Strange Tales #123

Featuring: Human Torch
Release: May 12, 1964
Cover: August 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee (‘Nuff Said)
Illustrated by: Carl Burgos (Who was the first to draw the Torch way back in the Golden Age of comics!)
Inked by: Darlin’ Dick Ayers
Lettered by: Smilin’ Sam Rosen
14 pages

Check out the split cover. That’s about to come into vogue. Equal cover real estate for both Human Torch and Dr. Strange. The idea won’t take off right away in this title, but we’ll soon see the split cover all over the place as more and more superheroes share titles.

There’s even a certain symmetry to the halves of the cover, what with the respective guest star boxes.

I find myself with an unusually large amount of things to say about the first page. Strap in.

“Nuff Said”. I’ve now read almost 3 years of Marvel comics without seeing that phrase. Now, I’m usually reading reprints, and thus missing ads and letter pages, where that phrase is more likely to show up. Brian Cronin notes Nuff Said first appeared in the letters page of Fantastic Four #19, almost a year earlier. I missed it. This is the first time I’ve seen it show up in the credits of a story or anywhere within a story. It is now recognized as one of Stan’s signature catch phrases.

Carl Burgos is the artist. That’s pretty cool. Because Burgos created the original Human Torch 25 years earlier; Johnny Storm borrowed his name, look, and powers. However, the credits don’t quite let us know that. Similar to Avengers #4, they acknowledge some contribution from Burgos without attributing the character to him. They call him the “first to draw the Torch”. He was the first to draw and write the character, and the entire concept is his. Marvel just bought his work. From a modern eye, this is irksome for a couple reasons. First, the language may be careful for legal reasons, as these companies like to make clear that the company created these characters and no people were involved. It also feeds into the notion that Stan has taken too much credit for himself over the years, allowing himself to get recognized as the creator of many characters, while often failing to acknowledge the actual creators. If you polled people today and asked who created the Human Torch, Stan Lee’s name would likely come up far more often than Carl Burgos’. Misleading credits like this do not help with that.

This is far better art than Burgos ever gave us in his 1940s Human Torch stories. Artistic maturity? Less deadline pressure? I’m going to postulate it’s the inks of Dick Ayers that contribute heavily to the polished look.

That said… the most notable feature of Burgo’s work is that the Human Torch doesn’t have a face. Just as he drew the original Human Torch, Burgos is rendering Johnny as faceless in his flaming form.

Compare with how Kirby and Ayers respectively have been doing it.

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Notice that way up top, I claim this story is “Featuring: Human Torch”. That is a subjective assertion, as Thing also has a starring role and could have been included. The issue refers to Thing as a guest star, while Human Torch gets his name up top. Yet, Thing also stars in the next issue and the one after, and in fact every Human Torch story from now on. This is now a team book, though the credits don’t acknowledge it. Perhaps they haven’t made their mind up, or perhaps they’re easing us into the new status quo.

Either way, next issue, this comic will feature Human Torch AND the Thing. I feel it is obvious to everyone that Thing is the best character in the Fantastic Four, and the character that Stan puts the most heart into writing. Of all of them, he’s the one who deserved the solo series. Presumably, Human Torch has gotten this series because he’s a character Marvel had such success with in the 1940s. This new Human Torch held on as a solo character for 22 issues, ranging from bad to mediocre.

Hopefully, the introduction of the Thing will turn the quality of this series around. Spoiler: it won’t.

Anyways, we get a surprisingly important new supervillain in the Beetle. At first, he’s Abner Jenkins, who describes himself unironically as a “humble master mechanic in a factory”.

He then notes the world has seen the last of the “colorless” Abner Jenkins. Well, soon enough…

Ben and Johnny are on a double date to Johnny’s favorite drive-in place, when the get interrupted by this new super-menace.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆, 36/100
Significance: ★★★★☆

I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: Human Torch vol. 2. You can also find it in The Human Torch & The Thing: Strange Tales – The Complete Collection. Or on Kindle.

Characters:

• Human Torch
• Thing
• Abner Jenkins/Beetle
• Alicia
• Dorrie Evans

Minor characters:

• Charlie

Story notes:

• Beetle: helmet is power source; magno-suction grippers; wings can fly, though not very high or fast, made of bulletproof steel with asbestos coating (of course) and shovel-edges for digging.
• Reed calls Ben and Johnny from 35th floor of Baxter Building; refers to himself as “Leader One”.
• Thing and Human Torch on double date with Alicia and Dorrie, when the call comes in to investigate. They ignore it and continue on to what Johnny calls the best drive-in restaurant in town.
• Dorrie suggests reports may be of Spider-Man or “that gorgeous Thor”.
• Thing prefers his burgers nearly raw.
• Thing rides motorcycle.
• Snow White reference.
• Battle at New York World’s Fair; Flushing, Long Island.

#215 story in reading order
Next: Strange Tales #123, Story B
Previous: X-Men #6