SPECTACULAR COMICS 100-PAGE SPECIAL # 5

Inspired by DC Comics' 1970s 100-Page Super Spectaculars, Spectacular Comics 100-Page Special is a series of fabricated 100-page comic books slapped together from various sources, celebrating comics from the '30s to the '80s. It's not real. But it is Spectacular.

Throwback time!

From 2018 to 2020, I concocted a series of fake 100-Page comic books patterned after the DC Comics 100-Page Super Spectaculars I so adored in the early to mid '70s. You can read my reminiscence of the real-life 100-pagers here, and peruse each of my fabrications through individual links contained within this piece that wrote a retroactive finis to the series.

Nonetheless, I'm back now with one more. I stopped doing these because they're just too damned much work, and a format change at Blogger made them more trouble than they're worth. This (presumably) final 100-Page FAKE! is taken from previously-formatted pages that weren't part of the 100-Page FAKE!s, so it was just a matter of a-cuttin' and a-pastin' to assemble one last Spectacular.

The contents are all presumed to be either public domain or orphaned properties. We have the first two issues of Dell Comics's mid '60s book Super Heroes (both from 1967), plus material from original Captain Marvel talents Otto Binder and C. C. Beck's Fatman The Human Flying Saucer # 1 (1967), Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's Funnyman # 1 (1948), and M.F. Enterprises' much-reviled Captain Marvel # 1 (1966). Here's a reprise of what I've said previously about each property:

SUPER HEROES

I became a superhero fan because of the Batman TV series in 1966. I wasn't the only one; the public fervor surrounding that show's success inspired a boom in interest in caped crusaders and superdoers, and it brought in lots of new fans like li'l six-year-old me. To meet this fresh demand, publishers old and new scrambled to get superhero comic books onto spinner racks pronto.

Dell Comics had once been the biggest-selling comics publisher of all time. But that unmatched success was back in the 1940s and '50s, and it seemed long ago and far away from the vantage point of the mid '60s. By then, of course, comics sales were a fraction of what they'd been during the Golden Age--still a mass-market item, but nowhere near the popularity of their commercial heyday. Nonetheless, comics were still selling; Dell Comics, however, were not selling all that well. Further damaging Dell's former sales dominance was the loss of much of its lucrative line of licensed properties. The bulk of Dell's most successful output was created independently by Western Publishing; when Western split away to start its own Gold Key Comics imprint in 1962, Dell lost the rights to publish Walt Disney and Warner Brothers cartoon titles (among many others).

Dell was never really known for superheroes. With declining comics sales and no real hit titles, the call of Batmania couldn't be ignored. Dell needed superheroes. Even before Adam West and Burt Ward started boppin' bad guys on ABC-TV, Dell introduced a new hero title called Nukla in 1965. In '66, Dell tried superhero incarnations of Dracula, Werewolf, and Frankenstein. In 1967, Dell published Super Heroes # 1.

Super Heroes starred a superteam called The Fab Four. Er, not to be confused with the Beatles, of course, nor with Marvel Comics's self-billed "World's Greatest Comics Magazine" The Fantastic Four. The series ran four issues, is not fondly remembered (nor remembered at all), and it did nothing to reverse Dell's fading fortunes.

But I liked it. I was seven years old, and it had superheroes--what more could one ask? I believe I only saw the fourth and final issue when I was a kid, but it's a cherished memory that cold, hard reality can't dim.

FATMAN THE HUMAN FLYING SAUCER

Fatman, The Human Flying Saucer was a delightfully odd comic book that ran for a mere three issues in 1967. The book's publisher was the equally short-lived Lightning Comics, an outfit whose entire published output was a grand total of five comic books (the three issues of Fatman and two issues of Tod Holton, Super Green Beret). The line was birthed in the comic-book feeding frenzy of 1966 Batmania, and died with that fad as well. A third Lightning Comics title--Captain Shazam--was announced but never published (and presumably never completed). That third name was intriguing, though, since it conjured an image of the best-selling superhero character of the Golden Age of comics in the 1940s: the original Captain Marvel, whose magic word SHAZAM! gave young Billy Batson the fantastic powers of the World's Mightiest Mortal.



But even without Captain Shazam, Lightning already had a direct connection to Captain Marvel: Fatman was created by veteran writer Otto Binder and artist C.C. Beck; Beck was the very first Captain Marvel artist, and Binder was one of the most-beloved among Cap writers. Binder and Beck hadn't worked together since Cap's publisher Fawcett Comics succumbed to the dual pressure of declining sales and lawsuits from DC Comics (which claimed that Captain Marvel was a swipe of Superman) and pulled its comics line in the mid '50s. Reunited for this new Lightning book, Binder and Beck essentially created three more issues of a more corpulent Captain Marvel's adventures.

However, Fatman was not a copy of Captain Marvel, and certainly not an imitation of Superman. As Fatman, wealthy raconteur Van Crawford wore a costume patterned after Captain Marvel's, and Beck's visual style was unmistakeable. Binder, in turn, brought a familiar energy and general wackiness that called to mind his earlier work on Fawcett's Big Red Cheese. But Fatman was not Captain Marvel. His only real super power was his ability to turn into a flying saucer; otherwise, he relied on his wits and his weight to see justice done. Nonetheless, Fatman's comic book exploits are undiscovered treasures, and a real treat for Captain Marvel fans like me.

FUNNYMAN

Let's hear it for The Daffy Daredevil!

By the late '40s, Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster felt like they'd been swindled. They'd sold their Man of Steel to the publisher we now know as DC Comics for a paltry $130 in 1938, and watched helplessly as the character hauled in unimaginable amounts of money, more money than even Lex Luthor could dream of stealing in his wildest, maddest schemes. But it was money for DC; it was not money for Siegel and Shuster. A lawsuit to reclaim Siegel and Shuster's rights to Superman failed, and the creators of Superman became personae non gratae at the comic book company whose success was built upon their work.

Funnyman was the team's attempt to create another super-sensation. It was published by Magazine Enterprises, which was run by Vin Sullivan. Sullivan had been the editor of Action Comics in '38, and he's the guy who made the decision to put Superman on the cover of Action Comics # 1. Alas, the Daffy Daredevil did not duplicate Superman's success, and lasted a mere six issues in 1948. A Funnyman newspaper strip also failed to knock 'em dead in the cheap seats, and the character was soon no more.

But I tell ya, I like the guy. To me, Funnyman was comic Danny Kaye turned into a superhero. Writers Thomas Andrae and Mel Gordon had a slightly more expansive view of what Funnyman was, as evidenced by the title of their 2010 book about the character, Siegel And Shuster's Funnyman: The First Jewish Superhero. Either way, Funnyman is the story of "ace comedian" Larry Davis (betcha the name was changed at Ellis Island), who becomes a costumed crimefighter by accident, but decides he likes "the idea of cleaning up on wrong guys with jabs and gags!" My first Daffy Daredevil exploits were in Funnyman # 5, which I picked up at the Super-DC Con in New York in 1976. Siegel and Shuster were also at that con, celebrating a fragile but fresh peace with DC and Superman (though still an inadequate piece of the Action). I got their autographs in my program book, but I didn't get a chance to have them sign my issue of Funnyman.

Aside from some scraps offered in Andrae and Gordon's book, Funnyman has never been reprinted, at least as far as I know. The character is now presumed to be in the public domain, and you can legally download the entire six-issue run from sites like Digital Comic Museum. But first, you need to be aware that these comics existed in the first place.

M. F. Enterprises' CAPTAIN MARVEL

I'm not sure whether or not it would be fair to call M.F. Enterprises' 1966 series Captain Marvel the worst superhero comic books of all time. But man, they were terrible. I'm also not sure if they're terrible in a fun way, or just terribly, terribly terrible. I mean, a superhero whose schtick is that he can split off parts of his body? Atlas cringed.

But in the superhero hysteria prompted by the success of the Batman TV series, established comics publishers and fly-by-night outfits alike needed four-color superdoers on the stands ASAP.  Some were good. Some were M.F.'s Captain Marvel.

Still, ya gotta give Myron Fass credit for gumption and ingenuity, if not creativity. "Captain Marvel" was a recognizable and marketable superhero name, unused since 1954, when Fawcett Comics' original Cap--the best-selling superhero of the Golden Age of Comics--succumbed to declining sales and legal threats from DC Comics (who maintained Cap was a copyright-infringing imitation of Superman). In the '60s, Marvel Comics had succeeded in re-branding the name "Marvel" as something new and exciting in comics. A huckster like Fass could see the opportunity, and he couldn't see anything that should stop him from publishing a *cough* original character named Captain Marvel.

Our man from Splitsville was created by Carl Burgos, whose earlier creation of The Human Torch for Marvel Comics # 1 in 1939 was a much more impressive resumé item than this. M.F.'s Captain Marvel ran four issues, plus two issues of Captain Marvel Presents The Terrible Five. "Terrible?" Takes one to know one...or five. When this Captain Marvel split for good, Marvel Comics took the cue to create its own unrelated Captain Marvel. When DC licensed and eventually purchased the original Captain Marvel, the character who originated the name had to appear in a book called Shazam! instead of Captain Marvel Adventures; Marvel had trademarked the name "Captain Marvel." But that's a rant for another day.

And we're done ranting for today! Let's get to the comics, as Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) presents Spectacular Comics 100-Page Special # 5.

(Oh, and I do realize this is two pages too long for the 96 pages plus covers design of a real-world 100-pager. Like the work that would be involved in doing more 100-Page FAKES!, adjusting this page count to fit is also more trouble than it's worth. So: BONUS! Enjoy!)

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