Featuring: Tales of Asgard Release: June 2, 1964 Cover: August 1964 12 cents Written and drawn by the prize-winning team of: Stan (The Man) Lee and Jack (King) Kirby Inked by: Vince Colletta Lettering: Art Simek 5 pages
For several months now, Stan has used all kind of creative license in the credits, applying clever nicknames to everybody. Two months ago in Fantastic Four #28, Jack was referred to as “The King”. Now, we get the credits that will resonate through the decades and become basically the official nicknames of the famous duo: “Stan (The Man) Lee and Jack (King) Kirby”.
This might be the first time they’ve ever shown up. Certainly that I’ve come across. Caveat that I’m reading these Marvel stories in reprints, so miss many house ads and letters pages, which are likely sources of the nicknames. This is definitely the first time we’ve seen both “The Man” and “King” within an issue’s credits.
This is the second story starring Balder, depicted here in what looks to be a Disney movie. Loki is jealous of the favoritism Odin shows to Balder, second only to his love for Thor. Loki decides to kill Balder. The only snag is the gift of invulnerability Odin had bestowed upon Balder last issue.
Featuring: Thor Release: June 2, 1964 Cover: August 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee, who needs the money Drawn by: Jack Kirby, who enjoys the practice Inked by: Chic Stone, who loves the publicity Lettered by: Art Simek, whoever he is! 18 pages
We get a significant new addition to the canon of Marvel villains with the Grey Gargoyle. He’s got a pretty cool hook; he turns people to stone. In whatever early comics I first saw the character in, I didn’t fully appreciate the name. I got the alliteration and that gargoyles are often rendered in stone. But there’s a little more to it that I think later artists would fail to capture. We see in this initial image of the character that Kirby really has gone out of his way to make it so he can look like a gargoyle in the right pose.
It’s a particularly good opening splash page, and that’s before we even get to the light poetry of the narration rhyming: “small” with “all”.
Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: May 12, 1964 Cover: August 1964 12 cents Written with a dash of greatness by: Stan Lee Drawn with a hint of glory by: Jack Kirby Inked with a touch of drama by: Chic Stone Lettered with a bottle of India ink by: S. Rosen 22 pages
This is pretty easily my favorite cover so far. Years before I’d ever read the issue, I’d been enthralled by the cover. It seems to promise so much potential. What started on Yancy Street? Important enough to attract the attention of the Watcher.
Beyond my fascination with the ominous mood the cover suggests, there really hasn’t been a cover at all like this yet in our reading. First of all, it’s definitely the first Fantastic Four cover without a hint of a villain. The closest other example is Fantastic Four #13, which only shows Red Ghost’s hand. The mood of the characters is entirely different from the norm. Usually they’re mid-battle or primed for battle, with only a couple exceptions, notably FF#13 again. Now, they seem nervous, uncertain, hesitant. Moods that have never made it onto a cover. Reed is holding Sue’s hand. Ben looks uneasy. Johnny is nervously looking around.
Behind them all, the visage of the Watcher lurking ominously with glimpses of the cosmos behind him.
And yet. And yet. While almost everything about the visuals of the cover suggest this serious tone, we must also look to the street sign. Yancy Street. That creates an association which is far from serious. Since we first learned of the Yancy Street Gang back in issue 6, they have been comic relief, existing to knock Thing down a peg, to keep him humble. There is then some irony on the cover. Perhaps the super-serious tone is not meant to be taken quite so seriously.
Will the story live up to the incredible cover? As with most great works of this era, parts of it do and parts of it do not. In particular, the revelation of just what was happening on Yancy Street proves somewhat disappointing.
The first page seems almost a continuation of the cover, the Fantastic Four walking down Yancy Street, uncertain quite what they are looking for. Yet, the ominous tone of the cover is mixed with a certain wackiness as Thing steps in gum and somebody hurls lettuce at Mr. Fantastic. They are indeed on Yancy Street.
The first 5 pages of this comic are a quirky mix of foreboding and humor and relationship drama. The Fantastic Four get attacked by unseen members of the Yancy Street Gang. Reed bewilderingly concludes that a super-villain must be behind the Gang.
Featuring: X-Men Release: May 5, 1964 Cover: July 1964 12 cents Written: With the flair of Stan Lee Drawn: With the air of Jack Kirby Inked: With the care of Chic Stone Lettered: On a dare by S. Rosen 22 pages
Once again, we see that Namor and Hulk are the binding that holds this nascent Marvel Universe together. Most of the heroes haven’t met each other, but they’ve almost all met Hulk or Namor. (Daredevil hasn’t met either yet, but we’ve only read two issues; he’ll meet Namor soon.)
My confusion about what to call Magneto’s group remains. It’s becoming clearer that “Evil Mutants” is how Xavier and the narrator refer to them. It’s less clear what they would call themselves. They were called the “Brotherhood of Evil Mutants” on the cover, and in the title, of their first appearance; however, that name has never shown up in-story.
Featuring: Tales of Asgard Release: May 5, 1964 Cover: July 1964 12 cents Written with passion by: Stan Lee Drawn with pageantry by: Jack Kirby Inked with power by: Vince Colletta Lettered with pride by: Art Simek 5 pages
We recently met Vince Colletta over in Daredevil. This issue begins Vince Colletta’s long relationship with Thor, spanning almost a decade. He will be the regular inker on “Tales of Asgard” from here on out, and soon graduate to the main title. He will be the inker for over 60 consecutive issues and remain a frequent inker on the title thereafter.
Contrasting his work with, say, Chic Stone, we see more hatchings to represent shadow and shape than we have been seeing, yet less crispness. The features are often softer and less defined. I’ve seen it described as “atmospheric”.
The next two chapters of “Tales of Asgard” will focus on Balder. Let’s review his history.
Featuring: Thor Release: May 5, 1964 Cover: July 1964 12 cents Written fairly well by: Stan Lee Drawn not too badly by: Jack Kirby Inked kinda nice by: Chic Stone Lettered pretty fair by: Art Simek 18 pages
This issue picks up less than 60 seconds after the last issue ended. Cobra has stolen Thor’s hammer with a machine and Thor is about to revert to Don Blake.
I can’t believe we have another 18 pages of Thor fighting Cobra and Mr. Hyde.
This idea of spreading a story over multiple issues is becoming a thing. We made it through over a year of stories without it ever happening. Not only were stories resolved in an issue, but they were usually resolved within a dozen pages, leaving room for other stories. It takes a hefty 36 pages to conclude this battle. The famous origin of Spider-Man took only 11.
The first hint of change was the Fantastic Four battle with Dr. Doom taking place over Fantastic Four #16–17. But even that was really two distinct stories; the first just ended with Doom’s escape, so they had another Doom story right after. Amazing Spider-Man #11–12 is a similar flavor; each issue tells a complete story, but Dr. Octopus remains the villain across the issues. We’ve had the one big story, the Hulk story in Fantastic Four #25–26, which itself tied into plot threads from Avengers #2-5. But that was epic enough to justify its length. Giant-Man and Wasp inaugurated the pointless two-parter with their battle against the Human Top. Thor’s title has gone all in on the idea, as his battles with both Mr. Hyde and Tomorrow Man took two issues for no particular reason. Iron Man recently followed suit with his battle against Mandarin, also stretched over two issues.
The multi-part story will soon become the rule rather than the exception, including two giant upcoming epics. These multi-part arcs make deciding on a reading order difficult. In general, I’ve been trying to go month by month, but I’d also like to keep these multi-part stories together, which is going to require some shifting around.
Featuring: Tales of Asgard Release: April 2, 1964 Cover: June 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee Illustrated by: Jack Kirby Inking: Geo Bell Lettering: Art Simek 5 pages
Recall that last issue, we learned the origin of Heimdall. This issue we get another Heimdall tale, before the spotlight shifts to Balder starting next issue.
Nedra hatches a plot with Brimer, King of the Storm Giants, to invade Asgard, even under Heimdall’s watch. Nothing can escape his sight or hearing, but the air creatures known as the Vanna can be neither seen nor heard.
Nonetheless, Heimdall senses the approaching Vanna and lashes out. He misses and is uncertain whether to trust his own instincts.
Featuring: Thor Release: April 2, 1964 Cover: June 1964 12 cents Written by: Happy Stan Lee Drawn by: Healthy Jack Kirby Inked by: Husky Chic Stone Lettered by: Hasty Art Simek 18 pages
I really am excited that Kirby is the regular on Thor, especially when paired with a great inker like Chic Stone. I remain hopeful that the quality of the “Tales of Asgard” backups will soon be reflected in the main stories, turning around what has been Marvel’s worst title so far. Enchantress and Executioner were two good additions to the rogues gallery. And last issue we got a taste of mythic armageddon. Far more interesting than Thor fighting mobsters. I like the direction they’re going. I hope they keep it u–
Oh. Huh. Cobra and Mr. Hyde, eh.
Sigh. Ah well. Teach me to get my hopes up.
Because there are no longer sci/fi backup tales, the entire issue is dedicated to Thor. Which means they have to drag this story over 18 pages. And then they make it a two-parter! 36 pages of Cobra and Mr. Hyde.
The Avengers show up. The costumes they are wearing could be clues to where this story places amidst the Avengers comics and other titles… except they provide inconsistent evidence.
Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: April 9, 1964 Cover: July 1964 12 cents Written by: Stan Lee (The leader!) Drawn by: Jack Kirby (The king!) Inked by: Chic Stone (The master!) Lettered by: Art Simek (The letterer!) 22 pages
Stan’s been doing “clever credits” for a while now, giving all sorts of nicknames to the creators. This one happens to be Kirby’s most famous nickname. He is generally known today as Jack “King” Kirby. This is the first time we’ve seen the “king” nickname in our reading. Can’t confirm whether it’s been used anywhere else before. This project began 20 years into Jack’s rather prolific career.
We turn now to the story, where the Fantastic Four and X-Men meet for the first time. (Well, Human Torch and Iceman had already met…)
We begin with a statue of Thing that has been sculpted by the brilliant Alicia, working by touch alone.
Featuring: Avengers Release: May 5, 1964 Cover: July 1964 12 cents Written by the inspired typewriter of: Stan Lee Drawn by the enchanted pencil of: Jack Kirby Inked by the gifted brush of: Chic Stone Lettered by the scratch pen of: S. Rosen 23 pages
As if it wasn’t hard enough trying to figure out how to fit the Avengers’ solo adventures around this title, issue 5 ended with an urgent call from the Teen Brigade to go on a mission unrelated to the Lava Men adventure they just had, which itself was unrelated to the Hulk adventure that started that issue. Leaving almost no space for solo adventures.
Here, the narration informs us they are still on the way to New York to respond to the urgent call, but needed to refuel in Chicago.
Between New York and Chicago, Iron Man and Giant-Man have gotten new costumes, and Wasp has a new hairdo and headpiece.
Captain America meanwhile has new glove magnets and miniature transistors installed in his shield that allow him to control its motion.
Iron Man designed the shield transistors. He is apparently an engineering genius on par with Tony Stark, the man nobody has ever seen him with, despite being Stark’s bodyguard.
And then Thor gives Captain America his mail. Wait? What? I thought this was a refueling stop in Chicago. Where did they get the mail? Where are they?
Not many details in the scene. Some equipment makes it look like a lab. Cap is sitting on a chair, so they seem to not be on a plane or at a refueling station.
