Dr. Haydn

This splash illustrates the difference a great inker can make on the final product. Chic Stone was good over Kirby's pencils. Mike Royer was on a whole 'nother level.

Absolutely!

To my eyes, Romita, Colan, and (even) Heck were better than Kirby at drawing women. Still, that's only part of any artist's job.

Kirby (with Lee) certainly kicked it up a notch with this story. It must have been fun to watch this comic hit its stride in real time in the mid-60s.

FF is about to enter its best 3 or 4 years.

Is this the first (and only) appearance of the Fantasti-bar?

Is it just me, or did Kirby sneak a Clark Kent cameo into Marvel continuity?

I had forgotten about Doom's Roma background. Being part of a persecuted ethnic group no doubt contributed to his mistrust of humanity.

There were quite a few Iron Man stories in 1963-64, as I recall (including the origin story) versus the Communists. The Hulk's origin story might count as well. Also, Thor was "Prisoner of the Reds" in an early Journey into Mystery. Even the FF got into the act, with the Red Ghost and his Super Apes. I think Captain America had a story or two set in Vietnam, if you stretch things a bit.

During the Silver Age, DC could let the profits from the Superman line (and to a lesser extent, Batman's titles) carry books whose sales were more modest. I wonder what changed by 1973?

Rather convenient that the Hulk transformed back to Banner in the exact location of his glasses. What are the odds?

What was the name of that intelligent gorilla in Doom Patrol? Now there was an interesting character--especially in Grant Morrison's hands a generation later!

Tales to Astonish #60 - Lee, Ayers, Reinman, and Simek One of my favorite unintentionally funny Ant-Man stories. This is NOT advanced writing aimed at a college crowd. The Ray that gives Gorillas the Intelligence of Humans still makes me laugh out loud when I read it. Even better: the same ray gives humans the intelligence of gorillas!

Two things: 1. Bob Beerbohm was there. 2. His story hasn't changed in over 50 years. That makes his recollections hard to ignore.

I get the feeling that Stan Lee was becoming disinterested in the whole superhero phenomenon by the late 1960s. At the end of 1967, he was only doing the equivalent of five books a month (FF, Spider-man, Thor, Daredevil, and the half-book Captain America and Hulk features), farming out the remaining books to Roy Thomas and others (including Archie Goodwin, Gary Friedrich, Raymond Marais, and Jim Lawrence). His workload increased in 1968 with the expansion of the line but dropped back to five books by late 1969--all done with experienced artists who could carry the bulk of the plotting labor. Despite the public statements to the contrary, Lee wanted out. No doubt losing Kirby to DC accelerated the process.