Comic Books – Page 23 – Coke & Comics

Tales of Suspense #66, Story B

The Fantastic Origin of the Red Skull

Featuring: Captain America
Release: March 11, 1965
Cover: June 1965
12 cents
By: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inked by: Chic Stone
Lettered by: Artie Simek
10 pages

7Previous		Next
Tales of Suspense #66	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #67
Tales of Suspense #66	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #66, Story B

We’ve been very slowly saying goodbye to Chic Stone, as this represents his last month with Marvel. So we’ve seen his last work on many titles already. This is his final Captain America Story. He is Kirby’s best inker on these books so far, for my money. And he will be missed.

These Captain America stories have been set in his early days. The last three issues retold stories from Captain America Comics #1, with last issue retelling the introduction of the Red Skull (and making it really lame). This issue offers a new Red Skull story. At last we learn his origin.

In the original story, Red Skull was revealed to be American industrialist George Maxon. Last issue played out similarly, (though now he was John instead of George), but it added that Red Skull was not the real Maxon. He had killed Maxon and was impersonating him. That leaves room for his new origin here. As we’ve noted before, for my purposes we are treating the post-1961 stories as canonical for this Marvel Universe. The 1940s Marvel canon is separate. So the origin of the Red Skull is what gets told here. He is not Maxon.

We learn in this issue that he had also not been impersonating Maxon. That was someone pretending to be the Red Skull pretending to be Maxon. Yeesh. And apparently Captain America is desperate to hunt down the real Red Skull based on the crimes of a fake Red Skull. Maybe?

Will the real Red Skull please stand up?

The story opens with Captain America a prisoner of the Skull. That is not where the last issue left off at all. Perhaps they will fill us in how we got here.

Tales of Suspense #66

If I Fail, a World is Lost!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: March 11, 1965
Cover: June 1965
12 cents
Written in the Marvel tradition of greatness by Stan Lee
Illustrated in the Marvel tradition of grandeur by Don Heck
Inked in the Marvel tradition of drama by Mickey Demeo
Lettered in the coziest corner of the room by Sam Rosen
12 pages

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Sgt. Fury #18	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #66, Story B
Tales of Suspense #65, Story B	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #66, Story B

Stark is never around when you want him!

Due to circumstance, I lost the write-up for this particular story I had completed. I’m not a big fan of the Iron Man stories, and I was just unenthusiastic about writing this entry again. Please excuse me if I do a poorer job than usual. I just kind of want to get through this one.

In particular, I feel like I’d previously worked out where Attuma ranks in a particular metric, and I’m not sure I care to recompute it; I’ll just go off the top of my head and let somebody correct me if I’m wrong. Iron Man is the third distinct hero Attuma has fought, after facing the Fantastic Four and Giant-Man and the Wasp. I think that might be a record?

We have to define ‘distinct’ a bit carefully. I think fighting a hero and the team that hero is on should only count as one: Sandman fought both the solo Human Torch and the Fantastic Four; Loki fought both Thor and the Avengers.

With that caveat, Attuma is only the second villain to fight three distinct heroes. The first being Chameleon, who has faced Spider-Man, Iron Man (along with the Avengers), and Hulk.

I think… maybe… we’re back…

Maybe?

Thank you for your patience for these past two months while I dealt with personal difficulties I won’t bore you further with the details of.

I had to recreate some lost files. But the exercise was good, as I now have written some tools to programmatically extract data from my blog which may come in handy in the future.

This was also a good chance to clean up a couple things about the site.

I think I should be able to get back to a pace of at least one comic per week, then hopefully soon get back into my 2-3 per week rhythm. I expect to get two posts concerning Tales of Suspense #66 out this week. Then we’ll cover the stories from issues 67-68 in subsequent weeks.

As before, the focus of this blog is a read-through of the Marvel Universe starting with Fantastic Four #1. We got through about 3.5 years of stories over 400+ posts. The final post before a 2-month hiatus was the tragic Sgt. Fury #18.

I do occasional side posts, and now have an irregular side series I call “Reading great comics”. The idea is to pick up one of my favorite single issues ever and read through it in a format similar to what I do with the old Marvel stories.

I’m looking for stories that comprise a single issue, stand well enough alone, are great comics, are among my favorite comics, and aren’t comics I expect to get to in my ordinary Marvel reading. So either no Marvel superhero books or only Marvel superhero books decades ahead of my current reading.

I took two side posts I’d made before and retroactively considered them as part of this series, concerning Sandman and Astro City. During my hiatus, I did get out the official third entry in this series: Swamp Thing. There was also an unofficial third entry posted one April Fools Day you can try to dig up. Last week, we covered Usagi Yojimbo.

We got a Zot! entry out this morning.

The truth is, after that entry I’m straining to find comics that meet all my above criteria, despite the tens of thousands I’ve read. Not without repeating the series or creators already spotlighted. I’ve got my #6 entry planned, but it’s going to be part 1 or a 3 part story, so it’s already breaking my rules. But I think it can be appreciated well enough in isolation. You can tell me if I’m wrong.

And for my 7th entry, I’m thinking of just picking one issue out of a 6-part miniseries, which would throw that “standalone” rule right out the window. We’ll see what I decide.

While here, I’ll also note that my two most popular posts last year concerned Wandavision and Falcon & Winter Soldier. They made my blog numbers soar. People seem way more interested in current television shows than a 1963 Human Torch story for some reason. But they were also so much work. I reread like a hundred comics for each one. I just spent days on them. I think I had to take a day off work for each to finish up.

So I wasn’t able to do follow-ups for Loki or Hawkeye. I considered doing something similar with Eternals, but then didn’t. I’d like to make movie/series tie-in posts in the future, but I have to figure out a format that balances my time with the amount of thoroughness I would want to put in. I’m reflecting.

Zot! #30

Autumn
by Scott McCloud

We used to burn leaves by the side of the road.

Jenny and her brother Butch get trapped in another dimension where they meet a teenage superhero named Zot. They go on an adventure and face all these villains and Butch gets turned into a monkey. Fun all around. The series lasted 10 issues, published by Eclipse comics, 1984-85.

A couple years passed. Finally, Zot! #11 hit the stands. Now black and white. Jenny had been a point-of-view character, a way for the audience to see themselves in Zot’s story. But by now McCloud had decided she was really the star, and that this was the story of a girl who occasionally visited a fantasy world she was starting to find more real than her own world.

But as to the real protagonist of Zot!… the true character arc on display belongs to Scott McCloud himself. He was 23 when he started Zot! and 30 when he finished. He changed a lot in that time, in terms of figuring out what he wanted from life and from the comics medium. What stories he wanted to tell. How he wanted to tell them.

Usagi Yojimbo #93

Chanoyu
by Stan Sakai

“Even between good friends, there are things that are hidden.”
“That is the nature of friendship, but more is revealed over time.”

Stan Sakai has been writing, drawing, and lettering the adventures of Usagi Yojimbo for 38 years and counting. A ridiculous number of comics made almost entirely by a single individual.

Usagi stories first appeared in various anthology comics such as Albedo and Critters before he finally got his own ongoing series published by Fantagraphics. Sakai has found new publishers every so often, moving from Fantagraphics to Mirage, then to almost 30 years with Dark Horse before recently starting the fourth Usagi series with IDW.

I was going to attempt to begin with a summary of Usagi’s story, but I realize I can’t do any better than the summary that opens the first Dark Horse issue, meant to serve as a starting point for new readers.

So let’s just quote it.

The close of 16th century Japan is regarded as the age of civil wars, as feudal lords fought amongst themselves for land and power. It was during the Battle of Adachigahara that samurai Miyamoto Usagi lost his Lord Mifuné to the armies of Lord Hikiji.

Finally one leader rose above the others and was proclaimed Shogun <military ruler>. The Shogun’s peace came upon the land, and samurai warriors found themselves suddenly unemployed. Many of these ronin turned to banditry to survive; others found work with minor lords or the emerging merchant class. A small number, Usagi among them, traveled the Musha Shugyo <warrior pilgrimage> to hone their spiritual and martial skills.

Usagi has made many allies on his road–including Tomoe of the Geishu Clan, Gen the bounty hunter, and Zato-Ino the blind swordspig. There have also been many enemies. Chief among them is Lord Hikiji, who, with his secret army of ninja, plots to overthrow the new government and set himself as Shogun!

Usagi continues to wander alone across the nation– over mountains, deep into valleys, through towns and farmlands, and along rugged coasts–searching for harmony.

The Saga of the Swamp Thing #21

The Anatomy Lesson
by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, and John Totleben

This is the place. At night you can almost see it… At night, you can almost imagine… You shouldn’t have come here.

Welcome back. As explained recently, I’ve been on a short hiatus from my reading of the Marvel Universe. Still not quite ready to return to it.

However, I find myself with a bit of time thanks to having contracted a bug that’s going around, and thought I could return to my series on reading great comics. I call it a series, though this is only the third entry. But hopefully we’ll be getting more.

The format is similar to my posts about the Marvel Universe, where I pick up a single comic and read it and write down my thoughts as I do. Except where my Marvel reading is guided by the internal chronology of those stories, I will here be picking up my very favorite comics, specifically those not focused on the early Marvel Universe. We’ve talked about a favorite issue of Sandman and Astro City… it’s time for Swamp Thing.

Sgt. Fury #18

Killed in Action!

Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos
Release: March 11, 1965
Cover: May 1965
12 cents
Writer: Stan Lee
Penciller: Dick Ayers
Inker: Chic Stone
Letterer: Artie Simek
20 pages

Previous	#359	Next
Avengers #17	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #66
Sgt. Fury #17	Sgt. Fury	Sgt. Fury #19

The title of this story is “Killed in Action!”

“Once again, sudden death claims another victim!” reads the cover.

The “once again” refers to Junior Juniper, the first Commando to fall in battle, all the way back in issue 4. Letting us know that this was a series with consquence. It wasn’t a sure thing our heroes would make it back after each mission.

Since then, they all have turned out okay. But let’s read on.

The art is credited to Ayers and Stone, but Jack Kirby was brought in to redraw most of the famous final sequence.

The issue begins in the middle of intense action. Sgt. Fury is in his fancy duds, clearly having been on a date that’s been interrupted by an air raid.

Avengers #17

Four Against the Minotaur!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: April 8, 1965
Cover: June 1965
12 cents
Story by: Stan Lee (Who else?)
Art by: Don Heck (Why not?)
Inked by: Dick Ayers
Lettered by: S. Rosen
20 pages

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Tales to Astonish #69, Story B	Reading order	Sgt. Fury #18
Avengers #16	Avengers	Avengers #18

Here it is, the first outing of the New Avengers. How will they measure up to the old team? Lots of differences. In terms of power level, we’ve traded in a god and a man in a powerful suit of iron armor for a guy with a bow and arrows and a guy who runs fast. In terms of character strength, we’ve traded in four people who sustained their own features for 3 years now for three who have only been side characters. In terms of ethics, we’ve traded in four superheroes for three characters who were super-villains a month ago. Two members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and one lovesick Soviet stooge.

The opening tag refers to the team as the New Avengers, which is what I have always called them. Similarly if you hear me refer to the New X-Men, I probably mean the 1975 team.

It also lets us know the Avengers have begun the search for the Hulk. I’m not convinced they look very hard at all.

Tales to Astonish #69, Story B

Trapped in the Lair of the Leader!

Featuring: Hulk
Release: April 1, 1965
Cover: July 1965
12 cents
Hulking story by: Stan Lee
Hulksome art by: Jack Kirby
Hulkish inking by: Mickey Demeo
Hulkable lettering by: Art Simek
10 pages

Previous	#357	Next
Tales to Astonish #69	Reading order	Avengers #17
Tales to Astonish #69	Tales to Astonish	Tales to Astonish #70

This is the 10th chapter of the Leader Saga. For 9 issues, Leader has been lurking in the background, secretly behind various threats Hulk has faced. Now they finally meet.

This weird scene weird Hulk is being transported by magnetic waves is notable as it directly ties into Avengers #17, which we will read next.

Tales to Astonish #69

Oh, Wasp, Where is Thy Sting?

Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: April 1, 1965
Cover: July 1965
12 cents
Edited with perfect control by: Stan Lee
Written with all bases covered by: Al Hartley
Drawn with the impact of a line drive by: Bob Powell
Inked with the beauty of a three-bagger by: John Giunta
Lettered with only a few errors by: S. Rosen
12 pages

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Tales to Astonish #68, Story B	Reading order	Tales to Astonish #69, Story B
Tales to Astonish #68, Story B	Tales to Astonish	Tales to Astonish #69, Story B

All good things must come to an end, and so must this series.

Giant-Man is reduced to a small corner of the cover, with Hulk hogging the space. No mention that this is the epic finale to the adventures of Giant-Man and the Wasp.

Hulk’s solo series ended after only 6 issues, but then he returned as the backup feature in this title and has been a monthly fixture for going on 60 years. He returned by ending the Wasp’s solo series. Captain America’s return to a solo series caused the Watcher to lose his.

Marvel has had distribution problems for as long as we’ve been reading them, keeping a tight limit on the number of titles they can publish. So for every new title, something has to go. They’ve been trimming the western and humor lines, but ultimately it’s time to let go of some superhero titles.

We read the final Human Torch story a while back, but it was actually released just a week after this. Both Human Torch and Giant-Man lose their series at the same time. Both to make way for better things.

They found the weakest two series in terms of story to ax, and presumably the sales reflected that. Thor stories are good now, so it’s good they’ll stick around. Iron Man stories aren’t any good yet, but maybe they will be one day. Either way, he gets to stick around, now with the dubious honor of being Marvel’s worst remaining title.

We’ll have to wait until next month to see who these cancelled titles are making room for. Neither character will be new to us. One just hasn’t had a title for a while, and the other will get a second title with a very different focus.

Before we get to the final issue of their series, I think it’s worth pausing to reflect on the entire 36 issue run of Henry Pym/Ant-Man/Giant-Man/Wasp stories.