Fantasy Theater

So yeah, one of my hobbies is mocking up covers for comic books that never existed (see the "Lost Issues" tag for more). Or in this case, a trade paperback collection that will probably never exist.

Back in the 1940s, SHAZAM (or Captain Marvel, as he was known then) had a run of stories where he would visit a different city in each issue. The stories would highlight famous landmarks and featured local media celebrities in an obvious attempt to curry favor and get print/radio coverage. It must have been successful, since the series ran for 21 issues in a row.

I was amused to see that one of the cities visited was my home town of Cincinnati. Billy Batson arrives by train at Union Terminal, and takes a leisurely stroll over to Crosley Square to visit radio station WLW (which you could totally do, as they're maybe 30 minutes apart on foot). It's a lot of fun, and if I'd seen it as a kid, it would've blown my mind to see my city in a comic, so I can see why these were popular.

In the 1970s, SHAZAM became a live-action tv show, with Billy/Cap and an older chaperone named "Mentor" tooling around Southern California in a Winnebago, solving small-town problems and helping misguided teenagers in typical '70s tv style. The comic books decided to follow suit, and sent Billy off on another multi-city tour of the USA to celebrate the Bicentennial. Unlike the tv show, the comics storyline featured some of Captain Marvel's big villains, including Dr. Sivana and Black Adam, so that was cool.

Anyway, I thought these "road trip" stories would make a for a fun trade paperback collection. It's a pretty niche concept, and maybe 3 other people besides me would buy it. But practicality is not a concern when I'm just making things up for funsies.

I copied the trade dress from DC's "DC Finest" imprint, which is a new line of TPBs highlighting particular eras in a character's history: Batman Year One/Two, Flash's first Silver Age appearances, Catwoman's first solo series, etc. None of these books have actually come out yet, but I found some fairly hi-res previews online, so I was able to mock up a reasonable facsimile. Some of the fonts aren't quite correct, but I was able to get pretty close. The collection's name, "Highways and Byways", comes from the opening narration from the SHAZAM! tv show: "...travelling the highways and byways of the land..."

Anyway, here's my mock-up cover, and the list of contents:
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The Savage Time
Episode 2:
"Somewhere Stands...Skull Island!"
Played on 06/17/23
Inspired by:
Tales to Astonish #96-97 by Raymond Marais, Bill Everett, Roy Thomas & Werner Roth
Amazing Spider-Man #103-104 by Roy Thomas & Gil Kane
Astonishing Tales #18-20 by Mike Friedrich, Dan Adkins, Jim Starlin, Marie Severin & Werner Roth
Superboy #204 by Cary Bates and Mike Grell
(and various other Ka-Zar/Savage Land comics)

Roll Call:
Batman
Booster Gold
Storm
Wolverine
( Read more... )
To be continued...

Welcome to the second of my "Lost Issues of the 1970s", where I create mock-ups of comic books that I wish had been published during my childhood, but weren't.
( Read more... )

Bob Rozakis looks at the sudden expansion (and equally sudden contraction) of DC Comics in the 1970s:

http://bobrozakis.blogspot.com/2012/11/bobro-archives-dc-implosion.html