C.C. Beck

Clarence Charles Beck was an American comic artist. (June 1910-November 22, 1989) He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

He studied at the Chicago Academy and the University of Minnesota before joining Fawcett publications as a staff artist in 1933. In 1939 when Fawcett began producing comic books Beck was assigned to draw a character created by writer Bill Parker called "Captain Thunder". After his initial appearance the character's name was changed to Captain Marvel.

The popularity of Captain Marvel allowed Fawcett to produce a number of spin-off books and Beck to open his own comic studio. The Captain Marvel stories boasted a clean style which allowed Beck's assistants and other Fawcett artists to produce artwork alleviating Beck's hectic schedule. Nevertheless Beck was essentially the series artistic creator. When DC comics lodged a suit against Fawcett for copyright infringement claiming that Captain Marvel was a copy of Superman, Fawcett was forced to discontinue its comic line due to legal expenses. Beck returned to the field of commercial art, relocating to Florida.

Beck produced infrequent work for comics, a few issues for the short lived Milson Publications in 1966 and a handful of issues of Shazam!, which had fallen into the hands of DC comics.