al hartley – Coke & Comics

INTERLUDE: Two-Gun Kid #77

The Panther Will Get You If You Don’t Watch Out!

Featuring: Two-Gun Kid
Release: June 1, 1965
Cover: September 1965
12 cents
Edited by: Stan Lee
Written by: Al Hartley
Pencilling by: Dick Ayers
Inking by: Carl Hubbell
Lettering by: Artie Simek
17 pages

Previous		Next
	PRELUDE	Mystic Comics #3, Story B
Daredevil #9	Reading order	Journey Into Mystery Annual 1

He wore two guns and a mask?

We are reading Marvel’s superhero line, which they started back up in 1961. We’ve occasionally read stories older than 1961 that seem vaguely relevant, and refer to those as PRELUDE posts. We occasionally read stories long after 1961 and call those POSTLUDE posts. We will also be doing INTERLUDE posts, which we will read at the time they came out, but are disconnected from the normal superhero universe.

If you’ve been following along, this will be the first INTERLUDE post you’ve come across. But I’ve retroactively made a few other posts be INTERLUDE posts. Those stories featuring Medusa, Merlin, Odin, or Zeus that weren’t really properly connected to the superhero reading.

Superheroes are on the rise and starting to crowd out other genres, but Marvel is still publishing its romance and western comics. Marvel had a single western hero, the Masked Raider, way back in the beginning in Marvel Comics #1. But they’ve been regularly publishing westerns since 1948, starting with Annie Oakley and the Two-Gun Kid.

That’s the original Two-Gun Kid, mind you. Not to be confused with the character we are about to read about. The original Two-Gun Kid was Clay Harder.

In 1962, Lee and Kirby introduced a new hero with the same name, lawyer Matt Hawk.

Marvel’s other continuing western titles are Rawhide Kid, and Kid Colt: Outlaw.

Former western heroes include Wyatt Earp, Apache Kid, Outlaw Kid, Blaze Carson, Tex Morgan, and Tex Taylor.

One of Two-Gun Kid’s steadfast allies is Boom-Boom Brown, a former boxer turned blacksmith.

His most trusted ally of course is his horse Thunder.

Tales of Suspense #68

If a Man Be Mad!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: May 11, 1965
Cover August 1965
12 cents
Edited by: Stan Lee (who hasn’t slept since!)
Written by: Al Hartley (who could never sleep!)
Art by: Don Heck (who was under sedation!)
Inked by: Mickey Demeo (who couldn’t have visitors!)
Lettered by: Sam Rosen (who knows!)
12 pages

Previous		Next
Tales of Suspense #67, Story B	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #68, Story B
Tales of Suspense #67, Story B	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #68, Story B

This is the third Al Hartley story we’ve read. He wrote last month’s Giant-Man finale and drew a Thor story way back. He is a Marvel regular, just normally on the humor titles this blog hasn’t focused on.

We can still count on one hand the number of stories Stan hasn’t claimed writing credit on. But he gets his name at the top of the credits anyway.

From the title page, this almost seems like the same story as last issue. Last issue, Count Nefaria took over Iron Man’s dreams to make him fight visions of his enemies. Now it looks like Iron Man is seeing visions again. Turn the page, and we learn Count Nefaria is involved again.

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

Previous	#356	Next
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.

Journey Into Mystery #90

5th alien invasion. 2nd by shape-changing aliens. But who’s counting?

Trapped by the Carbon-Copy Man!
Featuring: Thor
Release: January 3, 1963
Cover: March 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: Larry Lieber
Art: Al Hartley
13 pages

I read this comic in Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor vol. 1.

As has been the theme of recent posts, Jack Kirby seems to be on a bit of a break, letting Al Hartley fill in on this Thor story. As far as I can tell, this is Hartley’s only credit for Marvel superheroes. He’d been working with Stan Lee for at least 14 years at this point, in a variety of genres. Most notably, he’d been working on Marvel’s Patsy Walker since 1958. He’s quoted as saying he was more comfortable in the humor and teen drama genres than the superhero genre.