dick ayers – Page 5 – Coke & Comics

Sgt. Fury #16

A Fortress in the Desert Stands!

Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos
Release: January 12, 1965
Cover: March 1965
12 cents
Written with machine gun power by Ex-Sgt. Stan Lee
Drawn with howitzer impact by Ex-Corp. Dick Ayers
Inked with rifle-fire sharpness by Ex-Corp. Frank Ray
Lettered with bloodshot eyes by Artie Simek Civilian 1st Class
20 pages

Previous	#321	Next
Amazing Spider-Man #23	Reading order	Sgt. Fury #17
Sgt. Fury #15	Sgt. Fury	Sgt. Fury #17

The cover is striking because of the dominant yellow. We haven’t yet seen a cover with such a coloring scheme, but they’ll become more common, and they’ll always catch my eye. This particular color evokes the intense heat of the desert.

Hans Rooten takes his new place as squad mascot. He’s even got a uniform to indicate his “mascot” status. He’s written far more sensibly than, say, Rick Jones is in Avengers. He is allowed to train with the Commandos, but not on dangerous maneuvers, and he doesn’t go on missions, whereas the Avengers take Rick to fight most any super-villain.

The only not-particularly sensible thing is why they continue to let Hans believe his father is a traitor. Now that he’s safely in England, there’s surely no harm in telling the kid his father is a heroic Allied double agent. But these were his father’s wishes, so the child will go on thinking himself to be basically an orphan, with the Howlers the only family he has left.

This page is from the original comic, found online.

Hans has already figured out the character of Sgt. Fury: “He is yelling at me! That means he likes me!”

Hans wants to be a Howler when he grows up. Nick hopes that when he grows up, there won’t be any need for Howlers.

Strange Tales #131

The Bouncing Ball of Doom!

Featuring: Human Torch and Thing
Release: January 12, 1965
Cover: April 1965
12 cents
Story by: Stan (Prolific) Lee
Illustrations by: Bob (Terrific) Powell
Delineation by: Dick (Specific) Ayers
Lettering by: S. (Hieroglyphic) Rosen
12 pages

Previous	#318	Next
Tales of Suspense #64, Story B	Reading order	Fantastic Four #37
Strange Tales #130, Story B	Strange Tales	Strange Tales #131, Story B
Captain America Comics #1, Story C	Prelude

Continuing through the Human Torch stories in Strange Tales while saving the Dr. Strange stories for much later.

Why is the story titled the “Bouncing Ball of Doom”? Because the Thinker’s plan involves a bouncing ball.

Huh.

How many Human Torch stories do we still have to read?

I must emphasize that the Dr. Strange story is one of the single greatest Marvel stories of all time, yet the Bouncing Ball of Doom is what gets spotlighted on the cover.

Avengers #13

The Castle of Count Nefaria

Featuring: Avengers
Release: December 10, 1964
Cover: February 1965
12 cents
Rather exceptional story by: Stan Lee
Somewhat distinctive art by: Don Heck
Fairly compelling inking by: Dick Ayers
Moderately clear lettering by: Artie Simek
20 pages

Previous	#310	Next
Tales of Suspense #63, Story B	Reading order	Avengers #14
Avengers #12	Avengers	Avengers #14

The cover is pretty off for a Kirby composition. I’m pretty sure Count Nefaria is supposed to be manipulating the controls, but he looks passed out to me.

Solid opening splash page of the Avengers looking furtive near the wanted ad.

The story opens with Iron Man and Thor stopping a fur robbery. Honestly, that seems somewhat beneath them; I’d be more comfortable with such crimes being left to conventional authorities or more down-to-earth vigilantes.

Up to this point, there was no evidence the Avengers were proactively seeking out any types of crimes to stop. They responded to two global threats–the Lava Men and Kang. They occasionally seek out the Hulk to fight, but usually just wait for a villain to attack them. Villains in these stories tend to be much more proactive. But now we learn the Avengers have been actively fighting crime for a while now.

This story introduces the Maggia, an organized criminal organization, perhaps inspired by real-life Mafia.

Tales of Suspense #63

Somewhere Lurks The Phantom!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: December 10, 1964
Cover: March 1965
12 cents
Have you the nerve to read this great Stan Lee story?
Should we preserve these thrilling Don Heck drawings?
Dare we observe this unique Dick Ayers inking?
Do we deserve the impact of this Sam Rosen lettering?
12 pages

Previous	#308	Next
Strange Tales #130	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #63, Story B
Tales of Suspense #62, Story B	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #63, Story B

Introduces a new villain, the Phantom, who is sabotaging Stark’s plant. I thought about naming all the Iron Man villains whose plan has involved attacking or sabotaging Stark’s plant, but it would be easier to name the rest of them.

This resolves the story arc where Tony Stark seemed to be dead. He turns out not to be.

He pretended to be dead because he was trapped in his armor. Yet… trapped in his armor, he could still remove his helmet and gloves, at least. He has always been trapped in the chest plate and just puts clothes over it. So I don’t understand why he couldn’t have just put clothes over the rest of his armor.

Whatever the explanation, he modified a transistor so now only needs the chestplate. Basically, his new invention allowed him to take his pants off.

Sgt. Fury #15

Too Small to Fight, Too Young to Die!

Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos
Release: December 10, 1964
Cover: February 1965
12 cents
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Dick Ayers
Inker: Steve Ditko
Letterer: S. Rosen
20 pages

Previous	#305	Next
Journey Into Mystery #113, Story B	Reading order	Amazing Spider-Man #22
Sgt. Fury #14	Sgt. Fury	Sgt. Fury #16

This is pretty exciting. Ditko inking Ayers. Definitely the first time we’ve seen that. And the opposite of the roles I most associate each artist with. It’s mostly not obvious to my untrained eye that Ditko is the inker, but I think I see him shining through on some of the faces, particularly Captain Sawyer and some of the ladies.

George Roussos had been the regular inker up to this point, under the pseudonym George Bell. It looks like last month marked the end of his regular Marvel work for now. He will return in a couple years and eventually become a staff colorist at Marvel.

Roussos has likely been coloring many of the comics we’ve read as well, but I don’t often have colorist credits in front of me, and am anyway often reading these stories in recolored reprints. So I’ve certainly failed to appreciate his coloring contributions.

We’ll see Roussos once more in the near future, because we still haven’t read the Hulk story from last month. And then we’ll see him again, eventually.

The idea of these 15 issues has been to take the Commandos to every theatre of the war– Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, England, Japan, Africa… Holland was due.

Strange Tales #129

The Terrible Trio!

Featuring: Human Torch and Thing
Release: November 10, 1964
Cover: February 1965
12 cents
Story by: Stan Lee (as if you didn’t know!)
Pencilling by: Dick Ayers (as if anyone cares!)
Inking by: Frankie Ray (as if it matters)
Lettering by: Art Simek (as if things aren’t bad enough!)
12 pages

Previous	#299	Next
Amazing Spider-Man #21	Reading order	Strange Tales #129, Story B
Strange Tales #128, Story B	Strange Tales	Strange Tales #129, Story B

Dr. Doom’s loser henchmen return, and Lee is still convinced that’s more interesting to spotlight than whatever Dr. Strange is up to this issue. At least Stan acknowledges Dr. Strange’s existence with a caption on the cover.

The loser henchmen now have a name. They are the Terrible Trio. They even have a cool logo design, where their name appears to be shaking.

It will be 15 years before a writer thinks they’re worth bringing back.

Frank Giacoia returns as inker. We met him last issue, where he used the pen name “Frank Ray”. Now he’s settled into the more informal “Frankie Ray”, which he will be better known as.

Sgt. Fury #14

The Blitzkrieg Squad of Baron Strucker!

Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos
Release: November 10, 1964
Cover: January 1965
12 cents
Written with the explosive power of a live grenade by: Ex-Sgt. Stan Lee
Drawn with the savage impact of a block-buster by: Ex-Corp. Dick Ayers
Inked with the smashing force of a Sherman tank by: Geo. Bell
Lettered with a brand new bottle of India ink by: Artie Simek
20 pages

Previous	#297	Next
Tales to Astonish #64	Reading order	Amazing Spider-Man #21
Sgt. Fury #13	Sgt. Fury	Sgt. Fury #15

We’ve met Baron Strucker twice before. Fury’s only recurring foe at this point. But now he’s got his own team of commandos backing him up, the Blitzkrieg Squad.

The idea of the Blitzkrieg Squad is that each is specifically chosen to be a match for a commando. The brawler matches Dugan; the charmer, Manelli; the musician, Gabe; the mechanic, Izzy; the horseman, Reb; the aristrocrat, Percy.

I was a bit confused by the word “Junker” in the context and had to look it up. It refers to a Prussian noble, not somebody who trades in scraps.

Avengers #12

This Hostage Earth!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: November 10, 1964
Cover: January 1965
12 cents
Written in the Marvel manner by smilin’ Stan Lee
Illustrated in the Marvel tradition by dazzlin’ Don Heck
Delineated in the Marvel style by darlin’ Dick Ayers
Lettered in the nick of time by swingin’ Sam Rosen
20 pages

Previous	#294	Next
Journey Into Mystery #112, Story B	Reading order	X-Men #9
Avengers #11	Avengers	Avengers #13

Avengers. Mole Man. Let’s check it out.

Mole Man is plotting to conquer the world. Ants are the first to notice his schemes, and they warn Giant-Man who warns the Avengers who… don’t take the ants seriously.

Iron Man is rocking those roller skates!

The moral of the story is to take warnings from ants seriously.

Tales of Suspense #62

The Origin of the Mandarin!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: November 10, 1964
Cover: February 1965
12 cents
Brashly written by: Stan Lee
Boldly drawn by: Don Heck
Brazenly inked by: Dick Ayers
Bashfully lettered by: S. Rosen
12 pages

Previous	#289	Next
Tales of Suspense #61, Story B	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #62, Story B
Tales of Suspense #61, Story B	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #62, Story B

Now that the issue is dual-featured, with each feature of similar importance, they need to think of different ways to highlight two pictures on the cover. We’ve seen the Iron Man picture embedded in the Captain America picture, while consuming a large chunk of the real estate, forming the main art of the Cap picture into an ‘L’. We’ve seen 2 separate pictures placed onto the mat at odd angles like postcards dropped on a canvas. The most conventional format will be a split-screen, either horizontal or vertical. This one is basically a horizontal split, but with a slanted line. It feels like the Iron Man portion wastes the portion of the image where it has the space. The Cap portion has extra space on the left and puts Cap himself there. Iron Man is squeezed into the small space on the left, and the extra space on the right is devoted to landscape.

Apparently Marvel had received more than 500 requests for the origin of the Mandarin.

If you look to the Best we’ve read page, it will become obvious the origin stories tend to be my favorite comics. At present, I see a full quarter of the list are origin stories, including the top 3 entries. Conversely, almost every major origin we’ve read is represented. (Sorry to Ant-Man, Thor, and Watcher.) Therefore I’m excited whenever we get a new origin story… unless it’s Mandarin’s story.

Tales of Suspense #61

The Death of Tony Stark!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: October 8, 1964
Cover: January 1965
12 cents
Story by: Stan Lee because we wanted the best!
Art by: Don Heck because we wanted the finest!
Inking by: Dick Ayers because we wanted the tops!
Lettering by: S. Rosen because we wanted to keep him busy!
12 pages

Previous	#287	Next
Strange Tales #128, Story B	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #61, Story B
Tales of Suspense #60, Story B	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #61, Story B

The cover boasts that Tony Stark will die at the hands of the Mandarin. Covers often exaggerate or outright fabricate such things. This caption is closer to true than usual, though.

We are informed the Mandarin returns by overwhelming popular demand. I was not given a vote. He remains my least favorite Marvel villain.

We meet Inspector Flint, investigating the disappearance of Tony Stark. I spent some mental cycles trying to decide if he was the unnamed inspector we met last issue. He resembles that inspector, and it makes sense he would still be on the case. However, since he introduces himself to Happy and Pepper, that implies they’ve never met. So I assume he is a different inspector.

A journalist overhears Flint talking to Happy and Pepper, so the papers reveal that Iron Man is top suspect in Stark disappearance. Clearly, Iron Man is the only suspect. Either Stark is on vacation like Iron Man claimed, or Iron Man is lying. So if there is a criminal case, Iron Man is at the center of it. Or, Iron Man is telling the truth, and there is no criminal case.