Dr. Haydn

One of the best pages of early Marvel, I believe. Jack stages a serious scene, and Stan's dialogue enhances it.

A classic Kirby-Ayers story!

The lettering is top notch!

Probably so. It was pointed out on another website (sorry I forget the source, but I want to acknowledge this wasn't my idea) that since Steve lived downtown and Stan lived in the suburbs, that second panel was probably intended to be Steve instead of Stan, since the NYC skyline is visible in the background.

A rather low bar, but I certainly agree!

Sure, Stan was capable of self-deprecating humor (Steve too, as you point out--something that I find particularly appealing about this featurette). There was more than a grain of truth hiding behind the humor, as we later found out.

Note that while Stan gets a new idea "at that very moment," the moon is in a different phase from the previous panel. Hmm...

Flo Steinberg would be a likely candidate, absolutely!

Perhaps the Brotherhood of Alternative Mutants? Also, we should have a gender-neutral alternative for "brotherhood." I've got it! The Association of Alternative Mutants--with a bit of Lieberesque alliteration.

For instance, the cover to X-men #4 (Simek lettering) has the same style on the word "evil mutants":

In the story title, "joins the" appears to be written hastily in a different hand. I wonder what the title originally was? (For that matter, I see a third hand at work here. "Evil Mutants" appears to be Artie Simek's lettering rather than Sam Rosen's.)

Ol' Funky sure had a way with words! Surely no woman in 1971 would have found his banter endearing?

The Incredible Hulk feature will definitely be a step up.

Hank and Jan's dialogue here reminds me of The Bickersons. It wouldn't surprise me if Stan was a fan of old radio serials.

Absolutely!

I wonder if anyone on this site has a copy of the original. It would be interesting to compare!

I think Steve himself debunked that theory as a misrepresentation of the situation by Stan Lee.

True--the pre-code stuff could be pretty gruesome. I hope they were marketing the crime and horror comics (especially) to an older audience.

I learned how to read in the late 60s thanks to Gold Key, Harvey, and Archie comics. Fairly innocuous reading material for the young'uns back in the day! I must admit, the frequent innuendo in the Archie stories harmlessly sailed way over my head. I do understand that it's a grimmer and grittier world these days, even among the kiddie characters.

I suspect Stan was still doing the final version of the dialogue in these stories. Notice in the panel I posted above from page 2 that there was a lettering correction to "inscrutable." Whatever Jack wrote in the margins, Stan probably had altered it to "inscrutible," which an attentive proofreader (Flo Steinberg?) fixed. In his own dialogue, Jack's spelling is almost always beyond reproach, while Stan's mistakes in this regard are numerous and famous (Pharoah, anyone?)

I'm not fully convinced by Colletta's thin lines, but I must admit, the better paper of the omnibus versions shows his detailed inking in a far better light. The cheap newsprint of the original printing tended to swallow up most of his subtlety. This is a particularly fine image, though it requires the colorist (still Stan Goldberg, I think?) to contribute to the three-dimensional illusion.

It's been about 25 years since I picked up a new comic book. I've been collecting Silver and Bronze Age trade paperbacks and omnibuses since then.

Though I must suggest that this was not one of Colletta's better efforts. I'm not sure what Jack intended Balder's clothes to look like, but it appears that Colletta dragged this panel through the mud.

Concerning #106: Tales of Asgard was certainly a hidden gem of Marvel's Silver Age. Kirby knew the Norse legends, but I was reminded of another tale--Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac--which Jack surely knew as well.

No doubt Big Barda was modeled in part on Roz Kirby. Jack's wife was, from all accounts, a no-nonsense type who could be tough as nails when the situation called for it. She was certainly his staunchest defender.