Marvel launch online Captain America newstrip

Marvel release the 1940s style newspaper adventures of Cap and Bucky, with Karl Kesel

Marvel’s latest online venture is more than just a step to the future, it’s also a blast from the past, as they launch a faux-1940s Captain America newspaper comic strip, written and drawn by Karl Kesel. Marvel will release a new strip every day, including extra sized Sunday strips for 3 whole months, meaning there will b 85 strips in all.

ComicsAlliance have an interview with Kesel, and he has this to say:

From the beginning, I saw it as going online. I really think that’s the
future of comics. At the same time, I have a deep love for the old
adventure comic strips. I really wish I’d been born 50 years earlier so
I could have been around in their heyday. And really there’s no place
for them now in newspapers, but I think that kind of comic could be
alive again online. Milton Caniff’s great quote is that his job was to
sell the next day’s paper. Adventure and serial strips in the ’30s and
’40 were a huge part of the success of those papers. Of course, TV
didn’t exist then; video games didn’t exist then. The internet didn’t
exist then. It was the cheapest form of entertainment, and it could
take you all around the world.

I have very distinct memories
of when I first discovered "Terry and the Pirates," and it really was a
life-changing moment for me. It sounds stupid, but it was the first
time that I realized comics could be interesting without superheroes.
For reasons I can’t explain, I just have a real affinity for them. I’ve
even structured my Sunday comics like the old Sunday strips, where the
logo panel could be dropped away if the newspaper wanted to fit more
strips on the page. I’m really trying to make this like it would have
been.

The setting is shortly before America is in World War II. I said, let’s
just imagine that when "Captain America" #1 came out in 1941 – let’s
assume that because it was enormously popular, they decided to get a
newspaper strip going right away. The costume he wears is the same on
from the [Jack] Kirby run on "Captain America"; I make reference to the
characters Captain America in the very earliest issues. Golden Age
continuity is very flexible and fluid, so I have a general idea where
it fits in the continuity but it’s not set in stone.

it’s a three-month story arc, which was fairly typical for the era. The
initial hook is that this is before America is in the European War, as
we call it here, and obviously we see Project: Rebirth, the origin of
Captain America – that’s the very first Sunday [strip]. And because
there are no more super soldiers except for one, they introduce
Operation Firebird, which is America’s attempt to create another super
soldier before we get sucked into Europe’s war. They’re taking a number
of different approaches to this; one man is building a big remote
control robot. Another man is trying to experiment with vitamins and
minerals. And Dr. Todd is running a battery of tests on Captain
America, and trying to reconstruct the super soldier serum. Things keep
going wrong in this place, and we have a villain show up that I think
most Captain America fans might expect. I don’t want to say anything
else except that I’m very pleased with how I worked him into the story.

Cool huh?