marie severin – Coke & Comics

Tales of Suspense #73

My Life for Yours!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: October 12, 1965
Cover: January 1966
12 cents
Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Adam Austin, Gary Michaels, Sol Brodsky, Flo Steinberg, and Merrie Ol’ Marie Severin!
12 pages

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Tales of Suspense #72, Story B	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #73, Story B
Tales of Suspense #72, Story B	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #73, Story B

Now look, Avenger– No one takes the law into his own hands– not even you!

Stan seems to be crediting an unusual amount of people, but it’s really people who are always involved. Lee always credits himself, this time presumably in an editing role. Roy Thomas is the scripter, Adam Austin (aka Gene Colan) the penciller, Gary Michaels (aka Jack Abel) the inker. The other names show up less commonly in credits. Sol Brodsky is the production manager, and usually is, though uncredited. Marie Severin is the colorist, and frequently is, though uncredited. (Unfortunately we won’t see any of Severin’s coloring in my images, as I’ve only found the digital version online, which is entirely recolored, and that’s likely Stan Goldberg coloring the cover above.) What’s interesting here is Flo Steinberg, who’s been behind the scenes since the beginning, handling the office work for Marvel. She gets her name here apparently because she assisted Roy with the plot.

Weirdly, for all that crediting, they forgot to mention the letterer. Apparently this time normal letter Artie Simek is joined by Ben Oda.

Speaking of Roy Thomas, that’s the new guy we first met on Modeling with Millie, which was released one week earlier. This is his first superhero work. Wonder if he’ll do any more.

Jack Abel is also new to us in our modern reading, though we read an old Captain America story he’d likely contributed to. He’d worked for Marvel back in the 1950s, often inking Bill Benulis or Bob Forgione, but lately has been focused on DC’s war comics. It’s probably why he uses a pseudonym here, so DC won’t know he’s doing side-work. He’ll eventually move on to DC’s superhero line and become the main inker on Superman stories. Here’s a sampling of his artwork.

Journey Into Mystery #20, Marvel, 1954
Our Fighting Forces #50, DC, 1959
Sea-Devils #14, DC, 1963

And a sampling of his finishing work.

Western Outlaws and Sheriffs #72, Marvel, 1952, pencils by Warren Broderick
Adventures into Terror #11, Marvel, 1952, pencils by Bill Benulis
Combat Casey #11, Marvel, 1953, pencils by Bill Benulis
All-American Men of War #25, DC, 1955, pencils by Bob Forgione
Wyatt Earp #1, Marvel, 1955, pencils by Bob Forgione
Turok, Son of Stone #3, Dell, 1956, pencils by Bob Correa

As a complete aside, the plot of that Adventures into Terror story amused me to no end. Lots of these stories about somebody murdering a partner for ambition. But in this case, they were a two-man horse act, and the guy who played the end of the horse wanted to play the horse’s head. Talk about ambition!

PRELUDE: Weird Science #20

The Loathsome!

Release: March 30, 1953
Cover: July-August 1953
10 cents
Publisher: EC Comics
By: Wood
8 pages

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	POSTLUDE	Marvels #2
Tales of Suspense #72	Reading order	Sgt. Fury #22

To whoever finds this note… I love you.

The Grand Comics Database credits the plot to Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein with a script by Feldstein. The coloring is credited to Marie Severin and the lettering to Jim wroten. The artist is Wally Wood.

Astute observers will notice our latest entry in our Marvel reading is not a Marvel comic. This was published by EC Comics in 1953.

Why are we reading it?

Three reasons. One, Wally Wood is soon finishing up his time at Marvel. I’d alluded before to his astounding science fiction work in the past. We may as well read a story. Two, thematically, this is basically the story of the X-Men in comic form a decade earlier. Three, we are about to read Marvels #2, which explicitly references this comic, drawing the parallels to the X-Men.

The issue features 3 other sci/fi tales and a text story, including an adaptation of a Ray Bradbury story, and the story about cryogenic slumber and space travel the cover is based on (eerily similar to that awful film Passengers, except more self-aware). Another tale is titled “The Reformers”, and non-subtly mocks those who would foment outrage about comics. Great stories, all.

Warning. This is much darker and more intense a story than our normal Marvel reading. EC Comics were famously dark, to the point where they became the center of a nationwide outrage against the comics medium.

This is the story of a mutant girl.

It begins with then-current events. Operation Ivy. The US military conducted a nuclear test on Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands, October 31, 1952, the first successful explosion of a hydrogen bomb.

This comic then speculates on the fate of a soldier exposed to the radiation from the fallout. A soldier who goes home, marries, and sires a child. A child who is born hideously deformed.

POSTLUDE: Marvel: Heroes & Legends #1

For Better and For Worse!

Featuring: Everybody
Release: August 21, 1996
Cover: October 1996
$2.95
Scintillating script by Stan Lee
Prurient plot by Fabian Nicieza
Pulse-pounding pencils by Sal Buscema, John Buscema, John Romita, Sr., Steve Ditko, Gene Colan, Marie Severin & Ron Frenz
Incredible inks by Tom Palmer, Joe Sinnott, Terry Austin, Bill Reinhold, Marie Severin & Al Milgrom
Kaleidoscopic colors by John Kalisz (with perfect page one and colossal cover coloring by Paul Becton)
Lascivious letters by Richard Starkings and Comicraft/ad
Effervescent edits by Matt Idelson
Aching assistant edits by Paul Tutrone
Evil editing-in-chiefing by Bob Harras
Very special thanks to: Mariano Nicieza, Darren Auck, Scott Koblish, Gil Kane, The Raiders, and the many terrific talents of the Mighty Marvel Bullpen
Based on Fantastic Four Annual #3 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
48 pages

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Fantastic Four Annual 3	Reading order	X-Men #14

Just between us, Alicia– I’ve been ready ever since I met the man!

I’m not trying to include too many POSTLUDE entries, but don’t have a clear standard for when I do. Having a copy of the comic in my living room as opposed to in storage somewhere is a good motivator. Plus, I actively used this comic as a reference when making my Fantastic Four Annual post, in deciding who might have been present at the wedding but off-panel.

Heroes & Legends is a loving retelling of the wedding of Sue and Reed from 1996, by continuity nerd Fabian Nicieza with a rotating cast of classic artists and a script by Stan Lee.

We know Steve Ditko very well by this point. We’ve seen some early work of John Romita, but he’s just about to join our regular cast of artists. Gene Colan just started drawing Namor’s adventures. Marie Severin has been working behind the scenes, and we’ll see her artwork soon enough. We’ve already seen some artwork of her brother John. John and Sal Buscema will be shaking things up eventually, and Ron Frenz in the more distant future. We’ll see Tom Palmer soon enough. We’ve briefly met Joe Sinnott a couple times, but he’s just about to become a regular. I’d bemoaned he wasn’t the original inker on the annual. It came out just one month too early. The other inkers will be coming along later.

This tells the same story as the Fantastic Four Annual, but with over twice as many pages.

In a short while, we’ll also read Marvels #2, which includes yet another take on this wedding to contrast with these two takes.

We’ll compare the new comic to the original and note the artist on the new comic. The original art is all by Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta. As noted above, for everything but the first page, John Kalisz did the colors in the new one.

The opening page deliberately mirrors the original.

New art by Sal Buscema & Tom Palmer with colors by Paul Becton

The big addition is a kid named Mark, a superhero fan who gets separated from his father in the commotion, and targeted by villains and saved by heroes. He serves as the centerpiece for this retelling.