Captain America Comics
Captain America Comics | |
---|---|
Publication information | |
Publisher | Timely Comics Atlas Comics |
Schedule | Varied |
Format | Ongoing series |
Publication date | Full list |
No. of issues | Full list |
Main character(s) | Captain America |
Captain America Comics is a comic book series featuring the superhero character Captain America. The series was originally published by Timely Comics from 1941 to 1950,[1] with a brief revival by Atlas Comics in 1954.
Publication history
Creation
In 1940, writer Joe Simon conceived the idea for Captain America and made a sketch of the character in costume.[2] "I wrote the name 'Super American' at the bottom of the page," Simon said in his autobiography, and then decided:
No, it didn't work. There were too many "Supers" around. "Captain America" had a good sound to it. There weren't a lot of captains in comics. It was as easy as that. The boy companion was simply named Bucky, after my friend Bucky Pierson, a star on our high school basketball team.[3]
Simon recalled in his autobiography that Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman gave him the go-ahead and directed that a Captain America solo comic book series be published as soon as possible. Needing to fill a full comic with primarily one character's stories, Simon did not believe that his regular creative partner, artist Jack Kirby, could handle the workload alone:
I didn't have a lot of objections to putting a crew on the first issue ... There were two young artists from Connecticut that had made a strong impression on me. Al Avison and Al Gabriele often worked together and were quite successful in adapting their individual styles to each other. Actually, their work was not too far from [that of] Kirby's. If they worked on it, and if one inker tied the three styles together, I believed the final product would emerge as quite uniform. The two Als were eager to join in on the new Captain America book, but Jack Kirby was visibly upset. "You're still number one, Jack," I assured him. "It's just a matter of a quick deadline for the first issue." "I'll make the deadline," Jack promised. "I'll pencil it [all] myself and make the deadline." I hadn't expected this kind of reaction ... but I acceded to Kirby's wishes and, it turned out, was lucky that I did. There might have been two Als, but there was only one Jack Kirby ... I wrote the first Captain America book with penciled lettering right on the drawing boards, with very rough sketches for figures and backgrounds. Kirby did his thing, building the muscular anatomy, adding ideas and popping up the action as only he could. Then he tightened up the penciled drawings, adding detailed backgrounds, faces and figures."[3]
Al Liederman would ink that first issue, which was lettered by Simon and Kirby's regular letterer, Howard Ferguson.[4]
Simon said Captain America was a consciously political creation; he and Kirby were morally repulsed by the actions of Nazi Germany in the years leading up to the United States' involvement in World War II and felt war was inevitable: "The opponents to the war were all quite well organized. We wanted to have our say too."[5] It has been observed that the Captain America character has numerous elements of Jewish iconography as a variant of the idea of the Golem, an automaton who protects the Jewish community who was created by an elder of that community, Dr. Irkstine.[6]
Golden Age
Captain America Comics #1 –
Though preceded as a "patriotically themed superhero" by
Circulation figures remained close to a million copies per month after the debut issue, which outstripped even the circulation of news magazines such as
In the post-war era, with the popularity of superheroes fading, Captain America led Timely's first superhero team, the
Atlas Comics attempted to revive its superhero titles when it reintroduced Captain America, along with the original Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner, in Young Men #24 (December 1953). Billed as "Captain America, Commie Smasher!" Captain America appeared during the next year in Young Men #24–28 and Men's Adventures #27–28, as well as in issues #76–78 of an eponymous title (May–September 1954). Atlas' attempted superhero revival was a commercial failure,[18] and the character's title was canceled with Captain America #78 (September 1954).
See also
References
- ^ a b Captain America's Weird Tales at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ 1974 Comic Art Convention program, cover
- ^ ISBN 978-1-887591-35-5. Reissued by Vanguard Productions in 2003.
- ^ Simon, p. 51.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8018-7450-5.
- ^ Isaak, Joshua (December 3, 2021). "Captain America Is A Jewish Golem - Theory Explained". Screenrant. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
- ^ Captain America Comics #1 Archived 2013-05-10 at the Wayback Machine at the Grand Comics Database
- ISBN 978-0-8109-9447-8.
- ISBN 978-0-7624-2844-1.
Captain America Comics #1 went on sale around the end of 1940, with a March 1941 cover date.
- ^ Fromm, Keif (June 2005). "The Privacy Act Of Carl Burgos". Alter Ego. 3 (49). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 4.
- ISBN 978-0-452-29532-2.
- ^ ISBN 978-0756641238.
Cap was not the first patriotically themed super hero, but he would become the most enduring. He was Timely's most popular hero with nearly a million copies of his comic sold per month.
- ^ Cronin, p. 134
- ISBN 978-1-4027-4225-5.
The line reads: "With the speed of thought, he sent his shield spinning through the air to the other end of the tent, where it smacked the knife out of Haines' hand!" It became a convention starting the following issue, in which the art in a Simon and Kirby comics story illustrates the following caption: "Captain America's speed of thought and action save Bucky's life – as he hurls his shield across the room.
- ISBN 9780810938212.
- ISBN 978-1605490892.
- ^ Captain America Comics at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ Wright, p. 123.