William Lee Parker (September 11, 1911 – January 31, 1963) was an American

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

writer and editor. He is best known for creating the

Fawcett Comics Fawcett Comics, a division of Fawcett Publications, was one of several successful comic book publishers during the Golden Age of Comic Books in the 1940s. Its most popular character was Captain Marvel, the alter ego of radio reporter Billy Bats ...

character, Captain Marvel, in 1939, along with artist C. C. Beck.

Early life

Parker was born in

East Orange, New Jersey East Orange is a City (New Jersey), city in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 69,612, an increase of 5,342 (+8.3%) from the 2010 United States ...

. He graduated in 1929 from The

Lawrenceville School The Lawrenceville School is a Private school, private, coeducational College-preparatory school, preparatory school for boarding and day students located in the Local government in New Jersey, unincorporated community of Lawrenceville, New Jers ...

in New Jersey, and then attended

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, where he was a member of the Cannon Club, Press Club and

ROTC The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC; or ) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. While ROTC graduate officers serve in all branches o ...

. After graduating from Princeton in 1933 with a degree in English Literature, Parker worked for three years for the ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the '' New York Tribune'' acquired the '' New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and compet ...

'' as a sports editor and in the education department, followed by a year as sports editor of the ''

Literary Digest ''The Literary Digest'' was an American general interest weekly magazine published by Funk & Wagnalls. Founded by Isaac Kaufmann Funk in 1890, it eventually merged with two similar weekly magazines, ''Public Opinion'' and '' Current Opinion''. ...

''.

Career

In September 1937 Parker joined

Fawcett Publications Fawcett Publications was an American publishing company founded in 1919 in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, by Wilford Hamilton "Captain Billy" Fawcett (1885–1940). It kicked off with the publication of the bawdy humor magazine ''Captain Billy's Whiz ...

, initially as an editor on its crime and detective magazines and then as an editor on its movie magazine line. He stayed in this role until August 1939, when he was asked to become the senior editor of a new

line that Fawcett intended to bring to market. After agreeing to take on the comic book project, Parker was assigned the task of creating the characters and stories for Fawcett's first comic magazine, ''

Whiz Comics ''Whiz Comics'' is an anthology comic book series that was published by former American comic book publishing company, Fawcett Publications between February 1940 until June 1953. It is widely known for being the comic run in which hugely popular ...

''. For the lead character, Parker developed a superhero that he initially named "Captain Thunder," later changed to "Captain Marvelous" at the suggestion of Fawcett General Manager Ralph Daigh and then to "Captain Marvel" at the suggestion of Fawcett artist

Pete Costanza Pete Costanza (May 19, 1913 – June 28, 1984) was an American comic book artist and illustrator. He is best known for his work on Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family during the World War II era fans and historians call the Gold ...

. Parker originally conceived Captain Marvel as a leader of a group of men, each of whom possessed one outstanding characteristic, and who would be called upon by the leader as the needs of each mission demanded. This concept was inspired by stories of the

Knights of the Round Table The Knights of the Round Table (, , ) are the legendary knights of the fellowship of King Arthur that first appeared in the Matter of Britain literature in the mid-12th century. The Knights are a chivalric order dedicated to ensuring the peace ...

that Parker had read as a boy in

James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (né Jones; August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer and civil rights activist who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels, plays, and poems. His 1953 novel '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'' has been ranked ...

's 1910 book "Stories of the King." Fawcett's Daigh, however, was against the idea of a group, so Parker decided to combine all of the outstanding characteristics of the group into a single character. He drew these characteristics from six mythological heroes –

Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus () was a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors. The central character in Homer's ''Iliad'', he was the son of the Nereids, Nereid Thetis and Peleus, ...

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

and Mercury – and used the first letter of each as an acrostic for the word "Shazam." After Parker had fully developed Captain Marvel's character and

backstory A backstory, background story, background, or legend is a set of events invented for a plot, preceding and leading up to that plot. In acting, it is the history of the character before the drama begins, and is created during the actor's prepara ...

, artist Clarence "C.C." Beck was brought in to flesh out the character's look, to which Parker contributed the ideas for the Hessian cape and the lightning bolt logo. Captain Marvel's first appearance was in ''Whiz Comics'' #2, which went on sale in December 1939. In addition to co-creating Captain Marvel, Parker also co-created the other Fawcett characters that debuted in ''Whiz Comics #2'', including

Ibis the Invincible Ibis the Invincible (also Ibis the Mystic) is the name of two fictional superheroes appearing in American comic books first published by Fawcett Comics, then Charlton Comics in 1955, and then DC Comics beginning in the 1970s. In 2022, the characte ...

(with C.C. Beck), Golden Arrow (with Pete Costanza),

Spy Smasher Spy Smasher is the name of two fictional characters appearing in comics published by Fawcett and DC Comics. The first is a superhero that was formerly owned and published by Fawcett Comics. The second is a female anti-terrorism government agent a ...

(with C.C. Beck), Scoop Smith (with Greg Duncan), Lance O'Casey (with Bob Kingett) and

Dan Dare Dan Dare is a British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson who also wrote the first stories. Dare appeared in the ''Eagle'' comic series ''Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future'' from 1950 to 1967 (and subsequently in ...

(with Greg Duncan). At the time he created Captain Marvel, Parker was a member of the cavalry in the

New York National Guard New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 19 ...

, and in October 1940 left Fawcett to join the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

in active service. He served in the

Pacific Theater The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, rising to the rank of Major. Following World War II, he rejoined Fawcett Publications in December 1945, but had no further involvement in comics. From 1945 to 1948 he was the feature editor of ''Today's Woman'', before becoming the senior editor of ''

Mechanix Illustrated ''Mechanix Illustrated'' is an American printed magazine that was originally published by Fawcett Publications. Its title was founded in 1928 to compete against the older ''Popular Science Popular science (also called pop-science or pops ...

'', a position he held until his death in 1963. Parker died of an illness on January 31, 1963, in Roosevelt Hospital, New York. He was buried with military honors in the

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the United States National Cemetery System, one of two maintained by the United States Army. More than 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington County, Virginia. ...

in Virginia. Parker was survived by his wife, the former Elizabeth Hennig, and two step-daughters. Parker's only child, William Lee Parker Jr., died in infancy in 1949.

Bibliography

* Deposition of Captain William Lee Parker in Detective Comics, Inc. v. Fawcett Publications, Inc., September 11, 1944. * Trial testimony of William Lee Parker in Detective Comics, Inc. v. Fawcett Publications, Inc., March 9, 1948.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Bill 1911 births 1963 deaths 20th-century American male writers American comics writers Burials at Arlington National Cemetery Fawcett Comics Lawrenceville School alumni Military personnel from Essex County, New Jersey New York National Guard personnel Princeton University alumni United States Army officers United States Army personnel of World War II Writers from East Orange, New Jersey