In the 1960s, including a "bat man" in your comic was a guarantee of high sales...
...even if he was a villain!
You'll note that the cover for the never-reprinted Captain Marvel #3 (1966) has a slightly different color scheme for The Bat's costume that mimicked Batman's design even more closely...
DC Comics' (then National Periodical Publications) lawyers noticed it too, and quickly filed suit for copyright and trademark infringement!
When The Bat reappeared in the very next issue two months later, he was both re-named "The Ray", and recolored!
Note: DC had acquired the rights to Quality
Comics' Golden Age characters in the 1950s, including The Ray, but
had not utilized most of them either in new stories or reprints as they had with
Plastic Man and Blackhawk, so they couldn't go after MF
Publications for trademark infringement.
(As it turned out, they also let the copyrights lapse, so almost all the Quality Comics heroes are now Public Domain!)
Written and inked by Carl Hubbell, penciled by Leon Francho.
Though the story mentions an earlier encounter between The Bat..er, The Ray...and Captain Marvel, it's never been shown either in flashback or as a standalone tale!
We'll be presenting more of the FIRST Silver Age Captain Marvel's never-reprinted adventures, so bookmark us!
When The Bat reappeared in the very next issue two months later, he was both re-named "The Ray", and recolored!
(As it turned out, they also let the copyrights lapse, so almost all the Quality Comics heroes are now Public Domain!)
Written and inked by Carl Hubbell, penciled by Leon Francho.
Though the story mentions an earlier encounter between The Bat..er, The Ray...and Captain Marvel, it's never been shown either in flashback or as a standalone tale!
We'll be presenting more of the FIRST Silver Age Captain Marvel's never-reprinted adventures, so bookmark us!
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featuring the cover from the issue this post's story is re-presented from!
featuring the cover from the issue this post's story is re-presented from!
Re: "DC Comics' (then National Periodical Publications) lawyers noticed it too" and
ReplyDelete"Note: DC had acquired the rights to Quality Comics' Golden Age characters in the 1950s, including The Ray, but had not utilized most of them either in new stories or reprints"
This reminded me of your earlier comment from http://heroheroinehistory.blogspot.com/search?q=%22Captain+Marvel%22
"In 1966, Fass took a look to see what already-established names for comics characters were no longer being used, and discovered several were no longer trademarked...including the Golden Age Captain Marvel, whose last appearance had been in 1954, and whose trademark had expired!"
Pretty astounding that DC went after Fawcett for decades and somehow managed to let the copyright on the Captain Marvel name lapse, isn't it? Then they got bent out of shape about "The Bat"?
In Fawcett's case, they wanted to stop publication of the original Captain Marvel due to his perceived similarities to Superman.
ReplyDeleteWhen publication and merchandising featuring the Big Red Cheese ended in 1954, there was a certain length of time before lack of usage on products allowed the "Captain Marvel" name to lapse.
When Myron Fass came along 12 years later, the name no longer had trademark protection, and anyone could use it.
They just couldn't use the original character with his distinctive costume and powers. (But, they did use "Billy Batson" as a sidekick!)
After MF Publications folded, Marvel Comics acted as soon as they legally-could to secure the "Captain Marvel" name on their own character, and have kept the name in continuous use ever since on several different characters!