Classic Covers Question 1 1

[Cat-Man_America]

1 hour ago, N e r V said:

 

Well horror as a genre was still very early on in July of 1949 when Cap #74 was out but it would mostly replace superhero sales when it got going and not become a regular part of the superhero formula with any degree of success. Timely from the beginning showed off its pulp roots with its villains and some of the dark stories/fates it took them on. Timely always was the closest publisher in comics to the pulps from day 1. That tinge of horror ran throughout its line before, during and after the war with varying degrees.

Superman existed prior to the war by a number of years. He was the beginning of the superhero formula and a proven success. The war provided him with a worthy advisory at the time and he saw benefit from it in sales. After the war he being the number 1 guy in comics received  nice media exposure from the serials and into his own tv series later. In comics Mort Weisinger took a new approach to the character that helped give him a life after the war.

Batman had his own universe he operated in. He also existed  well before the war started and had one of the best rogues gallery to keep him busy fighting crime. He didn’t need a war to keep him occupied. I actually think some of his best stories were post war. As the number 2 guy it would be years before he entered into his fat Elvis period in the later part of the 1950’s and DC would need to address his “fall” with a revamp.

Captain America was released one year before the US got involved with world war 2. At the time in the US the war was raging all around Americans and was on their minds now. It didn’t matter if they were for or against it now the US government was all but in it officially and when Cap was punching Hilter on the cover every one knew who he was. So much so Hilter appears yet again on the second issue. The series had the advantage of having Simon & Kirby do its first 10 issues and by the time they left the US was about in the war anyway and Cap became the poster child of US involvement in the war. How much more in your face is a superhero wearing the American flag as a uniform? Captain America started his crime based stories about a year before the war ended but they obviously didn’t work well enough to sustain him. The introduction of Golden Girl and the strange removal of Bucky shows some last gasp attempts at saving the character. It wasn’t a story or art problem either because both seemed fine. Fans at the time just weren’t interested in his new post war role of crime fighting. Perhaps if Simon & Kirby or another creative force were around to retool the character he might have survived the decade. Years later Stan Lee took a different approach with the “man out of time” concept to make him work in the silver age. I don’t know if Stan ever realized it but that was clearly a nod to Cap’s previous problem at the end. A superhero now out of his “time” (the war years).

 

No “gotcha” posting was intended. 

I never get tired of seeing collections like yours or Bedrocks posted here so it wasn’t intended as a slight to you...

 

 

No harm done. I was a little upset with myself for not immediately recognizing the source.  I know Jim Steranko and that comment seemed out of character based on my recollection.  I’d made an assumption without rereading his full commentary on Cap published in Steranko’s History of Comics.  This was entirely my fault.  

[Craig Collins]

First post for me...   I bought a few goldens out of a collection including this Action 64 (First Toyman).  My one and only double cover. 

Craig 

Edited July 4, 2019 by Craig Collins
wrong spot