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Tales to Astonish #64, Story B

The Horde of Humanoids!

Featuring: Hulk
Release: November 3, 1964
Cover: February 1964
12 cents
Written with the sparkling skill of Stan Lee!
Drawn with the peerless power of Steve Ditko!
Inked with the classic clarity of George Bell!
Lettered with the TV set on by: Artie Simek
10 pages

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Recall we read the Giant-Man/Wasp story in this issue a while back, but we’ve saved the Hulk stories for a big push.

Interesting that Stan refers to this as “the only super-hero soap opera”. I feel like that phrase with epitomize Marvel comics for decades to come.

I think it’s time to bid farewell to George Roussos, one of the most prominent inkers of our early reading, always under the pseudonym George Bell (oft abbreviated to Geo. Bell). We’ve read almost 50 stories with his inks, including Fantastic Four, Sgt. Fury, Iron Man, Thor, Human Torch, Giant-Man/Wasp, and Hulk stories. He’s off to do other work. He’ll return to Marvel in the 1970s and become one of Marvel’s most prominent colorists. He’s also been coloring much of the work we’ve been reading, but I’ve read most of his stories in recolored reprints, so miss out.

We open with Banner in jail, suspected of treason. He is taking tranquilizer pills to keep himself from transforming. Remember, it’s now strain that triggers the transformation.

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Avengers #16

The Old Order Changeth!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: March 11, 1965
Cover: May 1965
12 cents
Dazzling script by: Stan Lee
Dashing layouts by: Jack Kirby
Darlin’ artwork by: Dick Ayers
Delicate lettering by: Artie Simek
20 pages

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“Avengers Assemble!” shouts Captain America. With quite the assemblage of heroes and villains behind him. Check out our pretty full cast list near the end.

A little annoyed with myself as I make this post. I screwed up. In the middle of a move and all my comics are in transit. I have this issue, my second oldest Avengers comic after issue 8, and I thought I had scanned this before I packed and shipped it. I remembered doing so. Apparently I only scanned the single page I used in my Wandavision post.

I considered pausing our reading for a bit until I could scan my comic, but who knows when that will be. So we’ll press forward with scans, err, found on the internet. We’ll call them temporary. I’ll come back in a month or so and replace them with my own. You probably won’t even notice the difference. I just prefer to scan my own comics when I can.

And this issue means a lot to me.

Had it since early childhood somehow. My cousin had borrowed it for an extended period of time, but I eventually got it back.

This is a pretty historic issue. For whatever reason, Heck chose this issue of all issues to take a breather, leaving Ayers to do the artwork over Kirby’s layouts… or perhaps Kirby’s loose pencils, or maybe full pencils for some of the comic.

Here’s an interesting post on the breakdown of artistic labor in this issue, including speculation that Carl Hubbell was involved: https://nick-caputo.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-unknown-art-of-carl-hubbell.html

First, we need to wrap up the story from last issue. Captain America had just fatally defeated Zemo, and now needs to get back to New York with Rick. He’ll have some trouble with Zemo’s henchmen. Meanwhile, the battle with the Masters of Evil continues in New York.

Let’s just say the Avengers win, though Enchantress and Executioner escape. The battle’s anyway over by page 4, and we have more important things to discuss.

It turns out this was these heroes’ final battle together.

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