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My Captain Marvel crazy Dad, rest his soul, collected anything he could lay his hands on, even vaguely related to the Big Red Cheese. He and I used to debate long and hard on Superman vs. Captain Marvel, as DC essentially sued for copyright infringement and put Fawcett out of business. This was a time when comics were in decline. This essentially led to a very near DC monopoly, which was bad for business in many ways. Comics were bland and outdated. Then came the 60's and Marvel. DC saw big competition and changed to meet the new ideals and times in response. The golden age came to a close with a big bang, as many new and lasting super heroes were brought to life. In the 70's DC began to publish Captain Marvel, ironically enough. The problem as I see it with the Cheese, and why no titles have lasted, is that they never updated him enough to make him interesting. He, his villains, family and friends are all stuck in a post WW II state of being. This is similar, in effect, to bringing back the Andy Hardy movies and not changing much. Meanwhile, DC and Marvel shamelessly rip each other off and no copyright infringement is ever mentioned, so maybe DC learned a lesson, or maybe Stan Lee is just too tough to tangle with.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Mama used to say to me... "NOOOoooooooBABY ZERO!!!!! KITTY DOESNT GO IN THE MICROWAVE!!!!" 
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Marvel has been around and in competition with DC since 1939. And there were MANY publishers also around, so I don't know how DC would have had anything close to a Monopoly. There was Dell, Fawcett, Avon, Marvel (Timely), EC and many more. DC and Marvel have not been the only comic publishing companies around 
"Give me liberty or give me death!" -Patrick Henry
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| Agreed, but those others were tiny next to the DC giant in those years between the fall of Fawcett and the rise of Marvel. To prevent stagnation, competition is grand and good. Though not an exclusive monopoly, I think that DC took enough of the lions share of the action in those days to make it, if not the only, then by far the biggest fish in the pond. I am not anything like anti-DC. I love all equally. There are great, great titles in nearly every publishing house. I own a bunch, and wish I had em all. I think I was just trying to tell a story of my perspective of the decline of the Golden Age of comics.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Mama used to say to me... "NOOOoooooooBABY ZERO!!!!! KITTY DOESNT GO IN THE MICROWAVE!!!!"
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I don't know about all of that. Fawcett held the rights to the highest selling books there was; Captain Marvel. I wouldn't call any of those companies tiny. I'm not really sure what time period you're referring to...
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| I refer to this, as cited from Wikipedia. "National Comics Publications v. Fawcett Publications, 191 F.2d 594 (2d Cir. 1951), was a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in a twelve-year legal battle between DC Comics (then known as National Comics) and the Fawcett Comics division of Fawcett Publications, concerning Fawcett's Captain Marvel character being an infringement on the copyright of DC's Superman comic book character. The litigation is notable as one of the longest running legal battles in comic book publication history. The suit resulted in the dissolution of Fawcett Comics and the cancellation of all of its superhero-related publications, including those featuring Captain Marvel and his related characters. DC later acquired the rights to Captain Marvel in the 1970s, which they hold to this day."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Mama used to say to me... "NOOOoooooooBABY ZERO!!!!! KITTY DOESNT GO IN THE MICROWAVE!!!!"
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Yeah, I know about that. I'm just unsure of what you're getting at. I mean, Fawcett didn't dissolve until the 1970s and this forum section is the Golden Age section. So, are we talking about publishers during the Golden Age or Bronze Age?
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| No, I am talking about the time when Fawcett stopped publishing super hero comics, until the time that Marvel began to pump em out. During that time frame there were plenty of other publishing houses putting out titles, but they were not so much super hero and not as popular as the DC or Fawcett super hero titles. They did enough to stay in business, sure, but the super hero genre was really in danger at this point. Fawcett still publishes, but through the subsidiary Archie MLJ. Again, I am not bashing DC. I love the titles, and have more of those in my collection than any other. I just think that DC cut off its nose to spite its face when dealing with Fawcett in the 50's. Maybe they thought that having Fawcett out would double their sales, what they didnt consider was that most of the people buying the Captain Marvel titles, were also buying the DC super hero titles. After the major competition was gone, the DC titles began to get a bit stale and didnt change with the times until the emergence of Marvel and the "super hero with a problem". The sales of Marvel were such, that DC re-evaluated and revamped its line, to the benefit of all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Mama used to say to me... "NOOOoooooooBABY ZERO!!!!! KITTY DOESNT GO IN THE MICROWAVE!!!!"
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| I may well be wrong but I think Dell was the biggest US comics publisher through most of the 1950's. Marvel's rise started circa 1968. Although their characters were arguably more popular than DC through the 60's they were staight jacketed by their distribution deal with ID. Earl.
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CaptainZero00 (10/1/2008)
No, I am talking about the time when Fawcett stopped publishing super hero comics, until the time that Marvel began to pump em out. During that time frame there were plenty of other publishing houses putting out titles, but they were not so much super hero and not as popular as the DC or Fawcett super hero titles. They did enough to stay in business, sure, but the super hero genre was really in danger at this point. Fawcett still publishes, but through the subsidiary Archie MLJ. Again, I am not bashing DC. I love the titles, and have more of those in my collection than any other. I just think that DC cut off its nose to spite its face when dealing with Fawcett in the 50's. Maybe they thought that having Fawcett out would double their sales, what they didnt consider was that most of the people buying the Captain Marvel titles, were also buying the DC super hero titles. After the major competition was gone, the DC titles began to get a bit stale and didnt change with the times until the emergence of Marvel and the "super hero with a problem". The sales of Marvel were such, that DC re-evaluated and revamped its line, to the benefit of all. So, we're just talking superhero books? I think you are giving DC more power than they had. DC and Marvel being truly dominant forces in the industry didn't start until the late 1950s (the Silver Age). If we're talking Golden Age time periods, neither Marvel or DC were like they are today. DC didn't have THAT big of a market share in the 1950s. I agree with Earl. Dell was probably the biggest publisher of the 1950s. Westerns were the most popular books of the 1950s...not superhero books.
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Could be, could be....nice conversation though, isnt it?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Mama used to say to me... "NOOOoooooooBABY ZERO!!!!! KITTY DOESNT GO IN THE MICROWAVE!!!!"
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