Freelance Artist Alex Schomburg was famous for Pulp Magazine Covers
After Joe Simon and Jack Kirby left Timely (Marvel) Comics for better pay and editorial freedom at National (DC) Comics, their million-selling creation Captain America was drawn by Al Avison and Syd Shores, starting with Issue 11. Stan Lieber, nephew of Timely/Marvel’s publisher Martin Goodman, became editor sometime after S&K’s departure, and called himself Stan Lee.
Golden Age Comics were inhumanly competitive and deadline-driven. Jack and Otto Binder of Fawcett’s Captain Marvel series described the Comic Book Industry as a “sausage factory.” While journeymen like Avison, Shores, Bill Evertett, and Carl Burgos slaved away producing heavily- illustrated stories, Timely/Marvel hired Alex Schomburg for his ability to produce snazzy covers — he not only did the exterior of Captain America, but other superhero titles too.
Despite his Germanic name, Schomburg was born in Puerto Rico. I have a strong suspicion who inspired him artistically --
Schomburg WAS noted for rendering women, along with Matt Baker and Nick Cardy, in the Comic Book field, but he never crashed the lucrative pinup trade in slick magazines, exemplified by Vargas, Sundblom, Petty etc.
Captain America went the messy way of most Pulp Entertainment — nobody really FOUGHT for the character, although Timely/Marvel made weak, and tardy, objections when Republic Pictures inserted Cap into a rather generic crime serial in 1944, where he carried a gun and actually caused the deaths of many hoodlums with bullets and fisticuffs through episode after episode. Dick Purcell’s elongated look slightly reflected the figure as it was drawn in the Comic Books, though. After being almost totally unavailable for decades, one may see Republic’s Captain America on YouTube nowadays.
In the meantime, Alex Schomburg explored another schtick in his toolkit — a prowess for depicting gleaming heavy-metal machinery, which brought in a lot more work, and likely sped his departure from notoriously parsimonious Timely/Marvel.
As the 40’s progressed into the 50’s, “Xila” Schomburg applied airbrushing to his work, and found his own way through several Pulp Genres. His quirky style reflected persistent fetishes in these various milieus.
Comic Books suffered a well-documented “crisis of purpose” after WWII, and most of the industry had an impossible time “growing up” with their once-avid audience. The editors of Captain America resorted to 1) Shooting Bucky Barnes, 2) Sending him to the hospital, and 3) Teaming Cap with Betty Ross, an old pal from 1941, as a female sidekick named the Golden Girl.
(No, not the gun moll on the running board — her name is Lavender.)
Bucky returned to limited duty for a short time only — musta been hurt REAL BAD! The penultimate issue of Captain America featured the final appearance of Golden Age Cap, G.G. and the Red Skull.
Schomburg left the Comic Book Industry almost entirely.
Schomburg had discernible influence during his long career, and was fairly well-known by the time of his passing in the late 1990’s. He lived in the Portland, Oregon area -- Hillsboro and Beaverton, actually, and I wonder if Matt Groening of Futurama and Simpsons fame knew the old gentleman, since he lives there too.
Jack Kirby literally revived Captain America during the Early 60’s, when he was Art Director for the Marvel Comics Group, in association with Editor Stan Lee. The micro-history of this character in the pages of innumerable magazines is beyond the scope of this little essay, but Kirby himself told me in 1970: “They (Marvel) can use Captain America for another fifty years!”
Kirby deliberately built the trauma of WWII into his new Captain America. “Live and Let Live” was the bedrock of his, and Kirby’s. philosophy. I like to think that Chris Evans’ portrayal of Cap would please the great man. He was extremely disappointed by the few filmed versions he saw in his lifetime.
I find the current abuse of the character as a Nazi in the comic book to be outright offensive, and boneheaded — Millions of people enjoy the capable, moody, but idealistic Captain America they know in the movies. There’s an indefinable magic in this kind of phenomenon, but there is constant danger as well. The spell can be broken by any number of mis-steps by the people who are responsible for selling new stories of characters like Cap to the public. Confusion about who he is, fictional or not, can sabotage a very good thing, so can trivializing a public icon due to petty office politics in a medium that currently greatly benefits from Hollywood’s positive version of Marvel’s creative properties.
I sure hope that Jack Kirby was right in his prediction about Captain America and fifty more years, but nothing is certain.
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Ellid here —
First, big thanks to MT Spaces for this fascinating substitute diary. I’ve been busy working on my book review and dealing with holiday madness this week, and his willingness to pitch was a lifesaver. Give him a big hand, and a couple sacks of GTPOD Chow for the circling creature flapping around his home (and mine)
Second, there will be a substitute diary next week by Crimson Quillfeather. I’ll be back on December 10th, hopefully with something amusing and/or appalling (or both).
Third, happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
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