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Marvel Comics In The 1960s
An Issue by Issue Field Guide to a Pop Culture Phenomenon Written by Pierre Comtois Edited by John Morrow Designed by Richard J. Fowlks Proofreading by Eric Nolen-Weathington
TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, North Carolina 27614 www.twomorrows.com • e-mail: twomorrow@aol.com ©2009 Pierre Comtois and TwoMorrows Publishing First Printing • August 2009 • Printed in Canada Softcover ISBN: 978-1-60549-016-8
Dedication
To Stan, Jack, Steve, and Don
Acknowledgements The evolution of this work from conception to publication was a long one and could not have been accomplished without the input, aid, and assistance of a number of people, including Louis Beaudette, an older boy in the neighborhood who first introduced me to Marvel Comics in 1964. In later years, long conversations about favorite artists, writers, and books with fellow Marvel fans supreme Greg Montejo, Ron Zimmerman, Chris Porter, and Steve Gomes helped crystallize my thoughts on those subjects and motivated me to put them down on paper. Partial posting of an early version of the work on Nick Simon’s Silver Age Marvel website inspired me to consider it as a possible book project, and after submitting the completed manuscript to a number of publishers, TwoMorrows Publishing had the wisdom to see its worth. Thanks, too, to Jerry Boyd for the gift of some wonderful scans. Much love to Heritage Art Gallery (www.ha.com) for their voluminous vault of original artwork. A huge tip of the hat to the Grand Comic Book Database (www.comics.org) for some real heavy lifting cataloging creators of comic books. Visit www.pierrevcomtois.com.
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Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Part I: The Early, Formative Years . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Part II: The Years of Consolidation . . . . . . . . . . 57 Part III: The Grandiose Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Creator Spotlights: Stan Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Jack Kirby. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Steve Ditko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Don Heck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Bill Everett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Joe Sinnott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 George Tuska . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Gene Colan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 John Severin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 John Romita . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Jim Steranko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Marie Severin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Herb Trimpe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Roy Thomas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 John Buscema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Barry Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Key Marvel Moments: Merry Marvel Marching Society . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Marvel Swag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85, 141 F.O.O.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Marvelmania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Contents
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Stan Lee B
efore he was “the man,” Stan Lee was just plain Stanley Leiber, who picked up odd jobs all over New York City where he was born in 1927 before finally making a connection with a relative who got him in to see Joe Simon, an editor at cousin-in-law Martin Goodman’s Timely Comics. At loose ends, Stan had nothing to lose so he might as well have tried the slightly shady comics industry. At one time, Stan liked to tell the story of winning writing contests offered by the local newspapers, which may or may not have been true; more likely, the youngster spent hours reading practically anything he could get his hands on, and in the 1930s that usually meant pulp magazines where the earliest versions of what would later be known as “super-heroes” and “super-villains” first appeared. Anyway, with his first official assignment at Timely, Stan’s knack for the written word soon made itself apparent: a text piece for Captain America Comics #3 (1941) that he signed for the first time as “Stan Lee.” Soon after, he jumped to straight scripting, coming up with his first super-hero creation, the Destroyer, and another called Jack Frost. Then fate took a hand. Simon and art director Jack Kirby left the company after a dispute with Goodman, and the next thing 19-year-old Stan knew, he was promoted and doing the work of both editor and art director. On a temporary basis, you understand. But months stretched into years, and except for a relatively brief hiatus in the Army, he stayed on the job for over three decades. During that time, he learned the nuts and bolts of copy editing and layout and wrote thousands of scripts in every kind of genre, providing him a training ground in developing different literary voices, approaches to storytelling, and what things sold comics and what things didn’t. Experience that would be invaluable when it came time to flesh out personalities for the revolutionary characters that would make him famous during the Silver Age. 10
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Part I
The Early, Formative Years
J
udging by their impact on the industry over the last thirty years, those books published by Marvel Comics in the years between 1960-1973 remain the single most influential group of comics produced in the final decades of the twentieth century. The only other comparable example would be that of DC Comics, then known as National Periodicals, when it introduced Superman to the reading public in 1938 and turned the comics industry into a true mass medium. The success of Superman helped DC to become the industry’s most powerful publisher, a position it continued to enjoy well into the 1960s, and with which it took the lead in reopening the market to super-heroes in the previous decade. In doing so, the editors at DC led the field in innovations such as updating characters that had grown somewhat stale since their first appearances in the 1940s and paved the way for what has since been labeled the Silver Age of comics. Although what DC had done to update its heroes was okay so far as it went, the problem was that the Stan Lee in the early 1960s before he became a pop culture guru!
changes didn’t go far enough. Comics were still perceived by the editors there and elsewhere as kid stuff. It was that blind spot that Marvel was soon to take advantage of, recreating the image of the super-hero in such a way that it solidified the position of the costumed adventurer as the dominant element in modern comics. So powerful was Marvel’s hold on the imagination of readers that the new kind of hero eventually swept aside almost every other kind of comics including romance, horror, western and war—all genres that had existed in abundance in the early sixties. However it started, the revolution led by Marvel in the 1960s began with the slow but steady progression of storytelling complexity as the company, helmed by editor Stan Lee, moved from an early determination to try something new, to a growing consciousness that it had stumbled onto something fraught with potentiality. This whole period (the Silver Age of comics, or Marvel Age as Lee was fond of calling it) marking Marvel’s progress, breaks down roughly into four phases: the early, formative years; the years of consolidation; the later, grandiose years; and the twilight era. The Early, Formative Years
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Tales of Suspense #49 (Jan. 1964) is a good example of an early Marvel book that falls on the borderline of the formative years and the years of consolidation, displaying elements of both eras. One of the earmarks of the years of consolidation was the use of crossovers, in which Lee would have characters from different books guest-star in books not their own. Here, Iron Man hosts his first crossover as the X-Men guest-star. Common in the early, formative years, an element of whimsy and playfulness in this issue surrounds a plot involving the testing of a nuclear device on Long Island that in the upcoming grandiose years, would never be treated in such a cavalier fashion. Caught in the blast, the Angel, a member of the X-Men, has his personality changed for the worse, thus creating a convenient excuse for Lee and Ditko to have the two heroes battle it out. Although Ditko’s art here is serviceable (it’s not helped by Paul Reinman’s incompatible inks), it’s the cover by Kirby that’s the true artistic standout; highlighted by a brilliant pink backdrop that contrasts sharply against the red and gold of Iron Man’s armor and the Angel’s blue and yellow costume, Kirby’s simple layout emerges as one of early Marvel’s most impressive illustrations.
that featured our hero crashing a party held by the Human Torch! An expert blend of the strip’s strengths, the issue’s main story (“The Terrible Threat of the Living Brain!”) involves a visit to Midtown High School by the latest creation from the labs of the I.C.M. Corporation, a new high-speed computer on wheels. Boasting that the computer could solve any problem, the company’s representative challenges the students in Peter’s class to suggest a question. They do: what is Spider-Man’s secret identity? Immediately, Peter breaks into a cold sweat. “This is terrible! What if the brain is smart enough to answer that?” But before the coded answer can be figured out, Peter and Flash agree to settle their differences in the school gym. Of course, no one gives Peter a chance against the husky Flash, but when the football star is distracted by news that the “living brain” is running amok, Peter accidentally strikes him unconscious! Naturally, his victory is deemed a sham by his fellow classmates: “Booo! You hit him when his head was turned!” What follows is a hilarious fight between Spidey and the computer interspersed with bits involving the students, a couple of small-time crooks who started the trouble when they tried to steal the brain and a denouement that has a dazed Flash capture the crooks by accident! The whole thing ends when Amazing Spider-Man #8 Peter casts suspicion on Flash as Spider-Man’s alter “The Terrible Threat of the Living Brain! “; ego. “That could be why you lost the fight to Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) Parker! So nobody would suspect who you really are!” “Spider-Man Tackles The Torch!”; says one classmate. But what really makes this issue Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), different is that it actually has a happy ending! Peter Steve Ditko (inks) Parker is even seen whistling on the way home from Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) school! By comparison to the lead story, the back-up It was very near the end of the early, formative years of tale, “Spider-Man Tackles the Torch,” is a hum drum Marvel’s development that Lee and Ditko, as if sensing affair drawn by Kirby and only inked by Ditko. Fun that an era was drawing to an Fact: This issue was the first in end, let out all the stops for which Peter Parker goes without Amazing Spider-Man #8, drawing his glasses (they were broken in a together all the elements that had scuffle with Flash and never seen made the strip a hit with readers. again). Another innovation created Billed on the cover as a “Special by Ditko that had been featured in ‘Tribute to Teen-agers’ Issue,” the the strip as far back as #1 was his book would feature the climax of visual interpretation of Spidey’s Peter’s rivalry with class bully “Spider Sense” which was depicted Flash Thompson, Spider-Man’s by halving Peter Parker’s face fight with a mobile computer run with a symbolic Spider-Man amok (which looked hopelessly mask while including radiating archaic even for 1964, but then that force lines from the other half. was part of the charm of Ditko’s Original? Yes. But surprisingly No doubt Lee had in mind such artwork in that it often seemed as misunderstood by some readers. television stars as wally and the if his strips were caught in a time Using the device ended soon beav, the ideal of the American warp frozen in the 1950s!) and a teenager, when he dedicated after Ditko left the strip. back-up feature (the last time the Amazing Spider-Man #8 as a special “tribute to teenagers Spider-Man book would ever be issue.” divided into separate stories) 56
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Part II
The Years of Consolidation
A
lthough editor Stan Lee had made a start in his attempt by Lee to tie his growing universe closer new approach to super-heroes, Marvel’s early, together, to develop its own internal consistency and to formative years had still been marked by a give it a semblance of verisimilitude. To do that, Lee faltering sense of experimentation, without firm employed a number of literary tools, including the pattern or purpose. The seeds, crossover and the continued story. however, had definitely been planted With their reliance on multi-issue for the full flowering of the Marvel stories that sometimes went on for a style that would bloom in the later, year or more, continued stories grandiose years. But what about the would become a hallmark of the two years or so that separated those later grandiose years, but they had epochs? Those years would be filled their start during the years of by an era of consolidation during consolidation when more modest which Lee considered what had two-part stories were the norm. already been accomplished and Also important in these years were began a conscious effort to adapt the the more elusive elements of fun new style not only to existing titles, and excitement which Lee’s but to new ones specifically created writing, honed over years of for that purpose. And so, it was scripting everything from teen during these years of consolidation humor to adventure comics, put that Lee and his stable of artists, across with breezy effortlessness. particularly Jack Kirby and Steve Making all this easier was the fact Ditko, began to actively exploit the that Lee took upon himself the disparate elements that had defined scripting for all the super-hero titles Something to smile about: as the nascent, but increasingly and in the process, found a way to the years of consolidation popular Marvel style and to simply have fun with the universe began, sales were picking up deliberately weave them into a he and his artists had created. and Lee began a deliberate process of fitting the pieces coherent “universe.” What especially Artists like Jack Kirby and of a growing super-hero characterized these years of Steve Ditko, whose close working universe together. consolidation? Mostly the deliberate relationship with Lee became The Years of Consolidation
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© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
completely and Lee took advantage of the newly available space to consolidate his emerging universe. For the year since the cancellation of the original Hulk book, Lee had been shopping around the character, putting him in the Avengers and having him fight everyone from Thor to the FF to Giant-Man until finding a place for him in Tales to Astonish #60 (Oct. 1964). Billed as “the only comic mag super-hero soap opera in existence,” Lee and
Tales to Astonish #60, page 15. A more stable Hulk gets his own strip again but this time in a more coherent fashion as supporting characters, personal problems, and menacing sub-plots are played up in cliffhanging chapters that kept readers coming back for more.
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Ditko turned the strip into a serial with each chapter ending in a cliffhanger. Reintroducing the supporting cast from the Hulk’s first feature, the two quickly established a dynamic among the characters similar to the formula that’d made their Spider-Man strip so successful: Bruce Banner is suspected of being a communist sympathizer if not outright spy by hard-nosed General “Thunderbolt” Ross; in the meantime, Banner can hardly control his transformations into the Hulk and must keep his emotions constantly in check which in turn strains his relationship with Ross’ daughter, Betty. In addition, the only person on earth who knows the secret of the Hulk is teenager Rick Jones, who still feels guilty over having caused Banner to become the Hulk in the first place, and later in the series, security officer Glenn Talbot will join the cast, putting further pressure on Banner through his investigations of the Hulk and pursuit of Betty’s affections. While all that’s going on, the Hulk this issue must also face the challenge of a powerful robot designed by his alter ego that’s been stolen by a Soviet agent. Not to be forgotten in the front half of the book, Giant-Man, too, is faced with the Communist threat as he travels behind the Iron Curtain to free a friend from a prison in East Berlin. But before the two men make it back to freedom, they must first destroy a secret “intelligence ray” the Soviets have invented and have already used to create a squad of super-smart gorillas! But GiantMan (with help from Lee and artist Dick Ayers) saves the day and escapes by battering down a section of the Berlin Wall. Great stuff!
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the M.M.M.S.
As the popularity of Marvel Comics swelled, it was decided that a good way to harness all that energy was in the way of a club, sort of like Timely’s old Sentinels of Liberty from the 1940s. The MMMS (Merry Marvel Marching Society, natch!) was Lee’s first attempt to organize his new fan base into a club offering all kinds of interesting gear, including stationary and a record album featuring the voices of the Bullpen gang! The MMMS eventually faded out during the grandiose years, but Marvelmania, a pale shadow of the legendary club, would take its place at the end of the decade before crashing and burning amid bad management and lack of interest.
Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 “The Sinister Six!”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) “The Secrets of Spider-Man”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) “How Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Create Spider-Man!”; Stan Lee (script), Steve Ditko (pencils & inks) Cover: Steve Ditko (pencils), Steve Ditko (inks)
For giving a reader his money’s worth, there was nothing like Marvel’s early annuals! Where the competition only gave fans reprints of old stories, Marvel not only offered an extra-long original adventure, but all kinds of fun features. A great example of that, and of how Lee in these years was busily creating the friendly, familiar atmosphere that would soon inspire a fanatical loyalty in his readers, was Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (mid-1964). Of course, the star feature of this book was its 41-page extravaganza that included a team-up of every major villain our hero had fought in his first year on the job (the Vulture, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, Mysterio, Electro and Kraven the Hunter!) as well as cameos by every hero in the youthful Marvel universe. Besides a fast, fun-filled plot, the story served as a wonderful vehicle for showcasing Ditko’s growing talent for super-hero slugfests. Coming a long way from his first crude
outings on Spider-Man, Ditko here lets out all the stops offering six full-page action shots of Spider-Man in action against each member of the Sinister Six (the one with Electro is the standout!). But beyond the lead story, the book was filled with such extras as pin-up pages, secrets of Spider-Man pages, supporting character profiles and a self-parodic gem in which Lee and Ditko fill readers in on how they come up with such great stories. It was with this last item, “How Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Create Spider-Man,” in which the creators poke fun at themselves, let their hair down and give the readers a figurative nudge and wink indicating that it’s all done in good fun, that Marvel began to solidify its chummy relationship with fans. In effect, Lee was taking readers into his confidence, inviting them in and making them feel part of the Marvel “Bullpen.” It was a device that would be used again, but also soon to vanish in the wake of such all-parody titles as Not Brand Echh that made poking fun at the company a full-time occupation. In the meantime, however, Lee would continue to solidify his relationship with the readers with other vehicles such as the Bullpen Bulletins page, Stan’s Soapbox, fan clubs like the Merry Marvel Marching Society (MMMS) and the Friends Of Ol’ Marvel (FOOM) and letters pages that included sometimes lengthy personalized replies to fans’ queries. The Years of Consolidation
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Tales of Suspense #66 “If I Fail, A World Is Lost!”; Stan Lee (script), Don Heck (pencils), Mike Esposito [as Mickey Demeo] (inks) “The Fantastic Origin of the Red Skull”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)
It wasn’t often done that a whole story would be given over to telling the origin of a villain, but Marvel made two exceptions during these years: Dr. Doom in Fantastic Four Annual #2 and the Red Skull here, in Tales of Suspense #66 (June 1965). Once more it’s the Kirby/Stone team that perform the art honors and Lee, as usual, who provides the script for one of Marvel’s greatest stories. Unlike Dr. Doom (who at least was allowed to be a member of the human race!), the Red Skull was the personification, the embodiment of pure evil. “Whenever a city was leveled, a town was sacked, the Red Skull was there!”, he tells a captured Captain America. “Whenever there was injustice, tyranny, ruthlessness, the Red Skull was there!” But Nazism provided only a backdrop to his origin, because what the Skull represented was infinitely more complicated, and perhaps damning, than that. Portrayed here as a social outcast, hated and despised by everyone from the street toughs who stole his food to the police who threw him in jail to the employers who treated him like an animal, those responsible for the Skull’s creation weren’t necessarily Hitler (who trained him) or the storm troopers (who set him his example). The Skull’s hate was already in him even before he joined the Nazis. No, the damning truth of the Red Skull was that
“Whenever there was injustice, tyranny, ruthlessness, the Red Skull was there!” The Red Skull was less a man than the personification of evil. It was his spirit that reigned over such places as Auschwitz where the Nazi regime brought millions of people to die of torture and maltreatment.
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he was created by us, by a society that cared too little for the needy and oppressed in its midst. By comparison with this powerful tale, the “Iron Man” story in the front of the book, although well executed and written as usual by Heck and Lee, hardly measures up. Undersea shenanigans with Attuma just don’t cut it against social commentary, the nature of evil and the hope and faith espoused by Captain America.
Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #18 “Killed In Action”; Stan Lee (script), Dick Ayers (pencils), Chic Stone (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Chic Stone (inks)
What could be more appropriate to wind up this survey of the years of consolidation than with a look at Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #18 (May 1965)? Released just on that borderline dividing this phase with the next, more serious one, it nevertheless featured a subject that would become increasingly common as the years passed: death, sudden and tragic. Readers had already witnessed the deaths of Baron Zemo and Franklin Storm (the father of the FF’s Torch and Invisible Girl), and in the years to come they’d also be subjected to the deaths of such characters as Frederick Foswell and Gwen Stacy, but perhaps the most poignant is the one that occurs in “Killed in Action.” A more fully rounded character than those of Zemo and Storm, Pamela Hawley is killed during a Nazi air raid on London. Although not seen too often in the series, Pamela had nevertheless been around for quite some time and had become a calming influence on Nick Fury, her gruff American suitor. Quietly, subtly, she’d become an endearing personality as well to fans of the strip who perhaps looked forward to seeing a permanent union of the two characters. Fury it seemed, had the same idea. As the story this issue opens, he buys an engagement ring for Pamela, but before he can present it to her, duty calls again in the form of another impossible mission. But unfortunately for Fury, he’s doomed never to lay eyes on Pam again as, upon returning, he learns of her death while she was helping the wounded during an air raid. Curiously, despite Dick Ayers’ penciling of the body of this story, Kirby obviously contributes an uncredited splash and final page. Maybe Lee thought that Ayers’ initial efforts lacked the emotional intensity the scenes demanded. In any case, Kirby has the last word this issue with his simply designed, but emotionally charged final page. There, Fury is shown getting the bad news and, wracked with grief, walks forlornly into the distance. Lee’s accompanying script provides the perfect coda to an era of consolidation that began in awkward discovery, continued with a strong sense of obvious fun and ended with hints of the seriousness expected of maturity.
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Part III
The Grandiose Years
M
arvel Comics’ Silver Age stretched across at foundation of the Marvel style in place, Lee would least ten years (1960-1970) and over that time pursue a deliberate sense of humanism, adapting developed from the self-contained, single- his comics to the spirit of the times (the 1960s) which issue stories common in the industry, to longer tales resulted in comics written and conceptualized in such involving mature subjects and more complex a way as to appeal to adults as well as children. themes. Dividing the company’s progression over Furthermore, it seems that in the first two phases, Lee this period into four phases allows for a clearer was pretty much in the driver’s seat, directing the understanding of how editor course of his entire line of new Stan Lee, aided by his stable of books while infusing them with artists, moved from one phase to doses of “reality” in the form of the next. Although far from characterization, continuity and proven, it’s the contention here real world problems. To be sure, that in the first phase, the early, in Kirby and Ditko, Lee had a formative years, Lee was not pair of protean talents, each of working according to any plan whom needed guidance of one beyond approaching superkind or another. Nevertheless, it heroes in a more realistic way. It was Ditko, perhaps due to his was in the second phase, the closer partnership with Lee years of consolidation, that he during the pre-hero days, who became conscious of themes he’d became the first of the two artists inadvertently raised in the first. to be allowed strong input on the Using such literary tools as the strips he was assigned. From the continued story and crossovers, very beginning, he placed his he extended these new ideas to stamp on the Amazing Spider-Man, all the company’s heroes and in inventing many of the details of In the grandiose years, editor the process created a multi-textual the character and soon after Stan Lee would keep increasingly outsized story concepts shared universe. becoming heavily involved in the grounded in overarching In the grandiose years to be book’s plotting and characterizahumanist sensibilities. considered here, with the tion. By Lee’s own admission, it The Grandiose Years
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John Romita T
he artist noted for his mastery of the female form and who was destined to bring the glamor of the swinging sixties to a Spider-Man strip mired in the look and feel of the 1950s began his career drawing women who looked more like “emaciated men!” Born in 1930, John Romita graduated from the School of Industrial Art in 1947 and began work soon after with Famous Funnies. In 1949, while working as a commercial artist, he began ghosting for a friend who was getting work from Timely Comics, a situation that eventually got him in the door to meet editor Stan Lee. Hitting it off, he was soon hired and cranked out work in every conceivable genre until being tapped to pencil a revival of Captain America in the mid-1950s. The revival failed to take hold and soon after, Lee was forced to lay off staffers when the company suffered a temporary downturn. Romita migrated over to DC where he was relegated to the romance line. But years toiling over teenaged heartbreak honed his skill as a penciler and required him to keep up with the latest fashions; both developments that would serve him in good stead when Lee asked him back after a new line of super-heroes began to achieve popularity. Romita only needed a few months on Daredevil to pick up on Marvel’s new style of action art before taking over the Spider-Man feature from Steve Ditko in 1966. There, his ability to draw attractive lead characters and otherwise update the look of the strip with modern clothing and hair styles as well as sleek Manhattan architecture, combined to propel Spider-Man to top of the popculture heap.
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misunderstanding that leads to fighting between Daredevil and Spidey, Foggy’s pretending to be DD, and the Marauder’s ability to temporarily blind his opponents. Bumping into each other while on the Marauder’s trail, our heroes once again start fighting, but before Spidey has a chance to pulverize DD, he spots a giant dirigible sailing toward the World Motors building. Suspecting what’s up, the two heroes team-up and tackle the Marauder just as he and his men descend from the hovering blimp. The issue ends with the villain’s plot foiled, but in making his getaway through the World Motors Building, a disguised Marauder runs into Foggy and Karen and overhears Foggy hinting that he’s DD! Over the course of this issue and the one before it, Romita proved beyond doubt that he had what it took to be another successful addition to the growing Marvel bullpen. And if the story had also been intended as a dry run for taking over the Spider-Man book, it seemed that in Romita, Lee had found his man.
Fantastic Four #52 “The Black Panther”; Stan Lee (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks) Cover: Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)
The first look readers had of Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966) really wasn’t much at all. Oh, sure, the house ads for that month included the latest issue of the FF as usual, but this time, the cover reproduction was obscured by a blurb that fairly screamed: “Don’t miss the mystery villain of the month: ‘The Black Panther!’ He’s a sensation!” Why did Lee feel the necessity of hiding this issue’s cover? An early version, drawn by Kirby, had the new character prominently featured, but in that design the Black Panther sported a face mask that only partially hid his features (like Captain America’s). But if that cover had run in the ads, it would’ve given away an aspect of the Panther’s identity that Lee may have wanted to preserve as a surprise for the reader. If so, then it would explain the need for the blurb. Be that as it may, when #52 finally went on sale, the cover featured a leaping Black Panther with a full face mask. So why all the trouble over keeping the new character under wraps? Because the surprise Lee and Kirby sprung on readers was the world’s first black super-hero, T’Challa, the king of an African nation and a scientific wizard as capable as Mr. Fantastic.
In retrospect the introduction of the Panther this issue, shouldn’t have come as a surprise to the company’s long-time readers. The groundwork for his creation had begun as far back as the first issues of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos and the X-Men. In addition, Marvel had always quietly featured a scattering of blacks in crowd scenes or as police officers. But like those understated scenes, no special attention was given the Panther because of his skin color. There was nothing in the story relating to race or bigotry, no obvious lesson in equality or civil rights, but there was nevertheless a lesson to be drawn. Was it intentional? Were Lee and Kirby trying to be oh so subtle? Whatever the answer, the way they chose to present the subject of the Panther’s race turned out to be the best: he was treated as just another super-hero in the expanding pantheon of Marvel characters (not that any new addition could be considered even remotely average at the height of the grandiose years!). The FF themselves expressed none of the expected patronizing clichés on race that would’ve reduced Lee’s script to that of dull didacticism. Their actions instead, spoke louder than words as Mr. Fantastic (whom Lee seemed to enjoy using as the vehicle for expressing the company’s ideals) again sets the tone: “A man such as the Black Panther does not give his word lightly…nor does he dishonor it, once given!” No more ringing endorsement could be made of any human being. But before it came, it had to be preceded by loads of
Zago #1 and Buster Crabbe in King of the Jungle. Stories about jungle heroes were nothing new by 1966 but what set the Black Panther apart from the others was that he was perhaps the first who actually was a native of the Dark Continent. Another breakthrough for Mighty Marvel!
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Silver Surfer #1 (opposite page). Although in hindsight his origin seemed more a combination of both a fallen Lucifer and a suffering Christ, the Silver Surfer’s introduction in a squarebound format gave Stan Lee a whopping 38 pages to write the kind of morality tale that he used to need only five pages to tell in his old pre-hero Atlas monster days!
when he’s exiled on Earth, his misery is complete. But although Lee manages to give the Surfer’s character more depth, it comes at the cost of a loss of credibility. How can readers really accept the Surfer’s bewildered pronouncements about the human race when he’s obviously as human as they are? Be that as it may, Lee still manages to pull it off with such ruminations by the Surfer as: “In all the galaxies…in all the endless reaches of space…I have found no planet more blessed than this…No world more lavishly endowed with natural beauty…with gentle climate…with every ingredient to create a virtual living paradise! Possessed of rainfall in great abundance…soil fertile enough to feed a galaxy! It is as though the human race has been divinely favored over all who live! And yet…in their uncontrollable insanity…in their unforgivable blindness…they seek to destroy this shining jewel…this softly-spinning gem…this tiny blessed sphere…which men call Earth!” Throughout the story, the script is bolstered by Lee’s measured cadences and rhythmic lines, which in turn are underscored by the art of John Buscema. It was an impressive launch for the new feature and as long as the title remained in the giant, squarebound format it continued to shine. Unfortunately, things didn’t stay that way for long. The new format was discontinued with #7 and with the reduction to normal size, much of Lee’s enthusiasm for the book followed the lost pages. But while it lasted, the Silver Surfer managed to become Marvel’s conscience, the handbook where the dominant themes of the grandiose years were gathered and codified and made plain to every reader.
Dr. Strange #173 “While a World Waits!”; Roy Thomas (script), Gene Colan (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks) Cover: Dan Adkins (pencils & inks)
Through most of comics’ history, if the work of an inker called attention to itself, then it was presumed to have failed in its intended purpose. That purpose was solely to make an artist’s pencil sketches dark enough to be picked up in the printing process from which finished comic book pages were produced. Of course, there’d always been exceptions to that rule as many inkers, being artists themselves, couldn’t help but impose their own styles over that of the penciler. And
nowhere did it happen with more regularity than at Marvel whose new action-oriented style seemed to invite inkers to put more of themselves into their work. As a result, under the styles of such wildly different inkers as Stone, Colletta, Sinnott, Shores and Everett, the work of an artist like Kirby appeared to shift and change in accordance to the demands of the particular A young Tom feature he was illustrating. Palmer came on like blockbusters in And yet, never could the his debut as inker contributions of any of over Gene Colan’s these inkers be considered pencils on Dr. of equal importance to Strange. and the that of the penciler (purely duo would go on to become one of the from the point of view of top creative teams art that is, plotting by the in comics, especially artist is a completely for their work on separate subject). Accept Tomb of Dracula. maybe, for Tom Palmer. Interestingly, Palmer had been hired as a penciler and slated to replace Dan Adkins on the Dr. Strange book with #173, but somehow Colan was assigned the task instead with Palmer inking. The funny thing was, no one knew if Palmer could ink! Palmer himself has said he’d had no real experience at the job and in his first assignment on this issue of Dr. Strange #173 (where Colan’s groundbreaking artwork would give any veteran inker pause!), thought that he may have overdone it. Not so’s anyone could tell! In fact, this issue of Dr. Strange is a landmark for being not only Palmer’s first work as an inker, but the first time he and Colan would work together as a team. Together, the two men would go on to produce some of the most beautiful and most significant work in the company’s twilight years, while at the same time establishing for themselves a reputation as one of the greatest artist/inker teams in comics history. The secret, apparently, was that Palmer’s inking style (which included a whole lot more than just going over an artist’s pencil lines) was perfectly matched to Colan’s intentions as an artist. Colan’s style had always relied on movement and the elasticity of the human body and of course, shadows, shadows, shadows! Complementing those strengths, Palmer would lay on thick, rich blacks that nevertheless were tempered by a liberal use of Zip-a-tone giving Colan’s pencils a depth The Grandiose Years
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