Captain Marvel Club Card Replica

I recently found a nice replica of one of the Captain Marvel Club cards.  It's printed on heavy cardboard and the colors are pretty nice!  The original card would have had a drawing of Billy Batson on it, and by lifting up a flap on the card, Billy would "transform" into Captain Marvel!  On the back of the card is the club's secret code!

Front of card

Back of card with club code

This was just one version of two club cards that I'm aware of, and this 'magic' version came out after the original card was produced.  (You can see an image of the original card here.)  This replica was far more affordable than an original one - I've seen them priced in the $100 plus range on various sites!  While I would prefer to have an original, it's not a bad edition to my Captain Marvel collection!

The Captain Marvel Club Code

I previously wrote a brief article about the Captain Marvel Club which you can read here.  As a member of Cap's club, you received a membership card with Captain Marvel's Secret Code on the back!  

The code allowed club members to send coded messages to each other and also decode messages from Captain Marvel and Billy Batson in Cap's comics.

Interestingly, the Captain Marvel Club Code made a comeback in Jeff Smith's 2007 Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil and in issue #1 of Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! (2008).  I don't have any screen shots of how they used the code but I do know Jeff Smith used the code in the titles of each issue.

While doing some research on this I found a great resource on the Marvel Family Web.  They created a way to create and decipher messages using the Captain Marvel Club Code!  Holy Moley what a fantastic resource!!!  Simply click here and then scroll to the bottom of the page and follow the directions!

I plan on using the Captain Marvel Club Code on occasion on Twitter and here on the blog - just to try and bring back some of the golden age shine of our hero, Captain Marvel!

Let me give a special thanks to Carl (@LetsTalkShazam on Twitter) for the Captain Marvel Club graphics at the top of this article.  And thanks to the Marvel Family Web for putting together the decoder!!!

R SLKV BLFEV VMQLBVW GSRH XZKGZRM NZIEVO XOFY XLWV ZIGRXOV!

Did You Know....

Did you know that the Captain Marvel Club was an unexpected hit with his fans?  In an interview with Roscoe Fawcett (son of Captain Billy Fawcett - founder of Fawcett comics) I learned that the club was an overnight success!  Here's a brief portion of the interview as published on page 12 of the Fawcett Companion.

"Fawcett Collectors of America: What about the Captain Marvel Club and all of the merchandise produced at that time... were you involved with any of that?
Roscoe Fawcett: Oh yes! We had to go out and rent an entire building just for the Captain Marvel Club... overnight! I couldn’t believe the response we got; we were flooded with mail... all of those dimes, quarters and dollars that came in! We had to hire six women who did nothing but open envelopes and empty out the money. We must have had between 30 to 35 employees hired solely for the handling of the Captain Marvel Club."

Holy Moley - they had to rent an entire building just to handle the demand for the Captain Marvel Club!  They also had up to 35 employees that did nothing but work on handling the club!  This is a great testament to how much fans of all ages love the Captain Marvel character.

Did you know the Captain Marvel Club was an unexpected hit with his fans?  You do now!!