PRELUDE: Captain America Comics #16, Story D

Red Skull’s Deadly Revenge!

Featuring: Captain America
Release: April 30, 1942
Cover: July 1942
10 cents
Story by: Stan Lee
Art work by : Al Avison
24 pages

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Captain America Comics #7PreludeYoung Allies #4
Sgt. Fury #16Reading orderTales of Suspense #65

Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created Captain America and were the driving force and primary creators behind the first 10 issues. But they left for the competition, for the company that would be DC.

That perhaps understates what happened. They learned publisher Martin Goodman had been cheating them out of royalties with shady accounting practices, and so started considering leaving the company. Goodman learned of their intentions and fired them before they could quit, losing his most successful creators in the process.

Stan Lee, now 19 years old, has since taken over the role of editing the Captain America stories, and had long been the writer on many backup features in the series, including Headline Hunter, Hurricane, Father Time, and the Imp.

This is his first credited Captain America comic story. (His first Captain America story was the prose piece in issue 3.)

His distinctive narration style is already recognizable even at a young age, filled with excitement and hyperbole. “…most dangerous adventure of their amazing, thrill-packed careers!”

We get a cool double splash page for the feature image.

Was he wearing his skull mask in prison? Why?

Red Skull apparently died at the end of most of his appearances, but he was captured at the end of issue 7, so opening with him in prison is correct. Somebody is paying attention.

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PRELUDE: USA Comics #6

The Ghost’s Gaze of Death

Featuring: Captain America
Release: October 28, 1942
Cover: December 1942
10 cents
15 pages

I don’t see any credits. Except for the publisher and “editorial and art director”. The GCD credits the art to Al Avison and Syd Shores.

“Jap Buster Johnson”? Ouch.

We continue our survey of early Captain America comics in preparation for Avengers #4. We started out with some significant milestones and will mostly focus on significant milestones. But I wanted to get a sense of who Captain America was in a run-of-the-mill story, not in any way a milestone. This story fit the bill for its insignificance.

It was chosen specifically because there is a connection to Medusa, which will also tie into Avengers #4.

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