Dr. Haydn

I wouldn't take this to be a sign of the superiority of Dennis the Menace over Marvel's best titles (maybe if Hank Ketcham had still been involved, I'd have a different opinion), but it seems that now-defunct companies such as Fawcett, Gold Key, Dell, and the like, understood the comic-reading audience in the mid-1960s better than Marvel did.

With references to "Ankor Watt" and "Segei" Eisenstein, the article sure reeks of trash journalism. They spelled Shakespeare correctly, to their credit.

I think Lee mentioned in a late 70s era Stan's Soapbox (maybe early 80s?) that if Shakespeare wrote a comic book and Michelangelo drew it, then everyone would treat the resulting comic (and the genre as a whole) with the credit it deserved. That's the nearest I can think of, offhand, to any mention of the Bard by Stan.

I think Stan was definitely on the right track when he instituted the No-Prize, and in general, made fun of their occasional errors. From what I recall, DC's Silver Age material in the mid-60s was relatively error free compared to Marvel--and a dull read most of the time.

I think Stan and Jack added the Captain America feature in Tales of Suspense #59, so we're getting there! Burning up the last of the inventory.

A nice final panel by the (oft-maligned) Don Heck.

Marvel made a big deal out of it (in the late 70s, I think), when their subscription copies were (finally!) mailed flat. No crease down the middle to spoil the resale value!

Is it my imagination, or did Stan actually give letterer Adorable Artie a compliment in the credits box?

One thing I don't get--if this comic (for example) was selling consistently in the 190,000 range, why was the print run around 320,000? That means Marvel was (knowingly!) pulping around 40% of the print run every month. Yet, it seems this was the way the business was done throughout the early history of comic books.

Really nice work by Geo. (Inky) Roussos on the splash page!

And in late 1962, the monster books were all given a superhero lead feature. That seems to have shored up the weaker books in the line quite nicely.

I don't recall the exact numbers, but Marvel took less of a hit than DC when the price went up to 12 cents. Perhaps that encouraged Goodman to stick with the comics division rather than threatening to pull the plug every year.

"Spider-man light beam." Hmm...I wonder when it became known as the spider-signal, officially (referencing Batman's gadgetry), and did the Distinguished Competition object?

If memory serves, the adrenaline-fueled Hulk originated with the Ditko-Lee reboot of the character in Tales to Astonish, sometime in 1964. (I guess we'll get there in this thread in due time!) Ditko certainly doesn't get quite enough credit for his contributions to the Hulk. (Iron Man as well, for that matter.)

Jack did create a costume for Spider-man (complete with Captain America-style trunks and a web gun), as has been debated here and elsewhere, but it was discarded in favor of Ditko's version. Might that have been what he was remembering?

"So bad, it's good" can still be an entertaining read. I rank some of Siegel's Mighty Comics scripts from the mid-60s in this category--not fine literature by any means, but definitely a guilty pleasure.

Stan's Doctor Doom gaffe notwithstanding, this was one of their best efforts so far. Stan's still going back and forth between "black magic" and "mystic arts," it seems. I suppose "black magic" might have drawn the ire of the Comics Code (though wasn't there a Harvey title with that name in the late 50s?)

A classic "captured villain" pose! Can anyone else imagine Plantman saying: "I would have gotten away with it too--if it weren't for you meddling kids"?

Panel 5: Stan got his characters mixed up again!

The note at the bottom is interesting--Peter David would work this idea into the Death of Jean DeWolff storyline in the mid-80s.

Marvel liked to designate an artist to specialize in doing covers. For a while in the 50s, I think it was Bill Everett (at least for the horror stuff). When I started reading Marvel Comics in the mid-70s, there were a lot of Gil Kane covers. And of course, years of Kirby covers in between.

I believe he had a home somewhere in New Jersey--closer to Philadelphia than New York.

Posterity will note that I said "different"--not necessarily "better"--for a lot of the reasons you mention.

Speaking as a comic book reader since 1969 and Marvel fan beginning in 1973, I had heard of Maneely (probably saw some of his Atlas work in reprint form) but was unaware of how important he was until fairly recently. Doc V's efforts to publicize his output no doubt helped raise his profile, especially among the younger fanbase. It's interesting to speculate how different Marvel's history might have been had he survived!