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Anthony Frail Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 09 October 2007 Posts: 960
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Posted: 04 October 2008 at 11:23am | IP Logged | 1
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Hi Mr. Byrne, just wondering a few things about your thoughts on
Fawcett's Captain Marvel--
1) Would you consider Captain Marvel one of your favorite heroes?
2) Should Captain Marvel be integrated into the DCU or should he be in
his own "pocket universe" or some such?
3) What did you think of Fawcett's surreal, humorous tone? Should there
be more comics like this? Do you think it could attract new readers?
4) How do you rank CC Beck and Otto Binder among the great comic book
creators of all time?
5) What about Marvel's move to trademark the name and apply it to its
own Kree hero?
6) Do you think it would be better if Marvel had acquired the rights to the
Marvel family?
7) Do ylou wish Fawcett had won its legal battles and we would,
theoretically, have a Big Three instead of a Big Two?
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Jesus Garcia Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 10 April 2007 Location: Canada Posts: 2414
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Posted: 04 October 2008 at 5:37pm | IP Logged | 2
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Bob Neill Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 03 December 2007 Posts: 877
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Posted: 04 October 2008 at 11:31pm | IP Logged | 3
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ba dump bump
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Steve Horn Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 26 February 2008 Location: United States Posts: 636
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Posted: 05 October 2008 at 4:03am | IP Logged | 4
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 133328
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Posted: 05 October 2008 at 4:16am | IP Logged | 5
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1) No. I like the character, but I would not place him within the lofty realms
of "favorites".
2) Separate universe. My arrangements with DC to do the character some 15
years ago fell apart when DC reneged on just that point.
3) My experience has taught me there is an audience for just about anything.
How large an audience, varies.
4) I have not seen or read enough by either to make a judgment.
5) A classic example of "You snooze, you lose."
6) Perhaps. It would be interesting to visit the parallel universe in which
Marvel started out with its own "Superman" in house.
7) Diversity is almost always a good thing.
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Lars Johansson Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 04 June 2004 Location: Sweden Posts: 6113
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Posted: 05 October 2008 at 4:21am | IP Logged | 6
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2) Separate universe
Thanks.
3) My experience has taught me there is an audience for just about anything. How large an audience, varies.
I would be in the audience.
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Erik Larsen Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 February 2008 Location: United States Posts: 344
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Posted: 06 October 2008 at 1:39am | IP Logged | 7
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My answers--for the hell of it:
1. Absolutely.
2. It doesn't matter. If a writer wanted to ignore the rest of DC-- they
could certainly do that. I think having it be a shared universe is fine--but
then--I preferred it when DC and Marvel pretended it was one universe
during their first team ups. There's nothing about Captain Marvel which
screams "this HAS to take place in its own universe."
3. Fawcett nailed it. Nobody post-Fawcett really has. I thought it was
great and executed well--I see no reason it couldn't work. The problem is
finding those creators who could pull it off.
4. Near the top.
5. It's a shame-- but it was the wise thing for them to do.
6. I have no idea. You'd still end up with the inevitable question of WHO
could make it work.
7. Depends who you listen to. Some historians have said that Cap's sales
were on a downswing and that the reason Fawcett gave up the fight was
that cancelation was imminent. I would like to think they could have
struggled through that rough patch and Fawcett did keep publishing for
years afterward. And then there's the question of--who would be doing
it today? And would he even be recognizable? DC's version hasn't been--
for several decades at least.
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Francesco Vanagolli Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 03 June 2005 Location: Italy Posts: 3130
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Posted: 06 October 2008 at 1:54am | IP Logged | 8
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I have always had some problem in accepting Captain Marvel in the same Universe with Superman. Even if it's a pin up, I think "What are they doing together?".
Edited by Francesco Vanagolli on 06 October 2008 at 1:55am
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Flavio Sapha Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004 Location: Brazil Posts: 12912
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Posted: 06 October 2008 at 7:06am | IP Logged | 9
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I vaguely remember seeing Captain Marvel DC stories in which the art and the settings had been "modernized" to the seventies. Yet, flipping through the Showcase volume, it all seemed Fawcett-style to me...is there a Marvel-phile who can shed some light on the DC material?
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Dave Phelps Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 4184
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Posted: 06 October 2008 at 10:04am | IP Logged | 10
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Short answer: Wait for volume 2.
Longer answer: It started out "Fawcett-style" (CC Beck was the original artist for the 70s series), then got a bit more realistic when they started doing their version of the then-current TV show, and then went the rest of the way for the very end of the Shazam series and the World's Finest series that followed it.
(I don't recall the initial post-Beck artists, but Alan Weiss closed out the Shazam run and Don Newton did the World's Finest run.)
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Ron Chevrier Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 1641
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Posted: 06 October 2008 at 10:16am | IP Logged | 11
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Flavio, the revived DC Captain Marvel obviously started off drawn in a style reminiscent of the Fawcett version. I believe that the last story in the Showcase collection is the last story in which DC kept that look.
Following that issue, was a very dark (for Cap) story (#34), in which Jr. seeks revenge on Captain Nazi for crippling Freddy Freeman and killing his grandfather. The story was drawn by Alan Weiss in the new "realistic" style. The following issue (#35) had the Marvels go down into Hell and battle King Kull. I believe this story marked the debut of Don Newton who continued the new look for the Marvel Family. This was also the last issue for the title which then moved to the back of World's Finest for a very lengthy run there, with Newton on art chores for the duration.
The Marvel Family also made appearances in a 3-part JLA/JSA teamup (along with other Earth S superheroes) drawn by Dick Dillin.
There was the tabloid-sized Superman vs. Shazam, excellently drawn by Rich Buckler, who somehow managed to faithfully translate the the cartoony Cap's features into a realistic style more faithfully than most other pencillers. Buckler also appears to have been the go to guy whenever Cap and the Marvel famly made appearances in DC Comics Presents.
Following those appearances was Crisis on Infinite Earths, and a series of reboots for Cap and company.
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Erik Larsen Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 February 2008 Location: United States Posts: 344
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Posted: 06 October 2008 at 10:32am | IP Logged | 12
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Captain Marvel generally looks "wrong" when drawn in a more "realistic"
style. The thing is--for years--it was deemed okay for a cartoony
character to coexist with a real one. Throughout the '40s straight
superheroes like Green Lantern, Plastic Man and the Spirit had sidekicks
who were drawn in a cartoony style and even in the pages of Captain
Marvel Adventures there were characters like Mary Marvel and Captain
Marvel Jr. who were drawn in a more realistic style than Captain Marvel or
Billy Batson. That seems to be a lost art. Sure, there are a couple of books
which combine both cartoony and realistic characters (Bone and Liberty
Meadows come to mind) but in most cases the cartoony characters aren't
human.
Captain Marvel had, for years, a very specific, identifiable face with
consistent features. That went out the door with Alan Weiss and little
effort has been made to make Captain Marvel look like Captain Marvel
over the years.
As much as I love Captain Marvel-- it really may be one of those cases
where he was better off dead.
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