Shazam! Vol 1 18

The Marvel Family: "The Celebrated Talking Frog of Blackstone Forest!"

Cover

The Marvel Family: "The Celebrated Talking Frog of Blackstone Forest!"

Captain Marvel, Jr.: "The Coin-Operated Caper!"

Inkers

Kurt Schaffenberger

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Shazam! # 17	Shazam! # 19

Hey! Are you just a funny-looking man -- or a dressed-up tiger?

— A Real Frog Prince!

Shazam! #18 is an issue of the series Shazam! (Volume 1) with a cover date of May, 1975.

Synopsis for The Marvel Family: "The Celebrated Talking Frog of Blackstone Forest!"

Mr. Tawny finds a frog in the forest, and realizes he can speak, but the frog explains that he cannot talk to humans thanks to a curse from a witch who wanted to marry him. Tawny brings the frog to the Marvels, who show it to Dr. Kilowatt examines it in the ‘Brain-O-Meter’, but unknown to them Soviet spies are eavesdropping, and they misunderstand the situation and think that the doctor devised a way to increase intelligence and he is testing it on a frog. The commies frog-nap the little critter and escape in a helicopter. Captain Marvel goes to the rescue, and brings the helicopter down. The frog saved, Marvel asks the master magician, Shazam how to turn him back, and he explains that there are multiple ways to turn back a ‘frog prince’, kiss by a maiden, or by having the friend of the victim perform a brave act on his behalf. They realize that the curse is already broken thanks to Captain Marvel, and the prince is his old self again, surprisingly he always had the features of a frog, he never was the handsome prince the fables told of. He now goes around the country giving history lessons.

Appearing in The Marvel Family: "The Celebrated Talking Frog of Blackstone Forest!"

Featured Characters:

Captain Marvel

Supporting Characters:

Mr. Tawny
Dr. Thomas A. Kilowatt
Sunny Sparkle
Dexter Knox

Antagonists:

Agent Raskolnikov

Other Characters:

Prince Maxwell Phrogue, a medieval prince turned into a frog (Single appearance)

Locations:

Earth-S
- Fawcett City
  - Station WHIZ
- Blackstone Forest

Items:

Vehicles:

Raskolnikov's Helicopter (Destroyed)

Synopsis for Captain Marvel, Jr.: "The Coin-Operated Caper!"

John V Franklyn is the President of the Citizens’ Bank and insists on working an hour a day as a teller to know his customers better. Unfortunately for him, the World’s Wickedest Boy, Sivana, Jr., has shown up in the classic disguise (a trench-coat and fedora) and trades five dimes for his half-dollar coin. However, he uses a secret mechanism to send a “thought message” to him and leaves. Outside, Freddy Freeman easily spots Sivana, Jr. and calls CAPTAIN MARVEL to go after him as Captain Marvel, Jr., thinking he robbed the bank when Franklyn runs out after him. Young Thaddeus flings a large expanding spring that loops around the Boy in Blue, made of “Sivanized Steel,” but Junior easily breaks it apart, so Sivana, Jr. uses a cuboid Square Bubble-Pipe to blow a Square Bubble that traps Junior inside an Elastic Plastic that he can’t punch his way out of. Floating off, he figures out the way to get out of it with the Wisdom of Solomon is to call CAPTAIN MARVEL to become Freddy again, breaking open the Square Bubble and then calls CAPTAIN MARVEL again to seize Sivana, Jr. …only for Pres. Franklyn to run up and say he gave him the wrong change. Sivana, Jr. is upset, since his thought message was to make him short-change him on purpose, meaning it’s a failure. The next day, he pulls a similar gambit on Freddy, handing him a half-dollar with a thought message that makes it impossible for him to call CAPTAIN MARVEL! He soon steals all of Freddy’s money and goes back into the Citizens’ Bank to rob it now that he knows he can as Freddy puzzles about how to fix this. Before he can do any more to steal from the Citizens’ Bank, Captain Marvel, Jr. flies in and smacks the half-dollar out of Young Thaddeus’ hands, throws him to the ground and then tosses him outside, saying that he can have Billy Batson use the coin to fix Freddy again. Sivana, Jr. is stunned to ask how Freddy managed it, but Junior won’t tell him. Later, Freddy writes in his diary that the compulsion made it so he couldn’t talk or think about Captain Marvel himself, but he could say CAPTAIN MARVEL, JUNIOR which works just as functionally.

Appearing in Captain Marvel, Jr.: "The Coin-Operated Caper!"