rodan57

I don't own any examples of Battle (#62/Feb59 to #70/Jun60) from the period I consider very early Marvel. These are five beautiful examples and a fine representative collection. The main figure on #70 bears more than a passing resemblance to Fury and to Kirby, himself. Thanks for the postings.

To me this is a very significant title amidst two others. My starting date for collecting Silver Age Marvels is with the return of Kirby full-time to the "company with no name" and Strange Worlds #1 Dec. 1958; Tales to Astonish #1 Jan. 1959 and Tales of Suspense #1 Jan. 1959 --- all September 1958 releases. Strange Worlds #1 "I Discovered the Secret of the Flying Saucers" Lee, Kirby & Rule "I Captured the Abominable Snowman" Lee & Ditko "I Am Robot" Lee & Heck Tales to Astonish #1 "We Found the Ninth Wonder of the World" Lee, Kirby & Rule "I Know the Secret of the Poltergeist!" Lee & Ditko Tales of Suspense #1, January 1959 "I Dared Explore the Unknown Emptiness" Lee & Heck "Prisoners of the Satellites" Lee & Ditko Kirby joins Ditko and Heck ---and the three, with Lee, begin to ramp up to the Marvel Age: science fiction becomes fantasy and fantasy in Nov. 1961 becomes the fantastic.

Great book. I used own #16 when I was a kid (1970). It was the oldest book that I and all the other Marvel collectors in the neighbourhood had ever seen. It's also not any easy book to find in such good condition. I have been searching for a replacement for 4 or 5 years now and it remains rather elusive. (13 have been slabbed with 4 being 8.0 or above -- actually a relatively average number for a book from this period -- collectors just hold onto it.)

Very nice. This is actually one of my favourite FF covers. It's one that I owned as a kid and that I currently find iconic.

I'm this way at comic book conventions -- though as a Marvel fan, it seems that I just never get around to JIM and Avengers.

O.K., here's a Marvel guy stepping on some DC toes, but this is a serious question -- was there really a 'big event' continunity to reserve for the big books?

Don't hesitate to add Fury to your list. That would make it complete (at 24) as none of the teen titles (Modeling with Millie; Millie the Model; Patsy and Hedy; Patsy Walker) or westerns (Kid Colt, Outlaw; Rawhide Kid; Two-Gun Kid) used the logo.

Anyone know who did the cover art on this one? I see some Kubert in there. Grand Comic Book Database credits Ruben Moreira, pencils and inks: MGA#19 as AtlasFan suggests. Dennis

Let's see it one more time. It is such a great cover. My 12¢ Dennis

What a nice first book -- Ditko and Lee at their prime. Good choice. My 12¢ Dennis

I've got a small blue and white question mark instead of the jpg. Link severed? Dennis

Very nice looking book. White pages and the registration looks just about perfect. I am a fan of the modest 8.5s through 9.2s, as I feel they, in general, look better than most of the books looked when new on the newsstand or wire racks. Dennis

This is a great book. I am quite fond of the post 1957 "company with no name" books that feature Kirby covers. The western and teen titles are all rediscovered treats, as for years they had no collectiblity. My 12¢ Dennis

What a great cover! Dennis

Maybe it is just me, but that issue looks great in a slab. Not all books present that well in one, but this one seems to pop. Nice 9.8 by the way. Scott It looks like he is being confined by the slab. Dennis

This whole cover is beautifully composed. Is this contemporary with the Phil Silver's Show? Dennis

So here's a "Wonder Woman" neophyte question out of left field: there appears to be a shift in style where the "big eyelashes" Wonder Woman is replaced by a more modern image. Is this a shift in cover artists? Did the same artist do the covers for earlier Sensation Comics and Wonder Woman? Dennis

If you're a big fan try this link: Thor Appreciation Thread . Namisgr has some wonderful books. My 12¢ Dennis

Let me betray my Golden Age ignorance here, but is that Tarzan on the Sparkler covers? Dennis

I'm running Safari on a G5 iMac 20" monitor at 1680 x 1050 resolution. I pulled up an Applworks Drawing window beside the Forums window and measured font sizes (click and dragged text into Appleworks). Signature font size dislays at 11 pt.; the text in the quick reply box display at 12 pt.; quote text is at 13 pt.; and, regular message text displays at 16 pt. 16 pt. does look very large on my display -- it sort of seems "grade school" in appearance. My 12¢ Dennis

I like the older Atlas titles, but collecting Marvel for me begins when Atlas became "the company with no name" after the 1957 Atlas implosion. This period is signifcant for not only the folding of so many comic book titles but also for the death of Maneely and the arrival of Kirby, Ditko and Heck. You can witness Marvel arising out of the ashes of Atlas. Dennis

TOS #29 has a very interesting cover. I couldn't place the inker, as it obviously wasn't Ayers on Kirby. I went to Atlas Tales TOS#29 Reference where the inker is identified as Ditko. Not easy to tell -- though the inking of the city does resemble the building block style from early Spider-Man. Dennis

Never looked at this cover up close and had always assumed it to be an Everett cover. Everett's inks put a very unique look to Kirby's pencils. Perhaps Everett redrew the Hulk's face to more closely match the interior art? My 12c Dennis

I want to add my thanks, too. I was a little too young to have bought these off the rack, but I can imagine being a "period" fan of these books -- and the later excitment that must have accompanied the change in these books as Kirby, Ditko, Heck and Lee began their Silver Age experiments. Dennis

Just sat down and read this entire thread. I love those Gene Colan covers. I had most of these as a kid but there were some very beautiful Colan covers that I had not seen before. A great book, Mephisto. Dennis