bill everett – Coke & Comics

Tales to Astonish #79, Story B

The Titan and the Torment!

Featuring: Hulk
Release: February 3, 1966
Cover: April 1966
12 cents
Hulkish story by: Stan Lee
Hulkable layouts by: Jack Kirby
Hulking artwork by: Bill Everett
Hulksome lettering by: Artie Simek
10 pages

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Even he cannot suspect that Bruce Banner’s gamma rays have miraculously given Hulk the power to grow stronger, rather than weaker, so long as his rage keeps mounting!

As Richard recently pointed out in the comments, this is a great cover of Hulk battling Hercules, courtesy of Kirby and Everett. I fear the issue itself won’t quite live up to the image.

There is some pretty tight continuity on display. When we last saw Hercules, he and a casting agent had left New York bound for Los Angeles. Here we see them on a train from New York to LA. We’ll next see them arriving in LA in Thor #128. The casting agent doesn’t know this is the real Hercules. He’s been cast to play Hercules, so the agent assumes he’s method acting.

Note how little time there has been to breathe in these stories. Hulk’s battle with the Leader led right into his battles in the future, which have led right into his battle with Dr. Zaxon. There’s been no room to breathe. Cliffhanger after cliffhanger. Not so much one long story, as a bunch of story threads that don’t respect issue boundaries.

Tales to Astonish #79

When Rises the Behemoth

Featuring: Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner
Release: February 3, 1966
Cover: May 1966
12 cents
Now this is a story! By: Stan Lee
Now this is pencilling! By: Adam Austin
Now this is delineation! By: Bill Everett
Now this is lettering! By: Artie Simek
12 pages

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Back, you mortal rabble– back!!

Without much fanfare, we have Bill Everett inking Gene Colan. Bill Everett is the creator of the Sub-Mariner. Of course, for whatever reason, it’s the publisher and not he that controls the character. So Marvel gets to publish and profit off Sub-Mariner stories, and he only gets paid if he does more work. So here he is inking Colan’s pencils with Stan adding dialogue. Once Everett wrote and drew Namor’s adventures entirely on his own.

He’s slowly coming back to do more work for Marvel. The last thing he did for them was create Daredevil. But his Daredevil comic was drawn with immaculate detail and unfortunately not within deadline. So he got immediately removed from his own character, and only now 2 years later is starting to get regular work with Marvel again.

As of last issue, he’s the regular finisher on the Hulk stories within this title. He’s just filling in on this Namor story, but will be returning to Namor regularly soon.

I was down to two choices for the pull quote at the top of this quote. I went with one that best exhibited Namor’s personality. I could have gone with the more standard Stan Lee heroic purple prose: There is a time to flee– and a time to fight! While life endures–I shall ever choose the latter course!

I’m never quite clear on what the powers of all these characters are. Namor sometimes seems like Superman. But we see here he’s not bulletproof. He gets shot in the shoulder, and is wounded and losing blood.

Tales to Astonish #78, Story B

The Hulk Must Die!

Featuring: Hulk
Release: January 4, 1966
Cover: April 1966
12 cents
Story by: Stan Lee (Certainly!)
Layouts by: Jack Kirby (Naturally!)
Artwork by: Bill Everett (Surprisingly!)
Lettering by: Sam Rosen
10 pages

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Everett is on art now. We know him as the creator of Sub-Mariner, who told Namor’s original stories. And as the co-creator of Daredevil with Stan Lee, who worked on that series for a single issue. He was removed for being very over-deadline. I think a full-length comic for an entirely new character takes longer than a 10 page Hulk story.

Nonetheless, Kirby is brought in for layouts. Though Everett is the more senior of the two and has long been a writer/artist.

Hulk’s story hasn’t had a pause to breathe since he got his new title. No sooner had the Leader finally been defeated than Hulk was transported into the future. Thinking him dead, Rick revealed Banner’s secret to Major Talbot. But Hulk lives, and has returned from the future.

Has Talbot not told anybody his news yet? Not even Ross?

PRELUDE: Human Torch #5

The Human Torch Battles the Sub-Mariner as the World Faces Destruction!

Featuring: Human Torch
Release: October 8, 1941
Cover: Fall 1941
10 cents
60 pages (!)

The comic gives no credits. I’ll point you to the GCD, which notes work from Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, Jack D’Arcy, Hank Chapman, Mike Roy, Harry Sahle and George Kapitan. That’s… a lot of names. I will make no attempt to untangle who did what.

Counting to 5

Let’s get the confusing part out of the way. We are looking at Human Torch #5, with a cover date of Fall 1941.

The previous issue of Human Torch was… Human Torch #5, with a cover date of Summer 1941. Why? I have no idea. I think somebody counted wrong.

Daredevil #1

The Origin of Daredevil

Featuring: Daredevil
Release: February 4, 1964
Cover: April 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Illustrated by: Bill Everett
Lettered by: Sam Rosen
23 pages

Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four do not actually appear in this issue. They mention Spider-Man on the cover and the first page in an attempt to market Daredevil as their next Spider-Man.

Daredevil has a pretty distinctive logo, an expanding font with a swoosh running through it. Preceded by a “Here comes…”. And then the tagline which will endure to this day: “The Man Without Fear”.

Bill Everett is a name we should be plenty familiar with by now even though this is his first time showing up in the Marvel Age. We know him from our “Prelude” reading as the creator of Namor the Sub-Mariner 25 years earlier. Reportedly, he was very slow working on this issue of Daredevil, leading to this issue being released a full 7 months after it was originally scheduled. So he won’t be invited back to illustrate more Daredevil stories. He’ll be put on covers and finishes, jobs where he’s less likely to blow deadlines. A shame, because he does great work here.

PRELUDE: Young Men #28, Story C

The Land Below the Sun!

Featuring: Sub-Mariner
Release: February 25, 1954
Cover: June 1954
10 cents
By: Bill Everett
8 pages

If the Nazis were the favorite enemy in the ’40s, by the ’50s it will be the Soviets. They are portrayed as rather silly here, believing their leader without question, constantly insulting capitalism, and generally being blind lemmings praising their fascist state.

That’s exactly how Soviets talked, I imagine.

Now, we read in Sub-Mariner Comics #1 how the Emperor died. Well, now he’s not dead. In truth, I haven’t read very many comics in the intervening 13 years, but I’ve done some internet research, and it doesn’t seem like the comics had explained this discrepancy. As far as I can tell, this is the first time we’ve seen the Emperor since his death. And nobody remarks on how alive he is. Eventually, we will come to a 1980s series called Saga of the Sub-Mariner that attempts to explain the wonky continuity on display.

PRELUDE: Young Men #25, Story C

Featuring: Sub-Mariner
Release: October 26, 1953
Cover: February 1954
10 cents
By: Bill Everett
8 pages

We’re continuing to sample some of Sub-Mariner’s older adventures to catch us up on his history. We’ve read the start of his self-titled series, the conclusion of his self-titled series, and his return to comics in Young Men #24.

Why this next issue as well? Well, because I have it. I mentioned before that JC Penney put out an odd set of new printings of assorted classic Marvel comics, which I acquired as a young child. Young Men #25 was among the set. So I may as well include it.

PRELUDE: Young Men #24, Story C

Featuring: Sub-Mariner
Release: August 19, 1953
Cover: December 1953
10 cents
By: Bill Everett
8 pages

Young Men, there’s no need to feel down…

I can’t find any credit in the story, but it seems to be pretty clearly by Bill Everett.

The story is a mystery of sunken ships, but the teaser kind of spoils the revelation.

We last saw Sub-Mariner, or any of the superheroes from the company that tends to be called “Timely”, in 1949. In 1953, the company tends to be called “Atlas”, and they’re ready to give superheroes another try. At least briefly. Sub-Mariner will get new stories for about a year or so. This issue also sees the return of two of Timely’s other most popular superheroes.

PRELUDE: Sub-Mariner Comics #32

The Birth of the Sub-Mariner

Featuring: Sub-Mariner
Release: March 20, 1949
Cover: June 1949
10 cents
By: Bill Everett
12 pages

I can’t find any credits in the comic, but it seems to pretty clearly be by Bill Everett, and the internet seems to agree.

This is the end of the Sub-Mariner’s story. After a decade, he’s getting cancelled along with all the other superheroes. Romance, humor, crime, western, horror… that’s all the company that will become Marvel is publishing come April 1949.

For his final issue, they look backward. This story tells of the origin of Namor. The next story in the issue covers the same events as Namor’s first story in Marvel Comics #1.

The story begins with a ship which has lost its Captain. Commander Leonard McKenzie is injured and lost. His ship has to abandon him. He is saved by his new wife, a woman they rescued who turns out to be more than she appears. She is Fen, Princess of the Sub-Mariners.

The Sub-Mariners wish him put to death for the crimes of humanity, but she is in charge in the absence of the Emperor and insists he live.

PRELUDE: Sub-Mariner Comics #1

The World’s First Deep-Sea Blitzkrieg!

Featuring: Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner
Release: March 1, 1941
Cover: Spring 1941
10 cents
By: Bill Everett
20 pages

My goal with this blog is to read through all the superhero comics that make up the Marvel Universe starting with Fantastic Four #1 in 1961. But there’s an oddity to that goal: the company had been making superhero comics since 1939. Of course, they stopped making superhero comics in 1949, to very briefly revive the idea in 1953. So 1961 isn’t exactly the beginning, but it sort of is. Most of the superheroes we know will follow in the wake of the Fantastic Four. We’ve already met Hulk, Ant-Man & Wasp, Thor Spider-Man, Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Sgt. Fury… and more will come.

But some of our heroes predate 1961. Johnny Storm is not the first Human Torch. There was another and we’ve peeked at his stories. But the FF comics have yet to mention the existence of a previous Torch, so those stories are not crucial to the task at hand. We’ll very soon be meeting one more important character from 1941, but I’ll not jump ahead. The big thing we’re missing so far is the story of Sub-Mariner, who appeared in about 300 comics prior to 1961. Reading all of them would consume a huge amount of effort when I really want to push forward. But the gap is also nagging me.

So I’m going to read a small smattering of them. Try to get a sense of who Namor is and what he’s about. We’ve already read his earliest appearance as well as his first epic battle with Human Torch.

When the Fantastic Four met Namor in Fantastic Four #6, I wrote: “All posts regarding Fantastic Four comics featuring Namor are henceforth dedicated to my mother.” I may as well broaden that dedication to all Namor comics and include the next few we cover.