Billy Batson/Captain Marvel appearing in Brave & Bold cartoon!

Back in July at Comic-Con in San Diego, it was announced that Captain Marvel/Billy Batson and the Marvel Family would appear with Batman in the "Brave and the Bold" cartoon. Well, the first clip is available on IGN and it's a doozy!

Batman: The Brave and the Bold TV Clip - Exclusive: Captain Marvel's Debut

Tara Strong does the voice of Billy, and Jeff Bennett does the voice of the Big Red Cheese. I can't wait to see how they will do Mary and Freddy!

Monster Society re-print delayed

Many classic Captain Marvel fans have been very excited since it was announced that the Fawcett serial "The Monster Society of Evil" was going to be reprinted in a single volume again, this time affordable priced (there was a deluxe hardcover edithion with a slipcase published back in the early 1990's, but it was a very expensive item).

Sadly, though, it seems that the release date for this has been delayed. perhaps it is to coincide with some anticipated news about the "Shazam" movie project?

http://www.comiclist.com/index.php/news/orders-cancelled-for-shazam-the-monster-society-of-evil-hc

New Video: Lecture on the DC-Fawcett Lawsuit

This was edited together from the Captain Marvel Culture lecture I did at I-Con in March:

Marvel (Miracle) Man to be reprinted!

Yes, I am a little behind on this news. Marvel comics acquired the rights to Marvelman (known in the US as Miracleman because of Marvel Comics' claim to the trademark of "Marvel"), the 1950' British follow-up to the original Captain Marvel created by Mick Anglo. Now they have announced that they will be reprinting the 1980's series written first by Alan Moore and continued by Niel Gaiman.

This was a remarkably well written and drawn series that broke new ground for comics and explored the ramifications of super-powers further than any comic book had sone up to that time. Peter Sanderson has lectured that the Marvelman/Miracleman series is one of the most important in comic book history because it kicked off the post-modern movement of 1986, which in his words, is "the Year the Changed Comics."

You can read the post by Graeme McMillan on 109.com here (the comments section, however, turns into a big argument about whether or not Alan More is an asshole for what he is quoted in the post as saying about this).

New Monica Rambeau video

I know it seems like I've been on a Monica Rambeau kick lately, and a lot of it has to do with the article I wrote that is coming out in the December issue of Alter Ego magazine (watch for it!).

And now this fellow has made a little video tribute to Marvel Comics' second Captain Marvel (and the only one with no direct connection to Mar-Vell, the only black female one, and the one with the longest run of appearances in a single, uninterrupted comic series).

New writer signed for "Shazam",movie

Boy, am I h=behind the itmes on this nes! This came from a Hollywood Reporter article from a few months ago.

"August 19, 2009 Actor-turned-writer Bill Birch has been tapped to reboot "Shazam!," Warners' adaptation of a DC Comics series featuring Captain Marvel. Geoff Johns, one of the three DC Comics heavyweights hired by the studio to act as consultants on DC projects, is also helping with the kick-start, co-writing the story with Birch. It's somewhat fitting that Birch takes on "Shazam!" as his very name echoes the name of the comic's hero, Billy Batson, a teenager who becomes Captain Marvel when he utters the magic word "Shazam!" The name is an acronym for six gods and heroes of the ancient world as well as their attributes: the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Aries, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles and the speed of Mercury."

This makes I think four writers or wrioter teams for the project so far. There was William Goldman, the team from Toy Story, John August, and now this guy. At least it is good to see that Michael Uslan cares enough about this project to keep plugging away. I know he has a great love for the character from personal conversations with him, and I really hoe this movie is as good as it is right!

RIP Fankie Coghlan, Jr.

Frank Coghlan, Jr, the young man who played Billy Batson in the "Adventures of Captain Marvel" serial passed away peacefully in his sleep on Monday, September 7, at age 93.

Time is taking away all the people who were there at the beginning of the Captain Marvel saga, and this is the latest.

Frank played boys and teenagers in Hollywood from 1920 (Daredevil Jack) to 1946 (One More Tomorrow). He had the size, look, and voice that made it easy to believe that he was younger than his years, but as Billy Batson, he could handle himself in good boy-hero fashion.

He was in hundreds of movies and serials, but his work as Billy Batson is what he remains known by. The Los Angels Times obit identifies him as such and even includes a poster for the serial Read it here. He even had a small part written for him in the Shazam! TV series when an episode was shot in the San Diego Zoo, which he was working for at the time.

His autobiography was published in 1993 under the title "They 'Still Call Me Junior." I have yet to read it. There is a lovely little interview with him in PC Hamerlinck's Fawcett Companion.

Here is what I wrote about him in my chapter about the serial:

"Frank Coghlan Jr. Was called by Cecil B. De Mille “The Perfect Homeless Waif “ (The Fawcett Companion P.C. Hammerlinck, pg 123). He spent the first two and a half decades of his Hollywood career playing young boys. For the first half of this period he was credited as "Junior Coghlan," and for the second half of it he was frequently in uncredited roles. Some of these roles were in very popular movies, like Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), Gone with the Wind (1939), Knute Rockne All American (1940), The Courtship of Andy Hardy (1942), and This Is the Army (1943). His film career slowed after 1946, and he was working as the Director of Public Relations for the Los Angeles Zoo when the producers of the Shazam! TV series on CBS were looking to film an episode there. When he told them he had played Billy Batson in the serial, they wrote a part in the TV show for him."

You can see more about Motion picture serials and The Adventures of Captain Marvel in my Captain MArvel Culture preview pages.

By all accounts he was a very nice guy, and he will be missed.