Captain Marvel Jr.

Published by Fawcett September of 1943, the cover of Captain Marvel Jr. #11 makes for a centerpiece of a motorcycle comic cover collection.  Drawn by artist Emanuel “Mac” Raboy, this type of extraordinary detailing garnered Mac considerable popularity as an artist and led to doing numerous Fawcett covers and eventually work on the Flash Gordon newspaper comic strip for King Features Syndicate.

Captain Marvel Jr. first appeared in 1941, having originated from the Fawcett employee collaboration of writer France Herron and artists C.C. Beck and Mac Raboy.  Following the unprecedented success of Captain Marvel (and growing popularity of the superhero apprentice side-kicks) Fawcett added its own twist.  They created a young superhero spin off who fought alone.  The origin story is quite dramatic – essentially fall-out from a battle between Captain Marvel and the evil Captain Nazi.  After having his back broken as a result of the fray, Shazam gave Freddy Freeman the ability to become Captain Marvel Jr.  And as soon as November, 1942 the character was running his newsstand and fighting for morality within his own title.

Captain Marvel Jr. #37 (April 1946) Infinity/News stand cover

Captain Marvel Jr. became one of the most successful superheroes of the 1940s.  He is credited as being an influential favorite of a young Elvis Presley.  The character only ended January, 1954 due to Fawcett yielding to a long standing legal battle with D.C. (who owns the rights to the character today) over Captain Marvel having been a copy infringement of Superman.