giant-man fan club – Coke & Comics

Tales to Astonish #61

Now Walks the Android

Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: August 4, 1964
Cover: November 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee (He’s getting to be a habit)
And then the credits get complicated.
14 pages

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Amazing Spider-Man #19	Reading order	Tales to Astonish #61, Story B
Tales to Astonish #60, Story B	Tales to Astonish	Tales to Astonish #61, Story B

We get a new logo for the shared title. Giant-Man never got a logo before. Tales to Astonish had remained the logo despite his starring role. The new logo somewhat cramped to fit all the names. “Giant-Man” is spread across two lines and has to share its text box with “and the Incredible”. No mention of Wasp in the logo. The cover real estate is split about equally between the two stories, with Hulk’s story up top. The cover box is similar to last issue, just rearranged a bit to put Hulk on top.

Somebody’s muscling in on your territory, Giant-Man.

The first page has Stan Lee’s credit, then some typed text pasted over the rest of the credit box. It explains that Ayers is on vacation, they had hired a new artist to fill in, but circumstances altered the plan, and Ditko and Roussos stepped in last minute to draw the issue.

As with most things Stan Lee says, that text box contains partial truths and partial falsehoods. Last issue, they had announced the artist would be Dick Rockwell. Rockwell had been working in comics since 1949. He did a little work for Marvel at the time.

Tales to Astonish #60

The Beasts of Berlin!

Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: July 2, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
Excitingly written by: Stan Lee
Exquisitely drawn by: Dick Ayers
Extravagantly inked by: Paul Reinman
Emotionally lettered by: Art Simek
14 pages

The cover hints at a significant change to the title, but we’ll save discussion of that for the next post.

We begin with Giant-Man throwing a temper tantrum and kicking out his fan club. Wasp complains he’s scaring way their fans. She uses the phrase, “our fans”, but all the signs say “Giant-Man”, never “Wasp”.

This series is weird about secret identities in multiple ways. They sometimes act like they have secret identities that are important to protect. Other times, they seem pretty nonchalant about it. For example, Wasp calls him “Hank” in front of the fan club.

Tales to Astonish #55

On the Trail of the Human Top!

Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: February 4, 1964
Cover: May 1964
12 cents
Story by: Happy Stan Lee
Art by: Heroic Dick Ayers
Lettering by: Honest Art Simek
18 pages

For the third comic in a row, I feel the need to point out that we are reading a February comic when not yet done with the January comics. I have reasons.

Please recall that Hulk and Namor remain at large.

How does Wasp feel about not getting her name on the jackets?

Actually, you often look foolish and clumsy. Do you have any footage of your recent battle against El Toro?

Human Top is Dr. Pym’s third repeat villain, after Egghead and Porcupine. Returning villains have become much more common across all the titles these last couple months, now that a staple has been built up.

Tales to Astonish #54

No Place to Hide!

Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: January 3, 1964
Cover: April 1964
12 cents
Daringly written by: Stan Lee
Dramatically drawn by: Don Heck
Deftly lettered by: Art Simek
13 pages

The placement of this story is tricky. Where we have it, Hulk and Namor are still on the loose, so this is no time for Wasp to be talking about a vacation. Doesn’t mean she wouldn’t be. Hank does note they don’t have time for a vacation. I choose to treat this as a veiled reference to the whole Hulk/Namor situation, whether intended or not.

On the subject of chronological concerns, notice Giant-Man is in his older outfit, last seen in issue 51. This indicates to me that he alternates between the outfits. In reality, the outfit seems to correspond to the artist. Ayers drew the issues with the thick suspenders. Kirby and Heck seem to be drawing Giant-Man with the lighter stripes. They will all eventually converge on thicker suspenders.

We see some pretty rough play between Giant-Man and Wasp. It seems to be all in good fun, but may be early warnings of an abusive relationship forming.

Tales to Astonish #53

Trapped by the Porcupine!

Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: December 2, 1963
Cover: March 1964
12 cents
Story by: Daring Stan Lee
Art by: Dazzling Dick Ayers
Lettering by: Dynamic S. Rosen
18 pages

Porcupine is only Dr. Pym’s second recurring villain. Egghead was the first.

Giant-Man’s costume seems to be undergoing frequent slight alterations. I’m not sure what’s going on with the black suspenders. They may be adjustable. Whatever is going on, this issue they seem to form an “x” on his back.

Tales to Astonish #51

Showdown with the Human Top!

Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: October 1, 1963
Cover: January 1964
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Drawn by: Jack Kirby
Inked by: Dick Ayers
13 pages

This continues the story of the previous issue. This is arguably the first real 2-part story we’ve seen. The Fantastic Four took two issues to defeat Dr. Doom in Fantastic Four #16–17. But as one encounter was in the Micro-World alongside Ant-Man, and the other was not, it could be argued those were two different stories, the main plot of issue 16 being resolved. Here, issue 50 clearly ended with a note the story was to be continued. Nothing was resolved. So that makes this something of a milestone within our reading.