In the latest Comic Book Legends Revealed, learn whether C.C. Beck really quit working for DC because of a comic book story making fun of a mailman.
Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the eight hundred and seventh installment where we examine three comic book legends and determine whether they are true or false. As usual, there will be three posts, one for each of the three legends. Click here for the first part of this installment’s legends.
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COMIC LEGEND:
C.C. Beck quit the DC Shazam reboot, in part, because he thought that a story making fun of a mailman was offensive.
STATUS:
True
Introduced at the end of 1939, Fawcett Comics’ Captain Marvel soon became one of the most famous superheroes in the world. The novel idea that differentiated Captain Marvel from other superheroes was that the comic was not just about Captain Marvel, but it was also (heck, PRIMARILY it was) about young Billy Batson, a boy who got into all sorts of trouble and when he needed the help of Earth’s Mightiest Mortal, Billy would shout out “Shazam!” and switch places with Captain Marvel, who would do his thing. Introduced by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck, the novel approach allowed the creators to tell traditional kid adventure stories and mix them with superhero stories. Otto Binder was the main writer on the Captain Marvel stories and he helped add an interesting mixture of fun science fiction and fantasy approaches to the stories. Over the years, Captain Marvel Jr. and Mary Marvel joined the cast. The main villain throughout the series was Doctor Sivana, a brilliant but evil scientist.
Okay, the downside of the immense popularity of Captain Marvel was that National Comics felt that he was too similar to their iconic Superman character. Once Captain Marvel even got his own live action film in 1941 (after Superman was enjoined from having his live action film at the time due to a deal with Paramount for Superman animated films), National sued Fawcett for copyright infringement. The case went on for years and eventually the courts sided with National (I doubt the same result would have occurred today) and rather than appeal, Fawcett just stopped doing superhero comic books (it was the early 50s by this point and sales had slumped anyways).
Two decades later, National Comics (now known as DC) approached Fawcett and offered to license the Marvel Family characters from the company. Fawcett agreed and DC launched a new Captain Marvel ongoing series in early 1973. The only trick was that in the time that Captain Marvel was in limbo, Marvel Comics had introduced a Captain Marvel of their own and they now owned the trademark on the name “Captain Marvel.” So instead, DC had to title the book Shazam! in honor of the phrase that Billy said to transform into Captain Marvel. Shazam #1 was one of the most anticipated comics of all-time (as comic books weren’t really ANTICIPATED period until the 1970s. They just sort of showed up. There wasn’t hype about them before they came out).
Editor Julius Schwartz hired the original Captain Marvel artist, C.C. Beck, to draw the series, which was written by Denny O’Neil and Elliot S! Maggin, with each issue including an O’Neil lead story, a Maggin back-up and then a reprint of an old Captain Marvel story.
The problem is that the combination of these modern writers and the classic Beck were…not good. The concept for the series was that the Marvel Family all live on a distinct Earth of their own and Sivana had trapped them in suspended animation for twenty years. They were now back and ready to fight the good fight again. O’Neil and Maggin were sort of stuck between the idea of updating the mythos and sticking to the original concept and Beck just HATED their scripts. Eventually, O’Neil left the series and E. Nelson Bridwell took over his part of the book.
Beck would make slight changes to the copy of the stories and these would be changed by DC’s editorial, pissing EVERYone off in the process.
Eventually, Beck just outright refused to draw two of Maggin’s scripts. One was an alien farce that was drawn by Bob Oksner in Shazam #10…
Beck drew a Bridwell story for that issue. The next one was a story about a goofy mailman who tried to become a superhero that Kurt Schaffenberger eventually came in to draw…
Beck thought that the stories were just not good. He also felt that it was a bit disrespectful to mock a mailman like this…
The main thing, though, was that he was didn’t like the scripts he was getting (Bridwell would later note that while he enjoyed a lot of Maggin’s work on the series, he, too, was not a fan of the scripts for #10 and #11).
In an excellent piece in Comic Book Artist #1 by the great P.C. Hamerlinck, Beck described his feelings about his tenure on Shazam!:
“DC sent me two very poor scripts. I drew them up; they loved them. They sent me more scripts. Each one was worse than the one before. I drew them up, trying not to wince too much. After I had drawn about a half-dozens issues, I received two scripts that were so completely worthless that I refused to illustrate them. They were ‘The Invasion of the Salad People’ and ‘The Incredible Capeman.’ I returned them. Then I went to New York as guest of honor at Phil Seuling’s annual 4th of July comic convention. I was introduced to fans by Bruce Hamilton and received a standing ovation. But I was no cordially greeted by DC. It seems I had forced them to call in Kurt Schaffenberger and Bob Oksner to draw up the stories I had returned. I had upset their huge sausage grinder which turned out comic books as mindlessly as a robot.”
DC took the rejections of the scripts as a de facto resignation. However, there WOULD be a last minute shot for Beck to remain at DC, but I’ll address that in a future legend.
Thanks to P.C. Hamerlinck and the late, great C.C. Beck (he passed away in 1989) for the information!
CHECK OUT A TV LEGENDS REVEALED!
In the latest TV Legends Revealed – What unusual deal did Mattel make with channels who aired He-Man and the Masters of the Universe?
PART THREE SOON!
Check back soon for part 3 of this installment’s legends!
Feel free to send suggestions for future comic legends to me at either cronb01@aol.com or brianc@cbr.com
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