Sharkey

Hey Angelo, nice book! Actually the Kirby/Ditko World of Fantasy (as well as Strange Worlds) are very much Pre-Hero Atlas books (although decidedly sci-fi as opposed to Pre-hero giant monster). I think they don't carry the weight of the others because their particular series were cancelled. Enjoy!!! --Steve

Yeah, to answer your and ft88's questions: The key thing is that Dr. Pym is the character in TTA 27, and he's reintroduced in TTA 35 in costume as Antman, so TTA is the 1st appearance of the Pym character and the origin of his powers. Marvel never had a Bee-Man, so although the TOS beehive story is a sort of prototype, it's not the first appearance of an enduring character. Plot summary from Monster blog: The Man In The Beehive History: Secretly born a mutant, millionaire Lucius Farnsworth was able to work near miracles with the power of his brain. Having a way with bees, Farnsworth was the most successful honey producer in the state. One night, Eric (one of Farnsworth's beekeepers) broke into Farnsworth's mansion to rob the safe. Discovering Eric, Farnsworth used his superior mind to overpower him, making him hand over his gun. As punishment, Farnsworth shrunk himself and Eric down to the size of bees. Both entered a beehive, and Farnsworth commanded the bees to terrorize Eric. When he saw that Eric had learned his lesson, to never rob Farnsworth again, Farnsworth returned himself and Eric to normal size, telling Eric that all of the events were just an illusion brought on by a hypnotic trance. An older, powerless Lucius Farnsworth was threatened by the menace of The Weed, which would have conquered the world if not for Farnsworth's gardener unwittingly destroying it. Demonstrated Powers: Lucius Farnsworth was a mutant whose brain powers included the ability to shrink himself and others to the size of bees. He could mentally dominate the wills of others, and could also command bees. It is unknown if Farnsworth had any other psionic abilities. It's true there are similarities between the two (both had psychic control over insects) and the story goes, as tmoore quotes from Overstreet, that they "tested" both books. Although, you have to wonder back then how "scientific" Marvel's test was. Actually it's been said that there was actually no "test" but that Ayers liked the character and some readers wrote it about it too. And this was right at the start of their hero launches, so perhaps it was just the right bit of feedback at the right time. However, kind of funny to think that if TOS had gotten the better response, a Bee-Man could have been a founding member of the Avengers... or the X-Men since he was a "mutant" (PS, there is a storyline with a Bee-Man character in Harvey Comics' Double-Dare Adventures 1 and 2 from the mid 1960s, and it's pretty entertaining: Oh, a couple more things regarding Lucius Farnsworth: As if Stan and the crew didn't recycle the pre-hero monster plots enough, The Man in the Beehive was Lucius Farnsworth. Interestingly, there was another character by the name of Lucius Farnsworth who was a scientist terrorized by a giant weed in "The Weed" in Strange Tales 94. In addition, the Mutant which I talked about previously in this thread (who was in the story from Tales of Suspense 6) was named Vincent Farnsworth. He had the ability to phase through solid objects. So in TOS 6 we have Vincent Farnsworth and in TOS 32 we have Lucius Farnsworth who is also called a "mutant" who has the ability to shrink to insect-size, and psionic powers to control people's minds and talk to to Bees. Very interesting. It seems the Farnsworth family (if these Farnsworths are all related) may have been an early precursor to some sort of mutant families. Kinda cool! That or Stan just liked to name all his characters Farnsworth.....

Yeah, to answer your and ft88's questions: The key thing is that Dr. Pym is the character in TTA 27, and he's reintroduced in TTA 35 in costume as Antman, so TTA is the 1st appearance of the Pym character and the origin of his powers. Marvel never had a Bee-Man, so although the TOS beehive story is a sort of prototype, it's not the first appearance of an enduring character. Plot summary from Monster blog: The Man In The Beehive History: Secretly born a mutant, millionaire Lucius Farnsworth was able to work near miracles with the power of his brain. Having a way with bees, Farnsworth was the most successful honey producer in the state. One night, Eric (one of Farnsworth's beekeepers) broke into Farnsworth's mansion to rob the safe. Discovering Eric, Farnsworth used his superior mind to overpower him, making him hand over his gun. As punishment, Farnsworth shrunk himself and Eric down to the size of bees. Both entered a beehive, and Farnsworth commanded the bees to terrorize Eric. When he saw that Eric had learned his lesson, to never rob Farnsworth again, Farnsworth returned himself and Eric to normal size, telling Eric that all of the events were just an illusion brought on by a hypnotic trance. An older, powerless Lucius Farnsworth was threatened by the menace of The Weed, which would have conquered the world if not for Farnsworth's gardener unwittingly destroying it. Demonstrated Powers: Lucius Farnsworth was a mutant whose brain powers included the ability to shrink himself and others to the size of bees. He could mentally dominate the wills of others, and could also command bees. It is unknown if Farnsworth had any other psionic abilities. It's true there are similarities between the two (both had psychic control over insects) and the story goes, as tmoore quotes from Overstreet, that they "tested" both books. Although, you have to wonder back then how "scientific" Marvel's test was. Actually it's been said that there was actually no "test" but that Ayers liked the character and some readers wrote it about it too. And this was right at the start of their hero launches, so perhaps it was just the right bit of feedback at the right time. However, kind of funny to think that if TOS had gotten the better response, a Bee-Man could have been a founding member of the Avengers... or the X-Men since he was a "mutant" (PS, there is a storyline with a Bee-Man character in Harvey Comics' Double-Dare Adventures 1 and 2 from the mid 1960s, and it's pretty entertaining:

Klagg!!! would be a great name for a rock band... Nice books Angelo!

Congrats!! That's a phenomenal pickup!! Thanks,Steve. Maybe one day my collection will rival yours Angelo Keep buying mine and it will Yeah, no joke. You're like an escrow account: holding onto those pre-heroes for me until I buy them from you Angelo That can be arranged!

Congrats!! That's a phenomenal pickup!! Thanks,Steve. Maybe one day my collection will rival yours Angelo Keep buying mine and it will It's hard to divest myself of my pre-hero slabs, but that OA smack is a-callin' to my veins.... It won't be long before I have no pre-hero collection left! Now, if I manage to win the lottery or sumthin, I'll have pre-hero slabs and OA....

Congrats!! That's a phenomenal pickup!!

Yes they did, but the first time, if you'll forgive a DC in a Marvel thread, was ... Gorgeous book!!! I always liked the cover of that HOM

Stan and Jack sure seemed to like those Easter Island/Stone Men type critters, didn't they?

I never knew that before. Interesting stuff Much to learn, you have. Young Jedi.... Beautiful copy! Is that a White Mountain? Angelo Yes it is. There's a few stress marks but they don't bother me in the least. Wow. Wow. Wow. THAT is a stunning book! Everytime I see these fabulous covers, I am in awe, yet also sad that none of the OA to these covers seems to exist anywhere. What a shame. The detail on this one is staggering.

Dat's purdy!! What a great cover, always loved that one Looks like it's in a slab. What's the slabbed grade?

Yeah, Roy. I sold it to Andy (october), as he collects pre-hero mummy covers. Worked out great for both of us. Angelo Did somebody say "Pre-Hero Mummy Covers"???

BIG Kudos to theWatcher for contributing to the Angelopoulos Wing of Casa Rhino!

I never knew that before. Interesting stuff Much to learn, you have. Young Jedi....

Absolutely! The pre-here genre was a breeding and testing ground for a lot of ideas that Stan and the others ended up fleshing out later in Marvel's super-hero period. Tales of Suspense 6 has a great story about "mutants" -- defined in that story as people who have mutated to develop extra powers beyond the scope of normal humans -- and is clearly the prototypical theory for the entire X-Men and mutant mythos of the Marvel Universe!!!! And the main characater who poo-poo's the idea ends being a person with the power to phase through soild objects (hello Kitty Pryde prototype??) I also loved how many of these monsters were resurrected in the Bronze Age and beyond (Hulk fought the Glob, Zzutak, and others; Xemnu (the Hulk protoype) was a Defenders villain; Fin Fang Foom and Colossus were used in Astonishing Tales; and FFF returned again in Iron Man in the late 200s). PS: Angelo, that's a nice pickup from Ebay!

Nice page, Hart!!

In no particular order, I owe kudos to the following folks: finecomics for purchasing some nice pre-hero books!! TheWatcher for purchasing some great pre-hero books Drummy for purchasing some Peter Parkers Pontoon for purchasing a bunch o' westerns seanh for purchasing some nice pre-hero deathlok for purchasing a bunch of ghost riders buriedaliean for purchasing some sweet, sweet pre-hero podboy66 for purchasing a nice pre-hero book 1coolengineer for purchasing some fun readin' superboys monkeyman for purchasing a nice pre-hero book! ckb for purchasing some nice westerns Thanks everybody!!!

hey Angelo, nice books!!!

Kudos to the following people for recent buying and selling transactions: ft88 Parlourguy 1coolEngineer

Arex, we must be twins separated at birth. The wrecker covers are also my all-time favorites, especially 171, 148, and 149. Just fantastic stuff In my opinion the Kirby run of Thor covers rivals and often surpasses the quality and spectacle of his run on the FF covers. I tend to like the Thor covers better, with a few exceptions of course. When you figure Jack drew FF for 100 issues and Thor for almost as long, it's just mind-boggling when you see all these beauties. I have wondered if the FF covers were scrutinized more by the editorial staff (because FF was a top-seller) and perhaps changes were suggested to those FF covers that didn't always showcase Jack's best abilities, whereas the Thor covers are more purely Jack, and therefore more dynamic?? Or perhaps its the difference between trying to showcase a team of heroes vs a single hero? In any case, the more I look at this thread and see the vivid, dynamic scenes on these Thors, the more and more I'm blown away by them...

I love entire Kirby Thor run. I know this is not the OA forum, but when I picked up this splash to JIM 125, I was giddier than Greggy drooling over a 100-page DC romance comic.....

Oh, I drool every time I look at Chris' site! I'd love to have a Ditko Doc Strange page. And a Dikto ASM page. And..... ah well, there's that addiction again!

Ditko Dr. Strange art is exceedingly rare because only a relatively few issues of art made it out into the public domain (at least, so say the experts) and it's rumored that much of the art was returned to Ditko when Marvel did their art relocation project in the 1980s. Chris Caira (comix4fun) has a page (you can see it at http://www.hulk-smash.com ) and about once a year a page sells -- but usually privately, collector to collector. You figure that there were like 35 issues of Ditko art, and max 12 pages per issue. If only a handful of issues have been accounted for then that makes a very small number of actual pages out on the market in comparison to the Ditko fans who'd love to own one..... The art that Ditko owns may never see the light of day. Here's a quote from a thread where Chris tallied the Ditko pages vs ASM, and makes mention of the scarcity of Dr. Strange art compared to ASM. Here's a link to the thread: linky

Kudos to October for some accurately graded and reasonably priced X-Men!