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Why was Hulk cancelled after 6 issues?

Started by 1950's war comics,

62 posts in this topic

markseifert

markseifert

Posted
Posted
Just to give a perception from a kid collecting comics at the time.....

- The price of comics had just gone up from 10 cents to 12 cents.

 

That's a REALLY good point. hm

 

Not to be contrary but basically all of the comics went up to 12 cents.

 

Yes, but --

 

Comic cover price increased for the first time ever, 3 months before you saw Hulk #1 on the stands. Of course I have to (worship) to the direct experience of those of you who were there, but it does stand to reason that most would have been far less likely to try a new title right then than they would have been a few months prior.

 

[And that Marvel would have been more likely to pull the plug on a marginal-selling title that had been around for 6 months (or 15 months, as in the case of Amazing Fantasy, just a few months later) than they would have been for some of their longer-running titles.]

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Timely

Timely

Posted
Posted

My guess is that kids perceived the Hulk comic as a "Monster" book, not a superhero book. Monster books were on the decline in 1963 as they had been popular since the mid 50's.

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jimjum12

jimjum12

Posted
Posted
It was basically a monster comic, not a superhero comic as first conceived, and the stories are noted for being inferior to most of Marvel's output at the time. On top of that their distribution deal limited the number of titles per month that Marvel could produce at the time, and something had to go to make room for Sgt. Fury.

 

....this goes along with what I'd heard. I recall an interview with Stan where he stated that Hulk sales were not that horrible, but they wanted to create a new title for Spidey and SF&HHC and that FF had been bumped to monthly..... with only 8 titles allowed per month they had been getting around that by publishing bi-monthlies.....but the hero stuff was selling too well. Plans for X-Men and Avengers were around the corner...... Stan LIKED Hulk, but figured his value as a crossover and guest star element could still keep him around and give an occasional sales boost to another title. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

....I wish I could remember where I read the interview.....If I do I'll post it. Also.... back in the 60's there was a time when Fury was there number 2 top selling title....for what that's worth.

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markseifert

markseifert

Posted
Posted
It was basically a monster comic, not a superhero comic as first conceived, and the stories are noted for being inferior to most of Marvel's output at the time. On top of that their distribution deal limited the number of titles per month that Marvel could produce at the time, and something had to go to make room for Sgt. Fury.

 

....this goes along with what I'd heard. I recall an interview with Stan where he stated that Hulk sales were not that horrible, but they wanted to create a new title for Spidey and SF&HHC and that FF had been bumped to monthly..... with only 8 titles allowed per month they had been getting around that by publishing bi-monthlies.....but the hero stuff was selling too well. Plans for X-Men and Avengers were around the corner...... Stan LIKED Hulk, but figured his value as a crossover and guest star element could still keep him around and give an occasional sales boost to another title. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

....I wish I could remember where I read the interview.....If I do I'll post it. Also.... back in the 60's there was a time when Fury was there number 2 top selling title....for what that's worth.

 

This is a tangent, but --

 

In general, I think the accepted versions of the history have to be viewed a bit skeptically at this point, at least as it pertains to business matters. Not to say that I'm throwing out everything that everybody who was there has said publicly :foryou: but I think it's becoming clear that original participants have rolled with versions that have been suggested to them by fandom in many cases (due to not being able to remember something that happened 60 years ago, and so on), and it's become a bit of an echo chamber.

 

Reading some of the court testimony of recent years is pure twilight zone... you know when people are referring back to off-the-cuff comments in old fanzines in some cases, and trying to hang an argument off of that, that probably nobody really remembers... quite a lot of how some things actually happened.

 

 

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jimjum12

jimjum12

Posted
Posted

I actually like them..... but it was obvious that it wasn't fully gelled in Stan's mind as a concept. The course they took was the best one, as Hulk definitely wasn't ready for his own title. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

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Bomber-Bob

Bomber-Bob

Posted
Posted
Just to give a perception from a kid collecting comics at the time.....

- The price of comics had just gone up from 10 cents to 12 cents.

 

That's a REALLY good point. hm

 

Not to be contrary but basically all of the comics went up to 12 cents. So it had to be something else that made you stop and ponder what the extra 2 cents went into.

 

Not sure if you read my whole statement.

- The price of comics had just gone up from 10 cents to 12 cents. A lot for a kid's budget. You had to be selective and buy maybe one less book a week.

- DC was still bigger. In order to buy that Hulk 1 you had to put back one of your DC titles. Giving up a title you regularly read for a 'monster' book was a tough sell.

- Marvel's other titles were coming on strong. The Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, and FF were much more appealing. Also, the Hulk didn't have the personality.

 

To expound, there was already a battle going on for my comic book money and I wasn't going to drop all my DC favorites to buy every new Marvel coming out. I was selective. I liked Spidey, I liked Thor, the Hulk had no appeal to me at the time.

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PovertyRow

PovertyRow

Posted
Posted
Just to give a perception from a kid collecting comics at the time.....

- The price of comics had just gone up from 10 cents to 12 cents.

 

That's a REALLY good point. hm

 

Not to be contrary but basically all of the comics went up to 12 cents. So it had to be something else that made you stop and ponder what the extra 2 cents went into.

 

Not sure if you read my whole statement.

- The price of comics had just gone up from 10 cents to 12 cents. A lot for a kid's budget. You had to be selective and buy maybe one less book a week.

- DC was still bigger. In order to buy that Hulk 1 you had to put back one of your DC titles. Giving up a title you regularly read for a 'monster' book was a tough sell.

- Marvel's other titles were coming on strong. The Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, and FF were much more appealing. Also, the Hulk didn't have the personality.

 

To expound, there was already a battle going on for my comic book money and I wasn't going to drop all my DC favorites to buy every new Marvel coming out. I was selective. I liked Spidey, I liked Thor, the Hulk had no appeal to me at the time.

 

I did. I was actually agreeing with you but I phrased it poorly. :sorry:

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rodan57

rodan57

Posted
Posted
Just to give a perception from a kid collecting comics at the time.....

- The price of comics had just gone up from 10 cents to 12 cents.

 

That's a REALLY good point. hm

 

Not to be contrary but basically all of the comics went up to 12 cents.

 

Yes, but --

 

Comic cover price increased for the first time ever, 3 months before you saw Hulk #1 on the stands. Of course I have to (worship) to the direct experience of those of you who were there, but it does stand to reason that most would have been far less likely to try a new title right then than they would have been a few months prior.

 

[And that Marvel would have been more likely to pull the plug on a marginal-selling title that had been around for 6 months (or 15 months, as in the case of Amazing Fantasy, just a few months later) than they would have been for some of their longer-running titles.]

 

Just to be a little picky with numbers ... :baiting:

 

Marvel Comics went 12¢ in November 1961 and Hulk #1 hit the newsstands in March 1962 -- 4 months.

 

Hulk was around from March 1962 to January 1963 -- 11 months -- bi-monthly.

Amazing Adventures/Amazing Adult Fantasy/Amazing Fantasy was on the newsstand from March 1961 to June 1962 -- 16 months -- as it went bi-monthly with issue 14.

 

 

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rodan57

rodan57

Posted
Posted
It was basically a monster comic, not a superhero comic as first conceived, and the stories are noted for being inferior to most of Marvel's output at the time. On top of that their distribution deal limited the number of titles per month that Marvel could produce at the time, and something had to go to make room for Sgt. Fury.

 

....this goes along with what I'd heard. I recall an interview with Stan where he stated that Hulk sales were not that horrible, but they wanted to create a new title for Spidey and SF&HHC and that FF had been bumped to monthly..... with only 8 titles allowed per month they had been getting around that by publishing bi-monthlies.....but the hero stuff was selling too well. Plans for X-Men and Avengers were around the corner...... Stan LIKED Hulk, but figured his value as a crossover and guest star element could still keep him around and give an occasional sales boost to another title. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

....I wish I could remember where I read the interview.....If I do I'll post it. Also.... back in the 60's there was a time when Fury was there number 2 top selling title....for what that's worth.

 

The limitation to the numbers of titles was real but moreso in containing Goodman's earlier habits of flooding the market. Post-May 1960, Independent News had little difficulty in dealing with fluctuating numbers or small increases in numbers per month.

 

Atlas/Marvel released 8 books per month post-Atlas Implosion until May 1960.

 

Marvel released 10 books per month from June 1960 until May 1961*.

 

Marvel released 11 books in June 1961 and beginning in July alternated between 10 and 12 books until April 1962.

 

Marvel released 9 books in May 1962. From June to August 1962, they released 12 books per month. (2 Annuals were released in July.)

 

From September 1962 to May 1963, Marvel returned to alternating 10 to 12 book per month.

 

They released 14 books in June (Annuals), 15 in July (Annuals) and numbers ranged between 11 to 13 per month until June and July 1964 when Annual publication drove the numbers up to 16 and 15.

 

Barring the months of Annual releases, Marvel alternated between 11 one month and 14 the next for the rest of 1965.

 

 

 

 

*However, there was a realignment of distribution from once a month to twice a month which resulted in no new books being released for the December 1960 newsstand -- books were shipped October 27 for November; December 29th and January 5 for January).

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rodan57

rodan57

Posted
Posted
I actually like them..... but it was obvious that it wasn't fully gelled in Stan's mind as a concept. The course they took was the best one, as Hulk definitely wasn't ready for his own title. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

I feel the same way towards the title and share the same conclusion you came to regarding the character -- I just wasn't able to write it so clearly and frame it so succinctly. (thumbs u

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F For Fake

F For Fake

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Just picked up some readers of 3,4 and 5 at a show this weekend. While they're not great stories and the character wasn't really firm at that point, I still love the art and really like the covers.

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Artboy99

Artboy99

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Posted
Just picked up some readers of 3,4 and 5 at a show this weekend. While they're not great stories and the character wasn't really firm at that point, I still love the art and really like the covers.

 

I love Hulk 1-6 myself, I really like issue 3. A high grade example with that wonderful bright orange just pops.

 

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