sam rosen – Page 11 – Coke & Comics

X-Men #10

The Coming of… Ka-Zar!

Featuring: X-Men
Release: January 5, 1965
Cover: March 1965
12 cents
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby
Inker: Chic Stone
Letterer: S.Rosen
20 pages

Previous	#315	Next
Tales to Astonish #66	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #64
X-Men #9	X-Men	X-Men #11
Marvel Comics #1, Story F	Prelude

Stronger than mastodon! Stronger than giant boar! Mighty is Ka-Zar! Lord of Jungle!

The cover claims this comic is introducing Ka-Zar. It’s unclear if that’s true when we just met a Ka-Zar in our last post, introduced almost 30 years earlier.

Same guy? No evidence otherwise, except that he’s somehow moved from the Congo to Antarctica.

I’m so glad they tell us how to pronounce his name. It’s the bane of comics reading. Nobody tells you how to pronounce the names. You think you’re an expert in this stuff, then along comes a movie and you’ve been pronouncing names wrong for decades, and everyone looks at you like an idiot. But now we know: “Kay-Sar”.

My buddy Brian just polled on Twitter about how people pronounced his name when they first read it, and I was forced to admit that I was saying “Kay-Zar” in my head in my ignorant youth. Perhaps if I’d known more German then, I would have different ideas about pronouncing that ‘Z’.

Avengers #14

Even Avengers Can Die!

Featuring: Avengers
Release: January 12, 1965
Cover: March 1965
12 cents
Plot and editing by: Stan Lee
Script by: Paul Laiken and Larry Lieber
Layouts by: Jack Kirby
Pencils by: Don Heck
Inking by: Chic Stone
Lettering by: S. Rosen
20 pages

Previous	#311	Next
Avengers #13	Reading order	Fantastic Four #36
Avengers #13	Avengers	Avengers #15

That’s quite the credits listing. Sounds like they were running out of time to get this done and called in every hand they could to meet a deadline. That’s also how this story reads.

Larry Lieber had long since left superheroes behind to focus on comics like Rawhide Kid, but he pitches in.

Paul Laiken is a new name to us. This is the only superhero story he’ll ever be involved in writing. I literally think they recruited everybody in the building at the time to help get this one done. It seems like he’ll be best known for his work on the Marvel humor magazine which is totally not a Mad rip-off, Crazy.

Tales of Suspense #63

Somewhere Lurks The Phantom!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: December 10, 1964
Cover: March 1965
12 cents
Have you the nerve to read this great Stan Lee story?
Should we preserve these thrilling Don Heck drawings?
Dare we observe this unique Dick Ayers inking?
Do we deserve the impact of this Sam Rosen lettering?
12 pages

Previous	#308	Next
Strange Tales #130	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #63, Story B
Tales of Suspense #62, Story B	Tales of Suspense	Tales of Suspense #63, Story B

Introduces a new villain, the Phantom, who is sabotaging Stark’s plant. I thought about naming all the Iron Man villains whose plan has involved attacking or sabotaging Stark’s plant, but it would be easier to name the rest of them.

This resolves the story arc where Tony Stark seemed to be dead. He turns out not to be.

He pretended to be dead because he was trapped in his armor. Yet… trapped in his armor, he could still remove his helmet and gloves, at least. He has always been trapped in the chest plate and just puts clothes over it. So I don’t understand why he couldn’t have just put clothes over the rest of his armor.

Whatever the explanation, he modified a transistor so now only needs the chestplate. Basically, his new invention allowed him to take his pants off.

Strange Tales #130

Meet the Beatles!

Featuring: Human Torch and Thing
Release: December 10, 1964
Cover: March 1965
12 cents
Story by Swingin’ Stan Lee
Art by Bouncin’ Bob Powell
Inking by Chucklin’ Chic Stone
Lettering by Sizzlin’ Sam Rosen
12 pages

Previous	#307	Next
Amazing Spider-Man #122	Reading order	Tales of Suspense #63
Strange Tales #129, Story B	Strange Tales	Strange Tales #130, Story B

Dr. Strange finally gets the cover almost to himself… but we won’t be reading his story. As we’ve discussed, the plan is to take a break from Dr. Strange, but keep reading the Human Torch/Thing stories. The Dr. Strange stories have mostly been happy to be single short episodes that fit in 10 pages. The only exception has been the 2-part battle against Dormammu. But even that epic was only 20 pages, the length of a normal Fantastic Four or Spider-Man story. Not one to make incremental change, Ditko decided he needs 170 pages and 17 months to tell the next story.

I’ve made no secret that I’ve found these last 30 issues of Human Torch stories to be almost entirely worthless. Putting Ben and Johnny in Beatles wigs is probably the single most worthwhile thing that has happened yet. Especially since Johnny is wearing the wig over his flaming head. The fact that it’s not burning means it must be made from unstable molecules.

Stan Lee made a big deal last issue and in recent letters’ pages about the exciting new artist for this series. That artist is Bob Powell. Powell will be the Human Torch/Thing artist for as long as this series has left. He will not be turning the quality of stories around. Powell is another returning artist from back when, having worked in comics since the 1930s, occasionally doing some Marvel work. He’ll also be taking over the Giant-Man title this month… and not turn the quality around on that one either. He’ll have the honor of putting Marvel’s two worst series to bed.

Sgt. Fury #15

Too Small to Fight, Too Young to Die!

Featuring: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos
Release: December 10, 1964
Cover: February 1965
12 cents
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Dick Ayers
Inker: Steve Ditko
Letterer: S. Rosen
20 pages

Previous	#305	Next
Journey Into Mystery #113, Story B	Reading order	Amazing Spider-Man #22
Sgt. Fury #14	Sgt. Fury	Sgt. Fury #16

This is pretty exciting. Ditko inking Ayers. Definitely the first time we’ve seen that. And the opposite of the roles I most associate each artist with. It’s mostly not obvious to my untrained eye that Ditko is the inker, but I think I see him shining through on some of the faces, particularly Captain Sawyer and some of the ladies.

George Roussos had been the regular inker up to this point, under the pseudonym George Bell. It looks like last month marked the end of his regular Marvel work for now. He will return in a couple years and eventually become a staff colorist at Marvel.

Roussos has likely been coloring many of the comics we’ve read as well, but I don’t often have colorist credits in front of me, and am anyway often reading these stories in recolored reprints. So I’ve certainly failed to appreciate his coloring contributions.

We’ll see Roussos once more in the near future, because we still haven’t read the Hulk story from last month. And then we’ll see him again, eventually.

The idea of these 15 issues has been to take the Commandos to every theatre of the war– Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, England, Japan, Africa… Holland was due.

Daredevil #6

The Fellowship of Fear!

Featuring: Daredevil
Release: December 3, 1964
Cover: February 1965
12 cents
Written with the fabulously flawless fantasy of… Stan Lee
Illustrated in the magnificently modern manner of… Wally Wood
Lettered in the screamingly sophisticated style of… Sam Rosen
20 pages

Previous	#302	Next
Fantastic Four #35	Reading order	Journey Into Mystery #113
Daredevil #5	Daredevil	Daredevil #7

A neat effect that’s unique to Daredevil is the little logo box. For the first few issues, it was just his logo in the top corner of the first page, not so different from what we see in other titles. Then the next couple issues added a close up of Daredevil’s face to the logo. Now Wood is varying the theme, showing a mini-picture of Daredevil leaping into action over the logo. We’ll get a new logo picture next issue.

I’d like to talk about super-villains vs. super-villain henchmen. Most of the villains we’ve met like to be in charge. They are their own boss and plan their own crimes. They sometimes team up, but then fight over who is in charge. Occasionally, independently minded super-villains can form a team and have someone be in charge, as with the Masters of Evil, led by Zemo.

The Enforcers are different. We met them when they were working for Big Man. Then later Green Goblin, then later Sandman. They don’t try to be top villains. They are for hire, and work for the big super-villains. Dr. Doom had a similar gang, the Terrible Trio. They’ve tried to strike it on their own as their own bosses, with limited success.

Of course, the Evil Mutants serve Magneto. He’s the big super-villain they take orders from.

Understand the two tiers of the super-villain hierarchy?

In this issue, we see Ox for the first time apart from his fellow Enforcers. But he’s still doing what he does, hiring himself out to super-villains. In this case he works for Mr. Fear.

Eel does something unique here. He was a super-villain in his own right, with his own plans and his own base of operations. He twice fought the Human Torch. But now he’s a henchman, working for the bigger super-villain, Mr. Fear. It’s something of a demotion for the Eel.

Strange Tales #129, Story B

Tiboro! The Tyrant of the Sixth Dimension!

Featuring: Dr. Strange
Release: November 10, 1964
Cover: February 1965
12 cents
Edited by: Stan Lee, and his magic typewriter.
Script by: Don Rico, and his mystic fountain pen.
Illustrated by: Steve Ditko, and his miraculous lead pencil.
Lettered by: Sam Rosen, and his melancholy penpoint.
10 pages

Previous	#300!	Next
Strange Tales #129	Reading order	Fantastic Four #35
Strange Tales #129	Strange Tales	Strange Tales #130

Welcome to the 300th Marvel Age story! We’re almost 1% finished!

I think the periods that end each credit above are the first periods we have ever seen. Stan Lee holds to a pretty strict exclamation point-only policy. But then, Stan Lee didn’t write this.

For the second time this month, and the second time in our entire Marvel Age reading, Stan Lee claims no story credit for the issue. His name still comes first, but he takes credit for editing. The only other time we’ve seen this is with Tales to Astonish #64, published just a week earlier, and scripted by Leon Lazarus.

Rumor is that publisher Martin Goodman was concerned of the power Lee held by being the sole writer on these increasingly successful titles, and instructed Lee to diversify the writing staff. However, neither Rico nor Lazarus became regular writers. So if that was Goodman’s intent, he was not successful.

We’ve met Don Rico twice before, though he used the alias of N. Korok, when he worked on Tales of Suspense #52–53 and helped introduce Black Widow. The first time we saw him work with Stan, Stan credited himself with “story” and Rico with “plot”. I don’t know the difference either.

This is Rico’s final scripting assignment for Marvel, a company he’s worked for off and on for 25 years at this point. It’s pretty close to his last comics work. He’d basically already left comics behind for prose writing at this point. A couple miscellaneous pieces in the 70s, including the art for a short Captain America story.

Don Rico passed away in 1985 at the age of 72.

Amazing Spider-Man #21

Where Flies the Beetle…!

Featuring: Spider-Man
Release: November 10, 1964
Cover: February 1965
12 cents
Deliciously written by: Stan Lee
Deliriously illustrated by: Steve Ditko
Delightfully lettered by: S. Rosen
20 pages

Previous	#298	Next
Sgt. Fury #14	Reading order	Strange Tales #129
Amazing Spider-Man #20	Amazing Spider-Man	Amazing Spider-Man #22

What a beautiful cover. One of my favorites yet. Definitely my favorite Spider-Man cover so far. I like the way Ditko contorts Spider-Man in the air. It’s never straightforward, and decades of artists have tried to imitate his many posings. It’s just such a nice rendering of Spider-Man, who’s always at his best when at least somewhat upside down.

Ditko’s got the Beetle lurking off in the corner, just to show there is a villain. He keeps the focus on the actually visually interesting characters.

And then the opening splash page is basically an alternative cover, this one showing Spider-Man directly in combat with the Beetle, again with Spidey’s body flying through the air in his inimitable style.

This is one of the most underrated Spider-Man stories of all time. You’ll easily notice my Best We’ve Read page has more than its share of Spider-Man stories, as they are simply head and shoulders above all the other Marvel comics of this era. The highest rated Spidey stories won’t surprise people who love Spider-Man stories. I’ve spent a lot of time reading people’s opinions on Spider-Man stories, looking at lists of the best Spider-Man stories. His origin and the Sinister Six story, those are everybody’s favorite. While you may hear less of it, for those in the know, the End of Spider-Man story is spoken of with sufficient reverence. As is his unmasking by Dr. Octopus and first battles against Doc Ock, Vulture, and Electro. I’ve heard people cite the Scorpion battle and even the Green Goblin battle as their favorite stories.

But I never hear anybody talk about how great Spider-Man’s first battle against the Beetle is. Let’s correct that.

Tales to Astonish #64

When Attuma Strikes!

Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp
Release: November 3, 1964
Cover: February 1965
12 cents
Edited by smilin’ Stan Lee
Written by laughin’ Leon Lazarus
Pencilled by capricious Carl Burgos
Inked by peerless Paul Reinman
Lettered by sparkling Sam Rosen
12 pages

Previous	#296	Next
X-Men #9	Reading order	Sgt. Fury #14
Tales to Astonish #63, Story B	Tales to Astonish	Tales to Astonish #64, Story B

You’re correct, reader, that we have not finished Tales to Astonish #63 yet. We will get there. Hulk is involved in one big story, while Giant-Man and Wasp have shorter adventures which take place weaved around their Avengers adventures. It’s a tricky thing to negotiate. We’re not going to finish this comic right now either. We’ll come back to the Hulk story another day.

We get something new here. Leon Lazarus is not a name we’ve seen before. It honestly sounds a little made up. An alliterative name like that often turns out to be an alias in these stories. Especially with a biblical last name like Lazarus, a word common in superhero stories to describe effects that raise the dead (e.g. the Lazarus Pit used by Batman’s foe Ra’s Al Ghul).

And Stan Lee claims no writing credit. He’s been the sole credited writer on everything for the last year or so. And even when there were other credited scripters, Stan Lee claimed credit for the “story” or “plot” or such. This is the very first time in any Marvel Age story that Stan did not claim story credit.

Of course, Stan’s name still goes first in the credits, as the editor.

So who is Leon Lazarus? What is his real name? Why did he decide to start writing for Marvel now?

X-Men #9

Enter, The Avengers!

Featuring: X-Men
Release: November 3, 1964
Cover: January 1965
12 cents
Savagely written by: Stan Lee
Supremely drawn by: Jack Kirby
Superbly inked by: Chic Stone
Stoically lettered by: S. Rosen
20 pages

Previous	#295	Next
Avengers #12	Reading order	Tales to Astonish #64
X-Men #8	X-Men	X-Men #10

The cover promises the return of Professor X. He left the team in issue 7, leaving Cyclops in charge. We haven’t seen him since, except for a brief appearance in issue 8 where he and Cyclops have a telepathic chat. Anyway, now it’s issue 9 and we get the long-awaited return of Professor X.

Also, the X-Men meet the Avengers!

Of course, they fight.