SHAZAM! Supermaven Walt Grogan brings color to a gallery of offbeat, groovy images… By WALT GROGAN It’s that marvelous time of year when we get to celebrate Captain Marvel’s co-creator and guiding hand, C.C. Beck’s birthday! Beck was born 113 years ago on June 8, 1910, in Zumbrota, Minnesota. As an adult, he joined the Fawcett Publications’ art staff where he created illustrations for many of the Fawcett magazines including Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang and Smokehouse Monthly. In 1939, he was charged, along with writer Bill Parker, to launch Fawcett into the burgeoning superhero comics field with a character that would rival National Comics’ premier titan, Superman. And thus was born the World’s Mightiest Mortal, Captain Marvel — a character so well-regarded that he eventually outsold the Man of Steel’s comics and, for a time, became the country’s most popular superhero. In Beck’s later years, he remained prolific and often created sketches and one-sheeters of the Big Red Cheese — many of which can be found online. I’ve taken 13 of these and colored them up and sometimes added some titles and captions to help celebrate the Crusty Curmudeon’s special day! — After my buddy, fellow fan colorist Rich Seetoo, colored the cover of the Flash Comics ashcan (generally regarded as Captain Marvel’s first appearance — he was known as Captain Thunder then — he suggested that I color the Thrill Comics version. I’ve always loved this C.C. Beck image, especially considering how impossible it would be for anyone to chain the World’s Mightiest Mortal to a wall! And I really dig that lightning bolt shooting through the Thrill logo: — This next one, a DC Comics house ad for Shazam!, is my all-time favorite piece of artwork. The excitement I felt when I first saw this back in 1972 is nearly indescribable. Here, I wanted to give Beck’s art a bit of a modern coloring feel: — This shot of Cap always makes me laugh! It’s like he’s checking out his own guns! I guess that’s what Billy would do after transforming into the Big Red Cheese: — Beck drew this for the Houston Comicon. It’s amazing what he was able to do with minimal line work. I repurposed this piece into an Independence Day flyer: — Beck generally hated modern-day comics art and what he considered over-rendering....