An unexpected company crossover (of sorts), courtesy of artist Wilfredo Torres and Shazamaholic Walt Grogan…
By WALT GROGAN
It’s always fantastic when I either stumble across a cool piece of art or when someone, like Marvel Family Web regular Mike Williams, posts a marvelous piece he’s found online. It’s even better when it’s an unofficial crossover!
Case in point: this terrific piece by Wilfredo Torres of Captain Marvel taking on the Fantastic Four’s nemesis, the Super-Skrull!
You may already be familiar with Wilfredo’s work on Dynamite’s The Shadow: Year One, Valiant’s Quantum and Woody, Image’s Jupiter’s Circle or DC’s Superman ’78 mini-series.
Here, Wilfredo takes the cover of 1967’s Thor #142 by Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta, and replaces the God of Thunder with the World’s Mightiest Mortal, moving the action to DC’s 197os Shazam! title.
Since the piece features the Big Red Cheese replacing a character whose transformation gimmick was arguably inspired by him, I knew I had to color it. But that Cap pose seemed so familiar and it finally hit me: I think it was inspired by this panel from Shazam! #26 from 1976:
So, this makes the cover doubly cool because it’s like a Jack “King” Kirby and “Captain” Kurt Schaffenberger team-up!
Without further delay, here are my colors on this mighty commission:
You can check out more from Wilfredo Torres on Instagram.
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MORE
— Dig JERRY ORDWAY’s Magnificent Tribute to BATMAN History. Click here.
— BATMAN: OLD AND NEW — Dig RON FRENZ’s Fab Artwork Celebrating the Caped Crusader’s History. Click here.
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A 10-year-old Walt Grogan fell in love with the Big Red Cheese thanks to essays written by Dick Lupoff and Don Thompson in the paperback edition of All in Color for a Dime, released in 1970 and bought for him by his father off a paperback spinner rack in a liquor store on the South Side of Chicago. Walt runs The Marvel Family Web Facebook page devoted to all incarnations of the Fawcett/DC Captain Marvel and blogs about Captain Marvel at shazamshistorama.com.
April 12, 2024
Nothing to say but: “Holy Moley! Make Mine Captain Marvel!”
April 12, 2024
I recall reading somewhere that Jack Kirby worked on the original Captain Marvel at some point. Does anyone know if that’s true?
April 12, 2024
Definitely true. Simon and Kirby did the first issue of Special Edition Comics (I think that was the title) which was the first issue of what became Captain Marvel Adventures.
April 12, 2024
By the way, I neeeeed to read this issue!
April 12, 2024
On the original cover, I found it funny that the Super-Skrull looks VERY cross-eyed… drunk, perhaps? Tired?
April 12, 2024
Great colors on a great cover, Walt!