By the fall of 1942 the war was everywhere — in the newsreels, on the ration books, and, as this cover proves, on the comics rack. Here the original Captain Marvel — Fawcett’s Big Red Cheese, the best-selling superhero in America at the time — stands shoulder to shoulder with Uncle Sam himself, rallying readers to the “Paste the Axis” war-bond drive.
It is a genuine home-front artifact: a piece of popular culture pressed directly into service of the war effort, promising $1,500 in War Bonds and Stamps to the kids who joined in. C.C. Beck’s clean, confident line makes it sing. Eighty-plus years on, it still lands.
A note on identity, since the name has been borrowed many times over: this is the original Fawcett Captain Marvel — the character the world now knows as Shazam — and has no connection to the modern Marvel Comics hero of the same name.
This copy is CGC 7.0 (Fine/Very Fine) with Off-White pages, sound and bright for the grade, with a small period pencil notation in the top cover margin noted in full for transparency. A scarce and displayable piece of Golden Age Americana.
Certification: CGC 7.0 (Fine/Very Fine), Off-White pages. Cert #0059199001.
By the fall of 1942 the war was everywhere — in the newsreels, on the ration books, and, as this cover proves, on the comics rack. Here the original Captain Marvel — Fawcett’s Big Red Cheese, the best-selling superhero in America at the time — stands shoulder to shoulder with Uncle Sam himself, rallying readers to the “Paste the Axis” war-bond drive.
It is a genuine home-front artifact: a piece of popular culture pressed directly into service of the war effort, promising $1,500 in War Bonds and Stamps to the kids who joined in. C.C. Beck’s clean, confident line makes it sing. Eighty-plus years on, it still lands.
A note on identity, since the name has been borrowed many times over: this is the original Fawcett Captain Marvel — the character the world now knows as Shazam — and has no connection to the modern Marvel Comics hero of the same name.
This copy is CGC 7.0 (Fine/Very Fine) with Off-White pages, sound and bright for the grade, with a small period pencil notation in the top cover margin noted in full for transparency. A scarce and displayable piece of Golden Age Americana.
Certification: CGC 7.0 (Fine/Very Fine), Off-White pages. Cert #0059199001.
