I need to say something first before the die-hard comic fans storm my place with torches and pitchforks.  I know that the character’s name is Captain Marvel, but dagnabbit, “Shazam!” makes for such a better headline!

Let me share a story with you.  A long long time ago, I had to do some form of assignment for my grade 4 class.  The details are exceedingly fuzzy, but I do know that Captain Marvel was the subject, and for some reason I recall hounding some guy at a local comic book shop for days, grilling him on everything Captain Marvel related.  In the end, I somehow convinced him to come to my class and do a talk on The Big Red Cheese.  Since then, I haven’t really given much thought to Billy Batson, other than seeing an image of him here or there in my travels.  So imagine my surprise when I saw this image of Captain Marvel in the cartoon tattoo galleries.

I think what I like most about the image is that it’s closer to Alex Ross’ take on Captain Marvel, as opposed to the traditional “cartoony” feel that is normally associated with him.

It’s pretty interesting to think that there’s an entire generation’s worth of superheroes that never made the transition to modern popular culture.  Be it simply because the publisher shut down, or the rights were never picked up by Marvel or DC when they took to the forefront of the industry.  All the independent/small scale publishers fell by the wayside over 60 years ago, and anything that wasn’t bought up has slipped into obscurity.

Do you have a tattoo or something else related to an obscure comic/cartoon/other?  Send it my way.