The World of Mr. Satanism

YOU don't have to PUT UP with the HIP.

Mr. Satanism Comic Books

Buy Mr. Satanism Comics

Reviews of TWoMS

Mr. Satanism Bibliography

Mr. Satanism Online

TWoMS Online Comic Books

TWoMS Online Comic Strips

Other Online Features

The 500 Coolest Chicks Ever

Seduction of the Idiot

Nothing to See Here

Literary Picks for Perverts

Video Picks for Perverts

The Shrine to Jayna

The Jan Appreciation Page

Off-Site

Mr. Satanism on MySpace

Contact Us

E-mail

A Short History of Virile Comics'

By Corbin Rollins

"The Captain's Oath: To see Wrongs Righted, Evil Thwarted, and Injustices Justified!"

"Captain Conformity."  The character is a cultural touchstone, an archetype so ingrained in our national consciousness that he seems almost inseparable from the concept of  "America" as we know it today.  He stands beside such icons as Paul Bunyan, Tarzan, Superman, Flash Gordon, and Boo Berry, creations that have reached such a level of recognition that they have almost become concepts rather than believable, three-dimensional characters.  Sometimes it's hard to imagine a time when they didn't exist, but even legends have their beginnings- and Captain Conformity is no exception.

Captain Conformity's genesis was in 1948.  The post-war boom was in full swing, and "funnybooks" were bigger sellers with the kids than ever.  Donald Larson, a shoe salesman and former minister, was dismayed with the violence and gore represented in such fare as Vault of Horror and Tales Calculated to Make You Wet Yourself.  He envisioned a comic book that taught Christian ideals, one that would show children that people who deviated from the straight and narrow were the cause of America's ills.  Larson spent a weekend in his garage, drinking cheap gin and inhaling butane; when he emerged, he held in his hands a notebook that contained the first sketch of a character that would come to be known as Captain Conformity.

Larson shared his idea with a friend, German emigrant and former war hero Hans Hessel.  Sources conflict, but it is generally accepted that it was Hessel who came up with the name "Captain Conformity" and it was certainly he who put up the money he stole from Jews during the second World War to finance their new venture: "Conformity Comics".

The first issue of Conformity Comic's The Adventures of Captain Conformity appeared on March 15, 1949.  Despite the high hopes of its creators (Larson had drawn the issue and inked his own pencils, Hessel had written the script) TAOCC was an unmitigated disaster.  Poor distribution kept the comic from receiving an acceptable level of newsstand exposure, and accusations of anti-Semitism in the stories and a universal loathing for Captain Conformity's youthful sidekick, an African-American teen affectionately nicknamed "Lil' Coon", hurt sales even more.  Larson and Hessel were ruined.  Conformity Comics shut its doors and declared bankruptcy, having published only one single comic book.  Ironically, this is now one of the most valuable and sought-after comic books in the world.

Hans Hessel eventually found it necessary to leave the United States, late at night, so he signed over his share of the rights to the character to Larson.  Larson, penniless, approached Archibold Rollins, grandfather of present-day documentary filmmaker Corbin Rollins and owner of Virile Comics.  Virile Comics had made a name for themselves with such genre titles as Blood-Drenched Nazi Disembowler and Teenage Love, but they had not yet entered the lucrative "costumed hero" field.  Rollins saw potential in Captain Conformity, and hired Larson to draw a new book, purchasing the rights from him for $35.00 and a bottle of whiskey he had in the trunk of his car.  The revamped Captain Conformity Comics (abbreviated to simply Captain Conformity with issue #57) appeared on newsstands in October of 1951.  It was a smash, outselling every book on the racks.  Eventually, Virile Comics would drop its other genre imprints and concentrate solely on "superhero" comics.

The 1950s were good to comic books, and to Virile in particular.  Virile won several suits against other publishers who ground out their own second-rate imitations of their flagship character, and assimilated these knock-offs into their growing roster of costumed heroes.  Donald Larson had less luck, constantly banging heads with Rollins throughout the decade about both the stories that were being crafted around his brainchild and the pittance he felt he was being paid to illustrate them.  Finally, in 1963, Rollins had had enough, and fired Don Larson, the man most responsible for making Virile Comics what it was.

Coincidentally, Captain Conformity went into a creative slump, with lackluster stories and weak sales for several years, even suspending publication entirely for most of 1965.  These are considered the least collectable of the comic's considerable run.

Nineteen sixty-seven is the year when the modern Captain, as we know him today, truly came into being.  Steering away from bank robbers and two-bit punks, writers like Richard Reeds and Roger Stevens breathed new life in the character by introducing a "rogue's gallery" of costumed adversaries for our hero.  It was during this period that villains like "The Killer Shrew", "Mr. Satanism", and, in an attempt to be topical, "The Omega Hippie" were born.  Reeds also introduced a wider cast for our hero to interact with, including an ill-advised (and mercifully brief) re-introduction of his old sidekick Lil' Coon.

As the country nurtured the hangover caused by Vietnam and the '60s, comic books became more topical.  It was during this period that Kevin Clarksdale introduced real life into the Captain Conformity book, with stories exploring abortion, neo-Nazism, and smoking pot while operating heavy machinery.  Today, these are considered the quintessential Captain Conformity stories.

In the 1980s comic books became darker, and with the introduction of bloodthirsty  "anti-heroes" like Wolverine and the Punisher, the idealism of Captain Conformity seemed outdated.  Attempts to modernize the character by having him gorily murder his adversaries and rape female foes met with little enthusiasm, and when Don Larson approached Virile about the return of his original artwork drawn during the first decade of the Virile run, his shoddy treatment at the hands of the company's legal machine turned off even more fans.  Lawsuits ensued, with Virile coming out on top.

Virile's troubles were far from over, however.  Dale Rollins, son of founder Archibold, attempted gimmick after gimmick to bring sales up, but by 1993 even Virile's best selling books were pulling in a fraction of the readers that their least popular comics had just five years before.  Finally, in 1995, Virile announced that they would be closing their doors.  A final story arc, "The Infinity Crisis", involved the last three issues of all five of their surviving titles, including Captain Conformity.  The final issue, #546, shipped in September of 1995.  One of the longest uninterrupted single character runs in comic book history had come to an end.

Although Virile Comics no longer exists as a publisher, the character of Captain Conformity is still with us.  Over the years he has appeared in three separate cartoon series, the most current of which has been renewed for another season (6 episodes).  There were two movies made in the 1970s, both currently available on video, and there is the big-budget film due out this fall, with a reported budget of over $200 million.  And we still have Captain Conformity mugs, T-shirts, ad infinitum, so, in the end, things aren't all that different.  Which is good, because as the Captain would say;

"Different is WRONG!"

CAPTAIN CONFORMITY REMEMBERED

KEYSTONE ISSUES/PRICE GUIDE

#1 (Conformity Comics)  Very rare.  Probably one of the rarest Golden Age comics.  Features Captain Conformity's origin as the "Aryan Ideal," given superpowers by the Norse god Odin.  Many copies destroyed in public burnings by the Jewish Anti-Defamation League and other organizations.

#1 (Virile Comics)  First Virile Comics appearance.  Origin altered- Captain Conformity was now an alien rocketed to Earth, where he crashed in a nuclear testing site and was bitten by a radioactive bat.  While recovering in the hospital, he is visited by Odin and given superpowers.

#140  Very rare.  First appearance of villain "Captain Supermarvelman".  Most copies recalled and destroyed after lawsuit initiated by National Periodical Publications (DC Comics).  Virile settled out-of-court, paying settlement and fees by selling archived original art to a company that used it as insulation for low-income housing.

#219  First appearance villain "Mr. Satanism" (in shadows only).

#220  First full appearance of Mr. Satanism.

#223  First appearance villain "Omega Hippie".  Omega Hippie later becomes a hero and receives his own title.

#290  Rare.  Re-introduction "Lil Coon".  Many copies publicly burned by NAACP.  Attempt to torch Virile offices leads to accidental burning of Atlas Comics, but no one notices.

#482-493  Captain Conformity dies in each of these issues.

#500  Anniversary issue with 12 variant covers, the rarest of which appears on only 30 copies, and, as Steven Brant notes in his editorial "...we peed on most of those." 

#546  Last issue.

(Excerpted from Corbin Rollins' unpublished Men in Tights: The History of Virile Comics and reprinted with permission.)

Back to Seduction of the Idiot