The Amazing, Astounding History of the Captains Marvel!

Zorikh Lequidre

By Rebecca Buchanan
March 1, 2006

An artist, a musician and a teacher, Zorikh Lequidre is a man of many talents and passions. He is also an ardent fan of comics in general and Captain Marvel in particular. He is currently hard at work on a new history of the many Captains Marvel and their impact on comics and pop culture. Fortunately, he had a few minutes for an interview with ST.

Sequential Tart: Which comics did you read as a kid? Which comics do you read now?

Zorikh Lequidre: I was very much into super heroes. Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, and Captain Marvel (Shazam) were my favorites. I also read Archie and Little Archie every now and then.

ST: What comic are you currently working on?

ZL: I am not currently working on any comics, but the last one I did was called Consequences, a sporty about a squire in the middle ages going off to the wars in France.

ST: Why did you decide to write a book about the Captains Marvel?

ZL: Back in the end of the 20th century I was finding little success at breaking into the comic book industry as an artist; however I knew I had a great understanding in how to create comics. I posted a resume on Guru.com (does that still exist?) and wound up getting contracted to write a course about how to create comics for the online university Magi21.com (you can see most of it here). That website folded after a month, so I started looking for another home for the course. I found Suite101.com, but felt that a history of comics would go better in what that website was doing. They accepted my proposal, but after some research, I realized that the history of all comic books was a lot more complex that an on-line course could handle, so I looked at how to narrow the focus. I realized that the story of the Captain Marvels covered a large part of comic book history and that many people did not know the true story. Many people have misconceptions about what happened between Fawcett and DC comics, get confused between one Captain Marvel and another, and call the original Caption Marvel Shazam. I also realized that here was a character whose impact on popular culture out lived his original existence and yet every attempt to revive the name or the character has met with failure. I wanted to explore that, find out why that happened and see just how far the Captain Marvel connection goes.

As I was writing this course, I met Evan Azriliant, who has a collectibles business and is frequently at Michael Carbonaro's Big Apple Convention. He suggested that this course be turned into a book, and there it was.

ST: Who was the first Captain Marvel and how did he get his start?

ZL: The original Captain Marvel was created at the demand of Roscoe Fawcett, the youngest son of "Captain Billy" Fawcett, founder of Fawcett Publications. He had seen the success of Superman comics and by 1939, decided Fawcett should get into the superhero comic book racket. Roscoe assigned a couple of editors to the task of starting a comic book, and writer/editor Bill Parker and staff artist C.C. Beck were assigned to create its leading character, a hero that could go toe-to-toe with Superman.

Parker's original thought was to have a team of characters, each with a different power, but the editors preferred a single hero. Ultimately it was a boy, Billy Batson, who was granted the power to transform into a mighty hero by saying the name of the ancient wizard "SHAZAM!" The name was also an acronym of Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury, and each of those ancients granted the hero a specific power, eg wisdom, strength, stamina, power, courage, and speed, respectively. Since it was a bolt of lightning which accompanied the transformation, the hero's name would be "Captain Thunder" and the comic would be called Flash Comics.

As fate would have it, though, another comic book company came out with a Flash Comics first, so a new name had to be chosen. Ultimately the title selected was Whiz Comics. There is disagreement on why the name was changed, but artist Pete Costanza is credited with suggesting "Captain Marvelous", which was shortened to "Captain Marvel."

ST: So, how many different Captains Marvel have there been? And who were/are they?

ZL: Off the top of my head —

The original Fawcett Comics "Shazam" Captain Marvel (1940);
MF Enterprises, "Split" Captain Marvel (1966);
Marvel Comics, Captain Mar-Vell (1967);
DC Comics' revival of the original Captain Marvel in 1973 (whose origin was re-written twice in subsequent decades);
Marvel Comics, Monica Rambeau "Photon" Captain Marvel (1982);
Marvel Comics, Genis-Vell, "Legacy" Captain Marvel (1992);
Marvel Comics, House of M Carol Danvers Captain Marvel (2005);
and Marvel Comics is setting up a character named Hulkling in the pages of the Young Avengers to be their next Captain Marvel.

And this doesn't count all the extended family members, spin-offs, spoofs, satires, swipes, rip-offs, and more.

ST: What's the most interesting trivia tidbit you've uncovered in your research?

ZL: In the movie serial The Adventures of Captain Marvel by Republic Pictures in 1941, the role of the wizard Shazam was played by Nigel de Brulier. De Brulier appeared in the silent movie adaptations of Salome by Oscar Wilde, which allegedly had an all-gay cast in tribute to the writer. A clip of the movie with De Brulier in it appeared in the documentary Before Stonewall about the gay rights movement. Now that Marvel's potential new Captain Marvel is gay that connects the old with the new and all to the gay rights movement.

ST: How do you respond when someone argues that Captain Marvel is just a ripoff of Superman?

ZL: Define rip-off. If by merely having a character with a cape who was invulnerable, super-strong, and could fly is a rip off, guilty as charged; however, Philip Wylie's Gladiator had all the powers of Superman before Siegel and Shuster's creation ever saw print. Then there are other famous heroes like Hercules and Popeye who could do much of what Superman did.

Parker and Beck claim they were not trying to create another Superman, they were trying to create a clearly different character and they did. One of the important features of Superman is that he is always Superman. His powers are always on, he just hides them behind glasses and a suit. Captain Marvel is not like that. The real hero of Captain Marvel stories is Billy Batson, a normal 12-14 year old boy. It is only when the powers of Captain Marvel are needed that he transforms into Captain Marvel.

Furthermore, Superman is an alien from another planet. His story is one of science fiction. Captain Marvel is a product of magic and fantasy.

Besides, who can really complain about a "ripoff" if the product is better than the "original?" Captain Marvel had a greater appeal that Superman through the 1940's evidenced by the fact that his comics outsold Superman's. They contained a sense of "whimsy" that was missing from the Man of Steel's adventures. Young boys were able to identify with Billy Batson in a way that they were not able to with Clark Kent. There is much more to the reasons for Captain Marvel's popularity, and that will be a big part of the book.

And finally, Captain Marvel could fly first!

ST: Most comic fans know *something* about how DC acquired the Fawcett Captain Marvel. What's the whole story?

ZL: I could tell you now, but then why would you buy the book ;) Actually the story is very long and complex. Here's the simple version: The company then known as Detective Comics sued Fawcett and Republic Pictures, claiming that Captain Marvel was too similar to Superman, must be infringing on their copyright, and that they were losing money because readers were buying Captain Marvel comics instead of Superman. Fawcett's defense was that they were not copying Superman and besides, Detective had lost its copyright when a newspaper comic strip syndicate neglected to put a copyright notice on the strip. Fawcett won, but Detective appealed. The higher court overturned the ruling and sent the case back down to the lower court. By this time (1953) super hero comics, and comics in general were in decline, and the case was getting very expensive and time consuming. Fawcett settled out of court, paying Detective $400,000 and agreeing not to publish Captain Marvel, and they shut down their comic book line entirely.

20 years later, DC leased the rights to the original Captain Marvel (and the rest of the Marvel Family and the Fawcett super heroes) and published their own comic book, but by then Marvel Comics had trademarked the name "Captain Marvel" (having created their own Captain Marvel) so DC decided to give their comic book of this character the title Shazam!

There is a lot more to this story, and it will all be in the book in it full gruesome detail.

ST: The Adventures of Captain Marvel was the first movie based on a comic book character. How did it come about? Is it still available for fans to see?

ZL: Republic Pictures was having good success reviving the motion picture serial in the late 1930's, and when super hero comics took off, decided to see if they could license a comic book super hero for a serial. They tried to get Supernman, but negotiations fell through, so they contacted Fawcett, and made a deal for Captain Marvel.

It is available on DVD in its entirety distributed by Artisan Entertainment.

ST: So, um, about that Shazam TV series ...

ZL: The TV series was by Filmation in the mid 1970's. Though it took some liberties from the comic book, it was the most popular live action Saturday morning TV show at the time. The comic book changed a few things around to capitalize on this, giving Billy Batson his "Shazambago" RV to match the one in the TV series, and having the character of Uncle Dudley grow a mustache to match Les Tremayne's.

ST: What about the Marvel Captains? It seems obvious that a comic company called Marvel should have a character of the same name. How much of their history will your book explore?

ZL: The history of Marvel's Captains is lengthy, complex, fascinating, and very closely echoes trends of the times. Studying this history forces an examination of the space race, the hippie movement, the music industry, racism and sexism, creator's rights, graphic novels, early 90's cynicism, trademarks and copyrights, and more. The fact of this is very important to the thesis of the book.

This book will cover as much of it as possible.

ST: There have been quite a few books devoted to super heroes and comics in the last few years, such as The Science of Super Heroes. Which of these would you recommend to the curious fan (or even non-fan)?

ZL: Superman on the Couch by Danny Fingeroth really gives a good examination of the sociological significance of superheroes and what they say about us.

Les Daniels' histories of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman do a terrific job of telling the histories of DC Comics' famous trinity and putting them in their historical context.

The Rough Guide to Superheroes by Richard Pendleton is a cute little book that talks about superheroes in comics, movies, TV, history. It is very broad in scope as it recognizes the cross-cultural influence of superheroes. However, by its nature of being an encyclopedic compendium it lacks depth and has a few historical inaccuracies.

Most of the books that I have seen, however, are really best for those who already have an appreciation of comic books. Gina Misiroglu's The Superhero Book, Ron Goulart's Comic Book Encyclopedia, Joe and Jim Simon's The Comic Book Makers, Arlen Shumer's The Silver Age of Comic Book Art are all fine books, but to varying degrees they are really written for the comic book fan. What I want to do is write a book that will show people who know or care little about comics how important they are to understanding western culture and history.

ST: And for something completely different: Amazing Grendel Conspiracy???

ZL: Back when I was in the school of visual arts I was given the opportunity to create my own short story, and that story was one of the first things I put up on my website. I took an few incidents that occurred involving a couple of ex-girlfriends and amalgamated them into a story of a time traveling adventurer. An old high school buddy of mine saw the story and then saw the Super Bowl where the Ravens defeated the Giants. He got an idea of a story fragment and sent it to me, calling it an excerpt from something called "Z. Lequidre and the Amazing Grendel Conspiracy" (that excerpt can be seen here). I told him he simply MUST continue the story and make it the "secret origin" of my time traveling adventurer character.

Allain is a writing genius. I really think he should go into writing professionally, especially as a social observer. He was able to create a character that is so much like me I was amazed.

The story takes Zorikh back to the time of Beowulf and exposes the truth behind the monster that terrorized Hrothgar's mead hall.

ST: Which conventions will you be attending this year? Will you be giving anymore presentations, as you did at MoCCA in February?

ZL: I will be at the New York Comic Con on February 25 & 26, promoting the book and selling CD's of my musical combo, the Death Star Repairmen and copies of my mini-comics. I will be at the table of Neat Stuff Collectibles and the Big Apple Con. I will also be promoting the website and character modeling of my girlfriend, Jolie Voltaire.

I am working on making presentations at ICON, Lunacon, Dragon*Con, and the San Diego Comic Con.

You'll be able to see updates of my promotional tour for the book here.

ST: What other projects are you working on?

ZL: I am working on Jolie Voltaire, the action hero persona of my girlfriend. We've been taking a lot of pictures and creating stories. I ultimately plan to put out photo comics of her adventures.

This spring it is very likely that I will be going to China to portray a WWII fighter pilot in a 30-part TV epic about the Flying Tigers.

I have a musical combo called the Death Star Repairmen and I also have a solo act. As both solo and combo I play gigs around town, at parties and at conventions. I do a mix of original and "re-interpreted" songs, mostly with a comedic touch.

I also have produced a documentary of the Pennsic War, the largest annual event of the Society for Creative Anachronis. You can see more about it (and order a copy) here and at Amazon.