Captain Marvel Jr. #13

History

Mac Raboy — born Emanuel Raboy on April 9, 1914, in New York City — had been chosen as the defining visual architect of Captain Marvel Jr. when Fawcett editor Ed Herron wanted an illustrative, photo-realistic contrast to C.C. Beck's cartoony Captain Marvel work; Raboy's cover run on the solo CMJ title continued through this issue and beyond. By late 1943, Fawcett's art department had largely transitioned to a freelance model, and Raboy was stretching thin across the line; Roger Hill's biography *Mac Raboy: Master of the Comics* (TwoMorrows, 2019) documents that the editors would later reuse Raboy figure drawings combined with other artists' backgrounds, though at this point in 1943 his covers were still fully realized compositions. The interior anthology format — stories by Otto Binder and Art Helfant with art by several hands — was typical of the 56–64 page Fawcett monthly, which packed multiple short Captain Marvel Jr. adventures alongside humor strips.

Trivia · 9 facts

• Published November 1943 by Fawcett Publications; 56 pages, full color.
• Cover painted by Mac Raboy, depicting Captain Marvel Jr. (Freddy Freeman) overpowering Hitler, Tojo, and Mussolini in an American football game — one of Raboy's most-discussed wartime satirical compositions.
• Lead story 'Captain Marvel Jr. Goes to School' establishes that Freddy Freeman has been adopted by foster parents who are unaware he is secretly Captain Marvel Jr.
• Other interior stories include 'The Case of the Missing Briefcase' (Captain Nazi seeks a mysterious briefcase and runs into Freddy Freeman), 'The Mirage Projector of Crime!' (featuring Sivana's holographic weapon), and 'The Case of the Poison Press!'
• Writing credits: Otto Binder and Art Helfant; interior art by Mac Raboy, Tom McNamara, Phil Bard, Marc Swayze, and Al Carreno.
• Stories from this issue were reprinted in the Canadian anthology *Grand Slam Comics* vol. 3 #9 (Anglo-American Publishing, August 1944), with the original scripts redrawn by Canadian artists.
• At least one story from this issue was later reprinted as a Fawcett Miniature: 'The Case of the Poison Press' (1946).
• The issue was subsequently anthologized in *Take That, Adolf!: The Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War* (Fantagraphics, 2017), recognizing it as a significant artifact of WWII-era comics propaganda.
• No new character first appearances are recorded for this issue in major key-issue databases.

Cast · 2 characters

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