (though I would become one with this issue) and the one issue that I'd sampled previously ad been a reprint of a 1960s Human Torch story. But … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #219
Captain America was not the first patriotically-themed super hero to appear in comic books. That honor is reserved for The Shield, headliner of PEP COMICS for MLJ (eventually ARCHIE) who first appeared in the inaugural issue of that series, the creation of Harry Shorten and Irv Novick. Like most of the early super heroes, the … Continue reading Making The Shield Into Captain America
As 1949 started, it seemed as though Timely's attempt to spark renewed interest in its super hero titles through the addition of new shapely female sidekicks for its heroes really hadn't gotten the desired effect. Sales hadn't increased--if anything, they continued to slide--and so at least in the case of Captain America, the decision was … Continue reading The Last Bucky Story
By 1948, things were growing progressively more difficult for super heroes on the sales front. In te aftermath of World War II, other genres--crime, romance and horror chief among them--were increasingly popular, and the fad for super heroes had just about run its course. Over at Timely Comics, things were no different. As a bulwalk … Continue reading The Death of Bucky!
The postwar era provided challenges for many of the super-powered costumed crusaders who filled the pages of the nations comic books as, without a ready-made national enemy to fight, they were faced with a crisis of irrelevancy. And none encountered this existential ennui more directly than Captain America. Cap had been created to win the … Continue reading Captain America Musters Out!
Like me, my brother Ken would occasionally pull books out of the Big Bin of Somewhat-Older Comics at the local drugstore. As he was into war comics at this time and the bin held only Marvel books, there was only one place for him to turn: SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS. It was a … Continue reading BHOC: SGT FURY #134
CAPTAIN AMERICA was a phenomenon when the series debuted in the very last days of 1940. It was by far the best-selling title that publisher Martin Goodman had in his Timely line of comics, and the character would go on to headline in other books as well--ALL WINNERS COMICS, ALL SELECT COMICS, USA COMICS and … Continue reading The Last Captain America Story
I'm pretty sure that this issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA came out of the same 3-Bag as yesterday's issue of INVADERS. It represents, among other things, my first real exposure to the writing of Jack Kirby. I had read a few Kirby stories before--an issue of KAMANDI several years earlier, a reprint of a Golden Age … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #206
It's been a few weeks since I started analyzing the narrative techniques that Jack Kirby used in a particular story--this meeting between the Human Torch and Captain America (or, more properly, shared the analysis that I developed to show to younger Marvel editors.) And, honestly, part of the reason for that was some of the … Continue reading Lee & Kirby: The Narrative Techniques of Jack Kirby 2
The Tom Brevoort Experience 