Unca Ben

On 1/16/2020 at 10:02 AM, KirbyJack said:

Fantastic Four annual 3 is pretty early!

I love this issue.  I also think it's funny that it was decided to include Kid Colt on the cover.  And Sgt. Fury, along with his 1960's Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. incarnation.

Merry Mixed-up Marvel.  

On 1/22/2020 at 10:28 AM, The Cimmerians Purse said:

it really is... He must have just caught Steve on a good day, or in the right way. It's funny Steve Ditko would rarely sign anything that people asked him to, but then he'd send a hand written / signed letter... i think he knew what he was doing / did it on purpose. I tend to think of him as the same guy as my buddy Anders... LOL  ... I think he really valued his privacy, but he also enjoyed F'ing with people too. 

Perhaps at times Ditko's philosophy came to play in this .  If a fan put in the effort and worked on a letter that was thoughtful then Ditko might send a signed reply as a reward because he felt it was deserved.  On the other hand, he might have considered a simple request for a signature as undeserved.

...or he was just inconsistent.  Even Ditko was human.

I kinda liked Kirby's work better before the switch to smaller art pages.  His artwork seemed more comfortable when generated in twice-up and he seemed - I dunno - more constrained by the change to a smaller format.

But yeah, FF Ann 6 is a masterpiece in storytelling and art!  

I was a high school senior when ASM 129 hit the stands.  I didn't really like the Punisher too much but I did like the stories he appeared in.  I just wasn't a fan of the anti-hero character. 
However, iirc, the fan response in subsequent issues was pretty positive, if not a little controversial (I'm too lazy to dig out the issues and check the lettercolls so I'm goin' by memory).
Maybe management didn't believe the Punisher was ready to carry his own series, but he did start to appear on a  regular basis over the next few years.  Back then, if you saw a character appear a couple times a year he became a regular character.  And the lettercolls after these appearances reflected the popularity of the character.

Those were the days when Marvel was upping its output - 30 to 40 books a month to over 50 (including their magazine line - more than I could afford at the time ) but they diversified a lot.  Mostly super-heroes and horror with a smattering of westerns, sci-fi and a little war, romance and kung fu.  Even the major guys like Spidey, the Thing, and Conan only had 2 regular series devoted to them (and in the case of Spidey and the Thing their second books were team-up books and Conan's second book was in the magazine line) and it seemed just as likely that Marvel would introduce a new character to start a series (like Shang-Chi, Iron Fist and Killraven and Deathlok) where guest stars like the Black Panther and Hercules had stayed guest stars (or been in the Avengers) for a while before they got their own series.  Even the increasingly popular horror characters like Morbius took a couple of years after they were introduced before they would get their own series - except for Man-Wolf.  And all those guys above were popular at the time.  It was a big deal to get a regular series back then.

But yeah, it did take an inordinate amount of time for him to get his own series.  But he was a popular guest star.  

That's my take, anyways. 

On 1/16/2020 at 5:00 PM, KirbyJack said:

The only Artist’s Edition I own is the small art Kirby. I love it and recommend it highly, but I’m biased. FF annual 6 is my favorite comic of all time. 

FF annual 6 is a great book.  I posted a write-up about it some time back.
P.S.  I knew what your response would be  

Wallace Wood's Witzend, perhaps?  I know Mr. A was first published there, but I am unsure of which stories.

Theo.

'Nuff said.

Now you guys made me pull out my copies to read them again.    
They are both amazing.  If I had to pick one, it would be the World's Greatest.

Tough choice, though.

9 hours ago, Chaos_in_Canada said:

From TTA82, ShellHead unleashing his repulser rays on Subby. 

1 hour ago, 1950's war comics said:

this panel is sweet 

If memory serves, this is from the Sub-Mariner story where Jack Kirby finished the story after Gene Colan penciled the beginning but was unable to finish. 
It also holds the honor of being the first bona fide Marvel crossover story - Iron Man vs the Sub-Mariner  begun in TOS and continued in TTA. 

8 minutes ago, IkewithMike said:

I have no idea who that is. But then again, I have no idea who Chaz Bono is either

...and that's okay; I wouldn't know a Kardashian if she/he bit me.

5 minutes ago, IkewithMike said:

I have no idea who that is. But then again, I have no idea who Chaz Bono is either

Every dang post in this topic deserves a like.  

Get well soon!  

You're welcome!  

13 hours ago, alxjhnsn said:

From an interview in the Comics Journal, 

Quote

GROTH: When you say you were doing very well, what does that mean? What was your page rate in the ’50s?

KIRBY: Thirty-five to 50 dollars for a complete page. It depended on who you worked for. Some paid less. Some paid more.

This says $35-$50 for a complete page - plotting, writing, inking, and lettering; not just pencils.
So if you're looking at comps for today's rates you'd want to include the range of rates for penciller, inker, letterer - not to mention writer.

13 hours ago, alxjhnsn said:

  Quote

Comic Book Artist
The median comic book artist salary is $36,500

Penciller
Starting rates at Marvel and DC: $160 to $260 per page.

Inker
$75 to $100 per page.

Colorist
$20 and $121 per page

Letterer
$10 and $25 per page

...so today's combined rate range would be between $245 -$385 for pencils, letters and inks, not including the writer's or colorist's fees.
I left off colorist because I am unsure if Kirby was including some sort of color guides when he referenced a "complete page" from S&K studios.  I believe I've read that back then some color guides were done at the printer, depending on the company.

So today's artist combined (high) rates at $385 - especially if you need to add in a writers fee on top of that -  is close to the high range of the inflation calculator of Simon &Kirby's $480 in 2020. (a $95 a page difference)

7 hours ago, Peter G said:

7 minute mark

I figure this video dates to somewhere around early-mid 1977, a bit after Marvel started returning art to the artists (most of the artists, anyway).
Interesting to see some of the art that was out there at the time.  Ed Summers from Supersnipe, yes?

8 hours ago, Jaylam said:

Found this image online, is this an image of the pinup from DD #7?

 

Yep.

Ditko Romita Kane Andru

3 hours ago, Pontoon said:

When I was growing up, the FIRST page of a comic was the splash page. I never heard full panel pages used elsewhere in a comic refered to as such. The modern day trend to refer to a 3 panel page with 1 big panel as a splash is terrifically annoying.

That'$ becau$e thing$ change.  

1 hour ago, paperheart said:

"key" has lost all meaning

And in OA circles, "splash" has lost all meaning IMO.

(If a panel on a page is large, the page then becomes a "splash")

46 minutes ago, Bronty said:

See and I shudder at the beatnik / go-go dancing issues.   Cringe. 

  Well played.

But did you shudder at the time that these were published?  It was a fair representation of the pop culture at the time.  See what DC, Archie, even Charlton were doing.  Not to mention pop culture outside of comics.

Oh yeah, and would Ditko finally have revealed his hidden-character, Mary Jane Watson? 
That was a common troupe back in the day.  Sometime, the character was never completely revealed.

... my above post being said, I would have loved to see Steve Ditko continue on the book, as I think he still had an overarching story to complete.  Mebbe to issue #50 -75?  The Green Goblin thing.  Pete finishing with his moving on from his first love Betty (and his crush on Liz, to some extent) and developing his relationship with Gwen.  And especially Pete maturing after his heroes-journey act two in the Master Planner trilogy.
Finally resolved of his guilt over the death of his Uncle Ben, Pete still had the third act in his heroes-journey to go.  His most serious encounter with death lay ahead of him. 
I would have loved to see Ditko finish that. 
I have a fairly strong conviction that Steve Ditko was working along those lines.  I don't think we would have had "the death of Uncle Ben" guilt-trip continued like it was.  I think Ditko was now beyond that.  His character had persevered and moved forward.

Ditko was a genius and his work on ASM was lightning in a bottle.  He put a whole lot into his work on the title, probably more than he let on.  That could have contributed to his disdain of Marvel and Stan when he felt that he couldn't continue to be taken advantage of.