In Drawing Crazy Patterns, I spotlight at least five scenes/moments from within comic book stories that fit under a specific theme (basically, stuff that happens frequently in comics). Note that these lists are inherently not exhaustive. They are a list of five examples (occasionally I'll be nice and toss in a sixth). So no instance is "missing" if it is not listed. It's just one of the five examples that I chose.

Reader Andy N. asked me to spotlight times that Billy Batson was bound and gagged so that he could not shout "Shazam!" and transform into Earth's Mightiest Mortal, Captain Marvel!

Here is the really weird thing. Billy Batson being the alter ego of Captain Marvel isn't even common knowledge in the comics, so the fact that they all think to gag Billy is pretty hilarious.

Perhaps the first time that this particular plot point was used was in Whiz Comics #9 (by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck), where Billy is investigating a string of mysterious jewel heists. He discovers the shocking truth! A scientist is shrinking people down to small size and then forcing them to steal for him while he flies them around in model planes. That is so crazy that it is brilliant.

When Doctor Durgan discovers that Billy is looking into him, he binds and gags him and prepares to shrink Billy, as well...

Luckily for Billy, one of the other shrunken men decides to help him escape his grim fate...

Four issues later (in another Parker/Beck story), we get another bizarre plotline, where Captain Marvel's arch-nemesis, Doctor Sivana, bound and gagged Billy and subjected him to a de-aging serum...

Luckily, Billy is still a smart kid despite his youthful exterior (by the way, is that seriously the requirement? If Billy had a lisp, he wouldn't be allowed to become Captain Marvel?) and he manages to re-age himself and escape...

Sivana is at it again in Captain Marvel Adventures #1 (by Manly Wade Wellman, Jack Kirby and Dick Briefer), where Sivana and his villainous robot, Z, capture Billy and bind and gag him...

I'm really not sure how good of an idea it was for Billy to try to burn his mask off, but hey, it worked, so I guess I should just shut up and let Billy do what he wants!

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This Captain Marvel Adventures #13 story (by an unknown writer and C.C. Beck, well, at least Beck's studio - I don't know how much of the story Beck drew himself. Captain Marvel was popular enough that Beck, like Joe Shuster, was able to hire other artists to keep up wit hthe tremendous demand for new Captain Marvel stories. Such artists rarely got credited, of course, and they are trying to draw like Beck, so it is tough to tell who drew what) is a bit annoying. Billy gets caught and is bound and gagged by an evil scientist who has built a weather machine that is about to unleash a tornado on the tiny island that Billy is on...

However, Billy is freed by his valet, Steamboat, and I just don't feel like showing you a page with Billy's super-racist caricature Steamboat on it, so just take for granted that that is how Billy escaped his bondage. Then the storm takes Billy, but he says Shazam while up in the air!

Finally, in this clever Otto Binder story from Captain Marvel Aventures #23 (art by Al McLean, with inks by Meyer Tuckschneider on the panels involving rope - I guess penciling and inking rope takes a lot of extra time?), Billy runs up against a Nazi scientist, Dr. Lye, who tries to get Billy to reveal the truth about Captain Marvel via a special lie detector. As someone once said, Dr. Lye can't handle the truth...

This is just five examples. This was a constant occurrence in the early Billy Batson stories and honestly, it kept up when DC Comics licensed the character and even when DC Comics flat out purchased the characters. It's just logical, of course, as if a guy's power is that he says a magic word, you have to come up with ways to keep him from saying that magic word (or at least delaying it).

Thanks to Andy for the suggestion!

If anyone has an idea for a future Drawing Crazy Patterns, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!