The Girl in the Black Hood!
Release: March 8, 1962
Cover: June 1962
12 cents
Credits: Don Heck (uncredited)
5 pages
The story doesn’t have credits. The artist is Don Heck, and the writing is likely Stan Lee and Larry Lieber.
The Coming of the Hulk/The Hulk Strikes!/The Search for the Hulk/Enter… The Gargoyle!/The Hulk Triumphant!
Featuring: Hulk
Release: March 1, 1962
Cover: May 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inks: Paul Reinman (uncredited)
24 pages
I read this issue in Incredible Hulk Omnibus vol. 1. Stan and Jack signed the issue. The omnibus’ table of contents notes Paul Reinman is the inker.
Now it seems like we’re getting somewhere. I began with a promise of reading this shared Marvel Universe starting with Fantastic Four #1. But it’s been a week and you might be asking, “Where’s the universe?” We’ve read 4 issues of Fantastic Four, a few random sci-fi/horror comics from the period, and you’ve read a handful of comics from BEFORE Fantastic Four #1. All fair points. Where are the other Marvel heroes?
We have covered in the last week about 6 months worth of ground. We started in August of 1961 and have found our way to March of 1962. Finally, we meet our next recognizable hero.
Continue reading “Incredible Hulk #1”The Coming of… Sub-Mariner
On the Trail of the Torch/Enter the Sub-Mariner/Let the World Beware!/Sub-Mariner’s Revenge!
Release: February 8, 1962
Cover: May 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inks: Sol Brodsky (uncredited)
23 pages
Famously, Human Torch meets a random amnesiac hobo and decides without permission to burn the hobo’s beard off his face. The hobo looks like a character Torch read about in a comic, which convinces him to toss the hobo into the ocean. I would argue this behavior on the part of the Torch is inappropriate. But nobody on the team is setting a better example.
The Sub-Mariner
Credits: Bill Everett
12 pages
I read this comic in Marvel Masterpieces Golden Age Marvel Comics vol. 1. My copy of the book is filled with printing errors: pages missing or repeated; and, the copy seems off. The colors and inks seem pretty blurred, compared to scans I’m finding online. The coloring wasn’t great in those days to begin with, so it’s hard to tell without seeing the comic what it actually looks like, as reproductions vary widely. It’s particularly tricky as Everett wanted to make the undersea scenes murky.
This story is the beginning of a serial and doesn’t reach a satisfying conclusion in and of itself. It concerns Namor of the race of Sub-Mariners, recently come of age. He learns from his mother Fen of the ravages done to their people by the experiments of the surface dwellers, (who the comic refers to as the “white men”) and leads a crusade against the surface. His first step is to destroy a lighthouse. We’ll have to tune in next issue to see more.
It begins in a familiar fashion, from the viewpoints of ordinary sailors, leaving the Sub-Mariner as a mystery in the background. Namor will become the point-of-view character soon, but first we learn who he is in snatches, as the humans do. An undersea diver notices oddities, like evidence that somebody had recently been there, even though they are the only ship in the area. It’s a mystery to investigate, a deadly one as it will turn out. It’s a technique we’ve seen frequently in superhero films (plus many a movie before them). Famously, when Batman first dons the suit in Batman Begins, the movie shifts its point-of-view to that of criminals. They only know something strange is happening, that they see out of the corner of their eye and hear above them– and that their numbers are thinning. This comic gives us a similar scene with divers.
Continue reading “PRELUDE: Marvel Comics #1, Story C”The Return of the Gorilla-Man
Release: January 9, 1962
Cover: April, 1962
12 cents
Credits: Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers
7 pages
The issue has no credits. The Grand Comics Database identifies the artists as Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers, and guesses the writing credits are due to Stan Lee and Larry Lieber. I think Marvel only had two writers at the time, so this is a reasonable guess.
Continue reading “Tales to Astonish #30, Story A”The Menace of the Miracle Man/The Monster Lives!/The Flame that Died!/In the Shadow of defeat!/The Final Challenge!
Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: December 12, 1961
Cover: March, 1962
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inks: Sol Brodsky (uncredited)
23 pages
I read this comic in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1. The issue has signatures for Stan and Jack. The Table of Contents for the Omnibus credits Sol with inks.
The price of the comic has jumped up from 10 to 12 cents. Not sure we’ll be able to afford to continue this series at this rate.
The Fantastic Four battle Miracle Man, a largely forgotten villain. We see he can: fly; become a giant; change into water, metal, or gas; control elements, storms, thunder, and lightning; slice a tree trunk in half with his finger; withstand the Thing’s strongest blow; etcetera. How can the FF defeat such a villain? Well, there’s a twist I’ll let you read for yourselves.
Continue reading “Fantastic Four #3”It Walks Erect!
Release: May 19, 1954
Cover: September, 1954
10 cents
Credits: Bob Powell
5 pages
I read this comic reprinted in Weird Wonder Tales #7, December 1974. Credits are not given.
Another hop back in time. Dr. Nagan isn’t actually called Gorilla Man here. That moniker will come later. But it seemed a worthy flashback so we can keep straight Marvel’s three gorilla men.
Continue reading “PRELUDE: Mystery Tales #21, Story E”Gorilla Man
Featuring: Gorilla Man
Release: November 20, 1953
Cover: March, 1954
10 cents
Credits: Robert Q. Sale
6 pages
I read this story in the Agents of Atlas collection.
Robert Q. Sale signed the issue as the artist. Not certain who wrote the words. I don’t know Sale. An internet search reveals little about him. He pencilled some 500 weird or war comics in the ’50s and ’60s, sometimes under the pen name Bob Q. Siege. He’s a very good artist, capturing vivid facial expressions, effectively evoking the nightmarish and kinetic mood.
Continue reading “PRELUDE: Men’s Adventures #26, Story D”I am the Gorilla-Man
Featuring: Gorilla-Man
Release: November 9, 1961
Cover: February, 1961
12 cents
Credits: Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers
7 pages
This is a tangential story, but it seemed worth including. Unlike Henry Pym last issue, Herr Radzik is a mad scientist bent on evil. He’ll also become less prominent of a character.
He is an evil scientist who invents a ray to switch bodies. He first changes places with a cat (I perhaps would have stayed there) and then decides a gorilla will be the ultimate form. His ambitions involve stealing money as a gorilla, and such. But, once he puts the gorilla into his body, the gorilla is able to use its new human brain to outsmart him and lock him in a zoo.
Continue reading “Tales to Astonish #28”Here’s what I’ll be reading.
