Welcome!

By Walt Grogan

 Ahoy, fellow Lieutenant Marvels and welcome to Shazam's Historama!

I'm a big fan of the original Fawcett Captain Marvel and his many iterations from his early Fawcett days to his modern day incarnation at DC Comics.

I've been a big fan of The Big Red Cheese since the early days of 1971 when I "discovered" him in prose form in All in Color for a Dime. Dick Lupoff's essay, "The Big Red Cheese" captivated me and although I was only 11 years old, I was desperate to read his adventures. I bought some Captain Marvel comics from the newsstand but they bore no relation to the character I read about in Lupoff's wonderful essay. My father told me that he remembered reading Cap's adventures when he was a kid but he was no help as he no longer had any of the comics. When I visited cousins and friends who had comics, Cap's adventures were never there even though I did come across some mid-to-late 1950s Captain America comics.

Flash forward to a little over a year later, a lifetime when you're 11, and in Justice League of America #103, there he was in a DC house ad! Proclaiming Captain Marvel was DC's Christmas gift to me, I started visiting my drugstore in Chicago and one in southern Wisconsin when I visited my great-aunt and uncle. I would go through every title on the rack in the hope that maybe someone has been sly to place a copy of SHAZAM! #1 at the very back to pick up later. Week after week, I was disappointed!

Finally, one lucky day, there it was! One copy, and at the very back! I snatched it up, paid for it, and it was mine! I read and re-read it over and over! I memorized the grid of characters who had survived Sivana's Suspendium and counted down to the days to issue two where I would meet Mr. Mind again!

Now, almost 50 years later, I'm still a huge Captain Marvel fan, Shazam, if you will, due to Marvel claiming his name.

I felt it was past time to start a blog about the good Captain, although I have in the past in fits and starts and under various pseudonyms. It's time now to start writing down some of the Cap knowledge I've learned over the years and share it with you, my fellow Lieutenants!

Yours in old Shazam,
Walt

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