JULY 4TH CAPTAIN AMERICA COVER OMNIBUS (A KID KLASSICS EXTRA)...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Seeing as it's the 4th of July, let's help our American cousins celebrate the occasion by looking back (and joining) three separate posts featuring the comicbook character who probably best symbolizes what America aspires to - CAPTAIN AMERICA!

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If, like me, you're of a certain age, you probably still think of barcodes on comic covers as a fairly recent intrusion.  Fact is though, that they've now been adorning the fronts (and, occasionally, the backs) of our favourite four-colour comicbooks for a total of 40 years.  The little striped box appeared for the first time on issues dated May/June 1976, although (in America at least) they went on sale in February/March of that year as they appeared on newsstands a few months ahead of the actual date on the cover and in the indicia.

So, to my eyes, a comic still doesn't look right if it's been defaced with that oblong zebra pattern in the bottom lefthand corner.  No, for me, comics were purer and less compromised when they were free of that ugly little intruder that defaced the art which called to me from the spinner-racks, even if I've now known it for a far longer period of time throughout my life than I have without.  Curious how our ideas of how things should be done are established from such an early age, isn't it?  I still consider Lsd (pounds, shillings and pence) as 'real' money and decimal currency as a relatively recent usurper, although it's now been around for more than four fifths of my life.

So what's that got to do with CAPTAIN AMERICA?  Not much - except it may've been the sixth issue of JACK KIRBY's Cap where I  first noticed (and resented) the barcode box.  (It was either that, or SUPERMAN #296.)  I was glad to see Jack back at MARVEL, even if  his output at this time didn't quite live up to his first tour of duty at the much-lauded 'House of Ideas'.

Diehard Kirby fanatics were ecstatic to see Jack resume the reins of the character he'd helped co-create back in the '40s, but readers used to the more sophisticated and ambitious tales of writers like STEVE ENGLEHART were less than enchanted by the King's more direct action-adventure orientated stories.  However, Jack produced 22 issues of the shield-slinging AVENGER (and two Annuals) - which was, I believe, the longest-lasting title of his return term - before leaving Marvel for the second and final time.

Anyway, without any further ado, let's look at the first 11 covers of Jack's Cap.  The rest will follow immediately after in this combination of all three separate posts.

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(I should point out for American readers that, to differentiate U.S. Marvel comics on sale in Britain from their black and white U.K. editions, the 'Marvel Comics Group' banner was replaced with 'Marvel All-Colour Comics' when the plates were altered from cents to pence.  They were still printed in the States though.)

   

Er... just who is Cap shouting to?  Not the readers, surely?

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

JACK KIRBY did his best with CAPTAIN AMERICA (& The FALCON) when he returned to the title in the mid-'70s, but rumours persist that he was sabotaged from within.  Kirby reportedly felt that a disproportionate amount of negative letters were published in the mag, something to which he objected and complained about, though, as editor, one would think he had the power to prevent.  Obviously not, as he was based out in California, and the letter columns were put together in New York as a simple matter of expediency.

It's also rumoured that some of the new young turks openly scoffed at Jack's pages when they arrived in the MARVEL offices, being less than impressed with them in comparison to the work of other artists in the fabled BULLPEN.  As I said, he did his best, but the odds seemed stacked against him from the start.  His art was less fluid and graceful than it had been in his heyday, and his style of scripting appeared out-of-sync with then-modern sensibilities.

STAN LEE apparently interceded on his behalf, requesting that more positive letters were chosen over less-flattering ones, but by then it was too late.  Jack was demoralised, and when his contract ended, he presumably chose not to renew it, and to seek employment elsewhere.  A once mighty giant was at the end of his run, and never again created anything that resonated to the same degree in the comicbook field as his collaborations with 'Stan the Man'.

Jack then returned to DC COMICS for a spell and completed his FOURTH WORLD 'epic', but it was an unsatisfying anti-climax that didn't really bear scrutiny.  It's sad to see how age and illness took its toll on the man who was once the 'King' of comics, but he belonged to a vanished era, the likes of which neither he nor we would ever see again.  Such is life.

However, let's not end on a downbeat note.  There's still much to admire in the second set of 11 covers from his '70s run on Cap, so admire away! 

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

The time: A dark and rainy Saturday late afternoon/early-evening in 1973.  The place: The Norfolk Restaurant in the main shopping centre of my home town.  I'd just purchased the KING-SIZE SPECIAL CAPTAIN AMERICA #1 (among others), and borrowed the first edition of The PENGUIN BOOK Of COMICS from my local library.  As I sat across from one of my pals, each of us nursing a cup of Coke, I perused the contents of my recent acquisitions on the table in front of me.

I don't know for how long I owned that Cap comic, but back in the early or mid-'80s, I obtained a replacement for it, which I've had ever since.  Around 12 to 14 years ago (several months to a year or so apart) I happened to acquire Cap Annuals #3 & 4, leaving only #2 to fill the space in the first four issues.

It's a curious thing, but MARVEL never seemed to be consistent in naming their bumper extravaganzas; sometimes they were called 'Specials', sometimes 'Annuals'.  (And to confuse readers further, THOR not only had a series of King-Size 'Specials/Annuals' devoted to him, but also a run of four SPECIAL MARVEL EDITIONS.)  Some King-Size mags began as 'Specials', then morphed into 'Annuals', and I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that it likewise happened in reverse.

Recently, I finally got my grubby mitts on the second issue of the title, thereby completing my quartet of Cap's Special editions.  As you can see, the cover has what looks like the spine on view, as if the comic hasn't been bound properly, but the issue is actually a normal stapled comic (with 52 pages), as opposed to the glued and thick-stapled format of #1, 3 & 4.

So, it may have taken me 40 years to obtain the next comic in sequence after the one I first bought back in '73, but I got there in the end.  And here's something else to consider - back in the early '90s, my local library had a book sale, from which I purchased the actual, self-same copy of The Penguin Book of Comics I'd first borrowed on that rainy Saturday evening so very long ago.

If you have any personal reminiscences associated with the comic covers on display, feel free to share them in the comments section.  With any luck, I can then delude myself into believing that I'm not the only soppy sentimentalist and nutty nostalgist who haunts the bloggersphere.  Any takers?  Step right up!

UPDATE: Originally, I owned issues #1, 3, 4 & 6, so when I finally acquired #2 I was very well pleased.  However, a nagging voice then assailed my ears - "Why not get #5 and have the first six Specials/Annuals?"  Well, sure sounded like a good idea to me, so I promptly tracked down a copy and added it to my collection.  (For a magazine which was meant to be published yearly, it's interesting to note that only five issues were released over a ten year period.) 

So, here's issues #5 & 6 to round of the first half dozen Cap 'Special Annuals'.  Don't ever say I'm not good to you.

And here's the cover of Kirby's 1976 BICENTENNIAL BATTLES Treasury Edition for good measure.

The 'panel' next to Cap's right hand was drawn by JOHN ROMITA