Wow, just typing 'Shazam Family' makes my skin crawl. It's the Marvel Family, dammit! Ok, deep breaths. Deep breaths. No one wants to read a rant about semantics. In the last decade, DC did a pretty good job producing these nice, albeit slim reprint volumes as a sort of retro 80-Page Giants. The problem I had with them is that I had read many of the Silver Age DC stories before and they carried a premium price tag ($9.99 in Canada). As we all know, deflation has a habit of kicking in after a few years and I'm seeing this at much more reasonable prices ($2.99) in back issue bins. This particular issue is pure Golden Age gold. It includes some pivotal tales from the heyday of the Marvels and provides a good sampling of the artists working for Fawcett at the time, including Mac Raboy, Marc Swayze and Bud Thompson. What I love the most is that DC saw fit to include the full Sivana Family story from Marvel Family #10. If you have already wanted to get a taste of the Big Red Cheese but did not want to shell out for originals or an Archives volume, this is a great option. Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Hidden Gems: Shazam & Shazam Family Annual #1 (2002)
Wow, just typing 'Shazam Family' makes my skin crawl. It's the Marvel Family, dammit! Ok, deep breaths. Deep breaths. No one wants to read a rant about semantics. In the last decade, DC did a pretty good job producing these nice, albeit slim reprint volumes as a sort of retro 80-Page Giants. The problem I had with them is that I had read many of the Silver Age DC stories before and they carried a premium price tag ($9.99 in Canada). As we all know, deflation has a habit of kicking in after a few years and I'm seeing this at much more reasonable prices ($2.99) in back issue bins. This particular issue is pure Golden Age gold. It includes some pivotal tales from the heyday of the Marvels and provides a good sampling of the artists working for Fawcett at the time, including Mac Raboy, Marc Swayze and Bud Thompson. What I love the most is that DC saw fit to include the full Sivana Family story from Marvel Family #10. If you have already wanted to get a taste of the Big Red Cheese but did not want to shell out for originals or an Archives volume, this is a great option. 
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4 comments:
I really liked this one. It retold origins and/or concisely explained who the characters were, making it a good introduction for readers who weren't already familiar with the series. It was kid-friendly. You could safely give it to your nephew (or, for that matter, to your elderly uncle). And it is an example of comics back when they were unpretentious and entertaining.
For sure - this is really fun stuff. Great mix of action and humour.
I bought a few of those giant/annual replicas. And this is one of them.
Never was a big Marvel Family theme or idea either, except for Jerry Ordway run at DC in the 90's (?), but Fawcett sure had some great artists and writers.
But I would prefer to see some reprints of the non-marvel family material.
Still, I'm adding this to my list.
I meant to write 'But this is not one of them', at the beginning of my previous post.
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