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INTERLUDE: Captain Atom #78

The Gremlins from Planet Blue

Featuring: Captain Atom
Release: October 1, 1965
Cover: December 1965
12 cents
Steve Ditko, Joe Gill, Rocke Mastroserio, and Joe D’Agostino
19 pages

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But he was not as before when he emerged from the atomic fireball! No… he was charged with unlimited nuclear power… and this power enabled him to hurtle through space at fantastic speeds! Almost indestructible, with superior vision, hearing, and strength, he became the champion of good men… and the enemy of evil everywhere!

With his time at Marvel coming to an end, Steve Ditko started putting out work for other publishers, beginning with a return to the superhero he created for Charlton Comics, Captain Atom. His very first superhero creation.

This was published concurrently with Amazing Spider-Man #32 and Strange Tales #140, the month before climactic stories in each series, and 6 months before his final issue of each series.

Captain Atom had been on hiatus since Ditko’s departure in 1961, though Charlton had recently been reprinting the old Captain Atom stories.

His return sees him facing off against aliens sabotaging our space program. These aliens seem powerful enough to attack en masse and defeat Earth pretty easily, but subterfuge is their method.

One scientist, Professor Jupe, notices the disasters are too frequent to be random. This scientist has a lovely daughter Leah who will catch our hero’s eye. Both will find themselves captives of the aliens.

We get a recap of Captain Atom’s origin and some details of his powers. Captain Atom is charged with unlimited nuclear power, can hurtle through space at fantastic speeds, and is almost indestructible, with superior vision, hearing, and strength.

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Strange Tales #132

The Sinister Space Trap!

Featuring: Human Torch and Thing
Release: February 11, 1965
Cover: May 1965
12 cents
Edited with reckless abandon by: Stan Lee
Written with daring bravado by: Larry Ivie
Drawn with brash impetuosity by: Bob Powell
Inked with reckless vigor by: M. Demeo
Lettered with a soggy penpoint by: S. Rosen
12 pages

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Amazing Spider-Man #24Reading orderStrange Tales #133
Strange Tales #131, Story BStrange TalesStrange Tales #132, Story B

Dr. Strange gets a small box on the cover to acknowledge his story.

Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the publication of Fantastic Four #1. Wish I could have timed my posts to have something better than this Human/Torch Thing story to celebrate with. So it goes. Happy birthday, Foursome!

Art by Alex Ross, inspired by Jack Kirby.

Lots to unpack from the credits page.

We’ve already met Mr. Demeo (Mike Esposito), as he also picked up inking on Iron Man this month.

Larry Ivie is a new name to us. He is an occasional comics writer and artist, and perhaps best known as a comics fan.

The blog, Professor H’s Wayback Machine, recently did a tribute series to Ivie’s work on his self-published fanzine, Heroes & Monsters.

This is the last we’ll see of Ivie for some time, but he’ll do occasional Marvel work here and there over the next couple decades.

Also unusual in the credits is a comic Stan Lee takes no writing credit on. This isn’t the first time, but it’s been a rare occurrence, and will become less rare. Stan still gets his name first in the credits somehow.

What we would today call editing is certainly a contribution that Stan makes to every one of these books, and not one to be taken lightly. The issues arise on the comics where he worked as an editor but credited himself as a writer.

Things are heating up in the Fantastic Four book, and there won’t be much space for solo adventures. So far, with only a few exceptions, Fantastic Four adventures have fit into a single issue, where one could easily imagine these Human Torch stories fitting in between the issues. But, as is the general trend these titles are taking, Fantastic Four stories are going to get more involved, with cliffhanger endings which lead us right into the next issue.

To that end, we’re going to knock out the next few Human Torch/Thing stories presently, getting us a little ahead with them. We’ll eventually revisit all these comics and read the Dr. Strange stories.

Thus subjecting myself and you to three of these in a row.

But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel…

Continue reading “Strange Tales #132”