Number 2455: Ibis calls on god

My headline is correct. Ibis and his girlfriend, Princess Taia, call on their god, whose name is Osiris, “The God of Egypt.” It is when things get tough; the bad guy sends a storm their way, and when Taia asks if Ibis’ magic wand, the Ibistick, can help, he says he has a better idea. He’ll call on their deity.

All I can say to that is Osiris must not have much else to do if he can answer a prayer that quickly.

Ibis was the magic man of Whiz Comics, and later, his own title. He came from thousands of years ago and if not wearing his turban, would fit right in with the modern world. Unlike the usual comic strip and comic book magicians, Ibis uses his Ibistick to do the magical stuff. Magic wands have been staples of magic stories for how long? Millenia, perhaps; anyway, a long, long time. You fans of Harry Potter will know all you need to know about a magic wand.

The Grand Comics Database lists the artist as Alex Blum with a question mark. I believe it is Blum. He was an old time artist who went to work in the comics. He did a lot of Classics Illustrated book adaptations. He was born in 1889, so he was in his early fifties when he took this assignment. Alex Blum died in 1969.

From Whiz Comics #16 (1941):

Number 1873: Captain Marvel takes time to find Benedict Arnold

Captain Marvel, to solve the “mystery” of what happened to General Benedict Arnold, travels to 1780. Can it be true that in late 1941 when this story was published, the fate of the famous turncoat Arnold was not known? CM could have traveled ahead to 2016 and read the entry on Arnold in Wikipedia.

Going back to the story, I like Captain Marvel’s can-do spirit in building a time machine. He tells Dr. Vanna, “. . . we’re going to work out a way to travel back in time, and find out what really happened in 1780.” That is followed by a panel with sound effects, BANG, POW, BANG. They must have used big hammers to build that time machine. When Captain Marvel travels to 1780 he arrives in France, meeting Ben Franklin, who looks just like his picture on the money.

Art credit goes to C.C. Beck. From Whiz Comics #26, January, 1942:

Number 1235: “Release the kraken!” The last Whiz

This is the final posting of our Fawcett week.

Captain Marvel's last adventure in Whiz Comics came in issue #155, cover dated June 1953. There would be more of Captain Marvel Adventures (the last issue, #150, had a cover date of November, 1953), but Whiz Comics, the Old Number One, the first comic book in a long string of comics under the “A Fawcett Publication” colophon, was finally cancelled. I'd like to know if the Captain Marvel comics were making money up until the Superman verdict. I assume they were.

By that time in 1953 horror was big in comics, and Fawcett's titles and covers reflected that. Whether the stories were genuinely horrible isn't the point, they were aiming at the monster crowd.

In his final Whiz, Captain Marvel faces the kraken, a monster out of classical mythology.

Number 889


Ibis and Taia into the maelstrom


Despite sharing its title with the famous short story by Edgar Allan Poe, this is an Ibis the Invincible story, and Ibis has a couple of things the protagonist of Poe's story didn't have: a babe like Princess Taia and a vibrating Ibistick.

It's also illustrated by the remarkable Kurt Schaffenberger, who does his usual fabulous job, even considering the bad guys are cartoon turtles.

From Whiz Comics #99, 1948:

Number 621


The Last Whiz


Whiz Comics, which had been a top seller for Fawcett Comics from its first appearance in 1940, went out with a whimper, not a bang--not even a Whizbang*--in 1953. After more than a decade, a protracted lawsuit from DC Comics claiming Captain Marvel was a copy of Superman, and low sales in the comic book industry in general, Fawcett got out of the comic book business. Whiz Comics #155, with its lead Captain Marvel story drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger, was the last issue.

I thought back to how many comics I followed that suddenly just didn't appear anymore. There was no way a kid had knowledge of what was canceled, so I would check the stands, hoping there would be another issue. Back in 1953 there were many Captain Marvel/Marvel Family/Fawcett Comics fans who wondered what happened. They had to wait until DC Comics licensed the Fawcett characters and started republishing them in 1974. Unlike the quiet, unannounced way the Marvel Family of comics went out, they were revived with a lot of advance publicity from DC. Shazam! #1 was a collector event, ensuring a sell out.

*Captain Billy's Whizbang, a jokebook started after World War I by William "Captain Billy" Fawcett, was the foundation of the Fawcett Publishing Company.