Local Hero Comics: Captain Mavrik Takes A Holiday by Anthony Lathrop

A focus on small press comic creators

Most well-versed comics fans would associate humorous and satirical superhero comics becoming popular with Harvey Kurtzman and other creators behind the early (and now late) Mad magazine. However, you can argue that it was the Boston and New England comics scene from the nineties who helped bring it back to the modern mainstream. I attribute this to Tom Devlin and the then-fledgling Highwater Books publishing Coober Skeber #2. Subtitled the “Marvel Benefit Issue,” this was an unauthorized anthology of black and white comics featuring Marvel Comics characters during a time when the Marvel was facing an uncertain future while going through bankruptcy court. Some work satirical, some slapstick humorous, some even touching and serious, this was an amazing collection destined to never be printed again, except for a James Kochalka Hulk story which, thanks to people like Kurt Busiek, was later reprinted by Marvel. This no doubt helped lead to projects like Peter Bagge’s The Megalomaniacal Spider-Man and the Strange Tales series. Not to mention DC’s Bizarro anthologies and AdHouse Book’s Project: Superior Series. It culminates with today’s comic of discussion, Anthony Lathrop’s Captain Mavrik takes A Holiday.