In December, ComicsXF’s intrepid head honcho, Zachary Jenkins, hit the floor of C2E2 with a microphone in his hand and a hankering to talk to as many creators as he could get five minutes alone with. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing some of those interviews.
You know who should draw a Shazam book? Evan “Doc” Shaner. His clean lines and classic looks were made for a Golden Age character like the superhero people used to commonly call Captain Marvel but now less so because of decades of legal stuff that we’re not going to get into here but has been well-documented.
Turns out he is.
DC announced in November The New Champion of Shazam, a four-issue series in which Mary Marvel, Billy Batson’s sister, becomes the wielder of the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles and the speed of Mercury. Attached to write is Josie Campbell, the head writer on Netflix’s She-Ra revival.
And there was much rejoicing among DC fans who both wanted to see another female superhero get boosted and Shaner return to the Shazam family (Shazamily?) after 2015’s Convergence: Shazam.
Unfortunately, the new miniseries, originally announced for February, has been delayed to August, per Newsarama. But you can sate your hunger by reading this interview in which Shaner talks about returning to Shazam, stretching his muscles on Strange Adventures and more.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length, and to update some time elements.
ComicsXF: So Doc, just recently announced, you are doing the new champion of Shazam, Mary Marvel, in a new book. You have been, y’know after some of the stuff you were doing with Convergence: Shazam, you’ve been cast from a fan perspective as ‘He should do Shazam! He should do Shazam! Why isn’t he doing the Captain Marvel book?! He should do Shazam!’
What made you go and say yes to this Mary Marvel title?
Doc Shaner: [Laughs] So for years I’d said — and this was after Geoff Johns had rebooted Shazam for the New 52 — for years I said the one thing that would get me to come back and do Shazam is if Mary took over. I for a long time thought that the nice kick in the pants the Shazam corner needed was Mary being the lead. And not at the expense of the rest of the family, certainly, and nothing against Billy either, I love Billy, but yeah, I long thought that Mary should be taking over.
CXF: Was this pitched on serendipity to bring you in, or is it something you worked with the DC team to develop into a title?
Shaner: We were … I was talking to my editor on Strange Adventures, Brittany Holzherr, and talking about what I might do next after Strange Adventures. Two or three books came up, and nothing was really striking with me. And she asked if I’d be up for doing a variant cover for this Mary Shazam book. And I said, ‘Well, would you be open to me doing the whole thing?’ And it just kinda worked out, because she came to me with exactly the pitch I was hoping for.
CXF: That’s awesome. Now, you bring up Strange Adventures, that’s the book you just finished with Tom King and Mitch Gerads. That book is definitely a darker thing than your usual style, which tends to be giving the impression of Golden Age/Silver Age comics. Was it refreshing to be doing a title that was in more of a darker vein than some of the stuff you’ve been doing?
Shaner: Yes! It was great to be able to stretch a bit. Tom gave me so much room to handle the tone in a way that I saw applicable. It was just nice to be able to stretch that little bit, because I’d been doing those old DC omnibus covers for a while. It was kinda serendipitous that I got to stop doing those right around the same time that I felt like I kinda needed to move on to something else.
But Strange was a great way to transition from that to something a little weightier, something a li’l … darker, yes, but something more broad.
CXF: Sure. You have that going, you’re going into the Captain Marvel stuff, where do you see this side of your career going in the next 10 years? Are you wanting to continue to be more of the classic-style DC guy or branch out and do more stuff like Strange Adventures that allow you to flex different artistic muscles?
Shaner: Yes. I’m hoping to do more of the latter, I think. I’m looking to expand into writing, as well as … y’know, ‘classic’ or ‘dark’ or whatever the take, just something new, I think. I’m hoping to do some new stuff that I haven’t done yet, more than anything.
CXF: That sounds good! Is there anything upcoming that you want folks to know about that you have in the works beyond Captain Marve-I mean, The New Champion of Shazam, excuse me. Copyright claim, they get very picky about that one.
Shaner: [Laughs] Yes, they do. And for the moment, it’s just Shazam coming up in [August]. And the hardcover for Strange Adventures is out [now]. But other than that, that’s it for now.
— Transcribed by Ritesh Babu
Zachary Jenkins runs ComicsXF and is a co-host on the podcast “Battle of the Atom.” Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside of all this.
Ritesh Babu is a comics history nut who spends far too much time writing about weird stuff and cosmic nonsense.
