prelude – Coke ⊕ Comics

PRELUDE: Human Torch #38, Story D

Flame On!

Featuring: The Human Torch
Release: June 2, 1954
Cover: August 1954
10 cents
Dick Ayers
6 pages

Previous		Next
Young Men #24	PRELUDE
Fantastic Four #56	Reading order	Fantastic Four Annual 4

What you need is confidence in yourself and your abilities, Captain! From now on, I’m going to be right behind you to help you thru the rough spots until you gain that confidence!

After his triumphant return in September 1953, we come to June 1954, when it was decided Human Torch stories still weren’t selling enough. We’d read his return in Young Men. About 6 months later, they tried bringing back Human Torch’s old series.

They started with Human Torch #36, as the last one from 1949 had been #35. Never mind that they had already given the numbering to Love Tales.

Human Torch #38 is the final issue again.

There are three Human Torch stories and a Namor story. In the first Torch story, a mad scientist is tricked by Reds into sucking all the air out of the world in order to make his crippled daughter queen of the new world. In the second, the Torch and Toro rescue a general and his daughter from Korea.

Let’s read the final story from the final Human Torch comic.

All the Human Torch stories in his self-titled comic’s return have been by Dick Ayers, who we know well from our Marvel Age reading, particularly for his work on Sgt. Fury.

Ayers’ signature appears. The GCD credits Hank Chapman with the script and Ernie Bache with inks.

All the stories in this issue are narrated by Toro, and presented as though he is telling us of a past Human Torch adventure.

The title of the story is “Flame On!”, which is plainly the Human Torch’s catchphrase now. Johnny Storm will steal that catchphrase, along with the name and visage of the Human Torch.

PRELUDE: Young Men #24

The Return of… The Human Torch

Featuring: Human Torch
Release: September 11, 1953
Cover: December 1953
10 cents
9 pages

Previous		Next
Marvel Mystery Comics #92	PRELUDE	Human Torch #38, Story D
Fantastic Four #56	Reading order	Fantastic Four Annual 4

…And that’s why I came here… from my grave!

The Human Torch returns!

Carl Burgos is on hand for the cover and draws the figure of the Human Torch on the opening page, but Russ Heath does most of the art for the issue. Notice Heath gives the Torch eyes and a mouth. Roy Thomas speculates that Heath had drawn the Torch on the first page, but an editor, perhaps Stan Lee, wasn’t happy and covered it with a Burgos drawing.

You can definitely see the difference as Heath gives the Human Torch weird eyes and a creepy smile instead of the blank face.

Burgos will return for the next 3 appearances of Human Torch in the pages of Young Men.

Young Men, there’s no need to feel down…

The GCD credits the script to Hank Chapman.

PRELUDE: Marvel Mystery Comics #92

The Birth of the Torch

Featuring: Human Torch
Release: February 16, 1949
Cover: June 1949
10 cents
14 pages

Previous		Next
All-Winners Comics #19	PRELUDE	Young Men #24
Fantastic Four #56	Reading order	Fantastic Four Annual 4

The Academy then publicly reinstated Horton, and recognized his greatest achievement, the Human Torch!

The popularity of superheroes waned post World War II, and in 1949, Marvel was ready to give up on the genre completely. This final issue of Marvel Mystery Comics features the last Human Torch story, as well as a Captain America story.

The series will change its name to Marvel Tales and become a horror anthology.

Human Torch’s own series ended with Human Torch #35 two months earlier. In that story, Human Torch travels to Venus to deal with some interplanetary diplomacy. Given that we know his flame is powered by oxygen, it’s not clear how he made it all the way there.

In a few months, Sub-Mariner’s story will come to an end, and later that year Captain America would have his final adventure in Captain America’s Weird Tales before the book became a full horror anthology.

Human Torch was created by Professor Horton. He then turned on and killed his creator. Or did he? It was later revealed Horton was alive and working secretly for the US government. Any old conflict between Horton and the Torch seemed to be in the past. And the Torch later saved Horton’s niece Doris from foreign spies.

Now, we learn Professor Horton is dead. Again. We also learn I think for the first time his full name: Professor Albert Horton.

The Human Torch notes it’s been 10 years since he’s seen Horton. Either he’s rounding or something off. They were together in 1942, and certainly those stories take place after the US joined the war.

But this issue seems to not acknowledge those 1942 stories and wants to claim Human Torch hasn’t seen Horton since his first adventure in 1939.

We get a retelling of the Torch’s origin. Apparently thousand of readers have asked to hear the origin of the Human Torch. Why not just track down Marvel Comics #1?

And did these readers want to read the origin of the Human Torch only to then never read another Human Torch story again? Because that’s what they’re getting.

PRELUDE: All-Winners Comics #19

The Crime of the Ages!

Featuring: All Winners Squad
Release: July 24, 1946
Cover: Fall 1946
10 cents
43 pages

Previous		Next
Human Torch #8	PRELUDE	Marvel Mystery Comics #92
Fantastic Four #56	Reading order	Fantastic Four Annual 4

Dictators! We’ve had enough of them! Atomic power must be used for peace, not war! It must be used to make life better for all people! The coming Atomic Age is not for one man– it is for the common man– for all mankind!

No credits are given. The GCD credits the writing to Batman/Green Lantern co-creator Bill Finger and some of the pencilling to Syd Shores. The Bill Finger credit comes from the writer’s own recollections in the 1960s, related to historian and “father of comic book fandom” Jerry Bails.

I’d been debating when to read this. We’ve done some overview read-throughs of Captain America and Sub-Mariner, and are in the middle of one for the Human Torch. The other main characters to appear in this issue are Miss America and the Whizzer, whom we haven’t met yet. And I don’t have a good reason to introduce them anytime soon. The best excuse will probably be their return in Giant-Size Avengers #1 from 1974, but this blog won’t be getting there anytime soon at the rate I’m going.

This would also pair well with the introduction of the Invaders, but that’s not until 1975.

So let’s read this now along with our Human Torch read-through. It’s an important comic in Marvel history. We’ll just try to figure out who Miss America and the Whizzer are as we go. Something something mongoose something.

Roy Thomas described this comic as “a great idea whose time had gone.”

PRELUDE: Human Torch #8

Human Torch vs. Sub-Mariner

Featuring: Human Torch
Release: June 26, 1942
Cover: Summer 1942
10 cents
52 pages

Previous		Next
Marvel Mystery Comics #31	PRELUDE	All-Winners Comics #19
Fantastic Four #56	Reading order	Fantastic Four Annual 4

You two big lugs oughta be ashamed of yourselves! Spies are all around, threatening our country! The Python is on the loose! Democracy is in danger– and you fight each other instead of fighting the common enemy!

No credits are given. The GCD discusses the research into who is behind this based on later interviews, recollections, art analysis, etc. They credit the writing to Mickey Spillane and Ray Gill. They credit the art to Allen Simon, Harry Sahle, Al Gabriele, and possibly Eddie Robinson, Carl Pfeufer, and others.

Mickey Spillane is best known for his graphicless novels featuring Mike Hammer.

Notably, Torch creator Carl Burgos, who told the first few years of Torch stories is not involved, because he’s off fighting in World War II.

PRELUDE: Marvel Mystery Comics #31

Scuttle the Japs

Featuring: Human Torch
Release: March 17, 1942
Cover: May 1942
10 cents
By Carl Burgos
12 pages

Previous		Next
Marvel Mystery Comics #17	PRELUDE	Human Torch #8
Fantastic Four #56	Reading order	Fantastic Four Annual 4

That was for Pearl Harbor!

The heroes have been defending America from German and Japanese spies, saboteurs, and invasions for a couple years now. But now America is at war, and the heroes are ready to take the fight to them.

This comic was released about 3 months after Pearl Harbor, about as soon as a story could react to it and get to print.

“Remember Pearl Harbor” reads the cover.

I will note that Burgos’ art isn’t especially racist. The script refers to the Japanese as “Japs” or “Jap-rats”, but that is probably an accurate capturing of how American soldiers referred to them at the time. What’s inexcusable and dehumanizing is the Al Gabriele art on the cover, with Japanese people depicted with yellow skin and sharp teeth.

Writing a letter to Marvel could win you a defense bond. These comics will start promoting defense bonds heavily as a way ordinary people can help with the war effort and show their patriotism.

PRELUDE: Marvel Mystery Comics #2

The Human Torch

Featuring: Human Torch
Release: October 13, 1939
Cover: December 1939
10 cents
By Carl Burgos
16 pages

Previous		Next
	PRELUDE	Marvel Mystery Comics #4
Fantastic Four #56	Reading order	Fantastic Four Annual 4

“I say, it was an awful crime for the Torch to burn up Horton’s home and kill him!”
“Perhaps it was his own fault, ma’am– He saw the possibilities of making a fortune for himself… obviously the Torch didn’t approve!”

When we first began this blog with Fantastic Four #1, we met Johnny Storm, and noted he was not Marvel’s first character named Human Torch, and so read the story of Marvel’s very first superhero in Marvel Comics #1.

We later saw the battles of the Human Torch and Namor in Marvel Mystery Comics #7 and Human Torch #5. The latter includes Human Torch’s sidekick Toro. We read some Young Allies stories, which also featured Toro, though we haven’t been properly introduced to him.

Now it’s time to do a good read-through of some of the early Human Torch stories. I’ve tried to pick out 10 key stories.

For its second issue, the title of this inaugural magazine is being expanded from simply Marvel Comics to Marvel Mystery Comics. Human Torch graced the first issue’s cover, but this issue it will go to one of the book’s other stars, the Angel.

In his origin, the Human Torch was a robot created by Professor Horton designed to be just like a human. A flaw in his design caused him to burst into flame. The press wanted Horton to destroy his creation. He instead reached a compromise with the scientific community to seal the Human Torch away until they could figure out how to control his flame. The Torch broke out, got duped by some mobsters, figured out he’d been duped and killed them. In the process, he was exposed to nitrogen, which gave him control over his own flame. He can turn it on or off at will, and even shoot fireballs. When he realized Horton also just hoped to profit off him, the Human Torch burned a hole in Horton’s ceiling and flew away.

Professor Horton kept a journal. We see snippets of it recounting the above events, including the Human Torch leaving him.

PRELUDE: Captain America Comics #6, Story B

Meet the Fang, Arch-Fiend of the Orient

Featuring: Captain America
Release: June 25, 1941
Cover: September 1941
10 cents
9 pages

Previous		Next
Tales of Suspense #81	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #82

So long, Cap. I did my best. Long live liberty!

No credits are given in the issue. The opening page is by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. The rest of the art is by Al Avison, Syd Shores, and George Klein. Those are the credits given in the Golden Age Captain America Omnibus. The GCD credits the entire story to Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, but I believe they are incorrect.

We just read the beginning of Iron Man’s second battle with Titanium Man in Tales of Suspense #81. We had previously read the conclusion of that issue, which featured Captain America’s epic battle with Red Skull and his Cosmic Cube. Before we get to issue 82, I’d like to peek back at this old Captain America story, which introduces the villain Fang.

Fang is an Asian villain, and thus probably a racist stereotype of a character like most Asian villains in the 1940s. And the 1960s.

We learn Fang is based on San Francisco’s Chinatown. He meets with an agent of an “Asian aggressor nation”. I interpret that Asian aggressor nation to be Japan, particular given the agent’s surname of “Nushima”, though the comic prefers not to specify.

After all, America wasn’t at war with Japan in June 1941 when this comic was released.

PRELUDE: Space Adventures #33, Story B

Introducing Captain Atom

Featuring: Captain Atom
Release: January 1960
Cover: March 1960
10 cents
9 pages

Previous		Next
	INTERLUDE	Captain Atom #78
Amazing Spider-Man #33	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #72, Story B

Meet Captain Adam… the Air Force career man who knew more about rocketry, missiles, and the universe than any man alive… a specialist of the missle age, a trained, dedicated soldier who was a physics prodigy at eight, a chemist, a ballistics genius! In short, Captain Adam was an invaluable space-age soldier even before that memorable day at Cape Canaveral, Florida, when an Atlas missile was being readied for blast-off… with an atomic warhead inside… and Captain Adam making the final last second adjustments!

GCD credits the story to Joe Gill and the art to Steve Ditko. They say Ditko’s signature appears, but I can’t prove that. Maybe someone has better eyes than I do. UPDATE: My readers do have better eyes than I!

I’m curious what happens to Steve Ditko after he leaves Marvel. And the answer can be found before he even leaves Marvel. About 6 months before his last Spider-Man and Dr. Strange story appear, his work starts showing up from other publishers. The first work to grace newsstands is a return to his character, Captain Atom, published almost concurrently with Amazing Spider-Man #32, part of the story that reads like Ditko’s last Spider-Man story.

I thought it would be good to check out that story, but for context I thought it would be worth first going back to the creation of the character, which came out over 2 years before the first Spider-Man story.

We’ll retroactively place this in the reading order alongside the comics concurrent to Captain Atom’s return.

Before Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, Steve Ditko teamed with writer Joe Gill to create Captain Atom. Let’s check out his first adventure from 1960.

PRELUDE: Weird Science #20

The Loathsome!

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

Previous		Next
	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.