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Stan, Jack, and Steve - The 1950's. (1959) The Uphill Climb
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Started by Prince Namor,

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Prince Namor

Prince Namor

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ON NEWSSTANDS NOVEMBER 1959

And of course Jack has his SkyMasters newspaper strip that D. Ayers has taken over inking.

According to Kirby (and Ayers), by this time the Wood Brothers were nowhere to be found, Wally Wood had moved on, and Ayers had been brought on board to ink (in September). 

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Zonker

Zonker

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On 9/24/2022 at 7:44 PM, Prince Namor said:

ON NEWSSTANDS NOVEMBER 1959

From My Own Romance #74 - Jack Kirby does a 6 page story and art with Vince Colletta doing inks. MR. Giordano cover (?) with Vince Colletta inks. 

 

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Man, that is some extreme Collettafication! I don't remember Colletta successfully covering up Kirby's pencils to this extent in any of the Thor or Mister Miracle comics.

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Prince Namor

Prince Namor

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That doesn't seem like a lot for Ditko... when Goodman made the choice to have Kirby save the company, they really went out of their way to stretch Kirby's appeal as much as possible. And it WOULD pay off (at least compared to what they WERE doing)... In January of 1961, when Marvel posted it's first 'Average Total Paid Circulation as Reported in Publishers' Statements of Ownership and Filed with the United States Postal Service', we see that Tales to Astonish is the highest charting Marvel title at #43 on the Top 50! at 163,156 average copies. 

This would be for the issues #8-16. It's listed in Tales to Astonish #18. 

This shows us just how BAD it had gotten for Marvel. And remember, this is at the START of when Kirby came on full time, so these numbers we DO see are all probably improvements. Yikes. No wonder Goodman was threatening Stan with a shut down on a regular basis and not talking to him.

Kirby's Tales of Suspense was at #45, with 148,929, followed by Kid Colt Outlaw at #46 and 144,746, making it the most successful of the titles Stan Lee actually wrote for (though it probably benefitted from Kirby doing all the covers).

None of Stan's 'dumb blonde' comics, including the long running Millie the Model or Patsy & Hedy would break into the Top 50, which means they did less than 110,166!!! In fact, we wouldn't see a Paid Circulation Report for Millie until 1965 when it would finally break the 200,000 mark (rising tide lifts all boats). 

Marvel was definitely on the brink when Kirby arrived full time to save the day!!!

Note: ACG and Harvey were outselling Marvel!

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Prince Namor

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ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1959

Stan Lee would write 6 of the titles for the month.

 

Millie the Model #96 - with art by Stan Goldberg 

Date with Millie #4 - with art by Stan Goldberg.

Patsy Walker #88 -  with Al Hartley art 

Kathy #4 - with art by Stan Goldberg. 

Kid Colt Outlaw #90 - 4 stories with Jack Keller art and 1 with Bill Everett

Two Gun Kid #53 - 3 stories with John Severin art and 1 with Ross Andru. 

 

Marvel released 8 titles in December. The other 2 were their best selling titles:

Tales of Suspense #9

Tales to Astonish #9

 

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Prince Namor

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ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1959

And why wouldn't they be Marvel's best sellers? Look at those Kirby covers (both inked by D. Ayers)! Compared to the sanitized stuff everyone else was doing, Jack was bringing a cinemaesque view that jumped right off the page!

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Prince Namor

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ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1959

From Tales to Astonish #9 - Jack Kirby does the cover (D. Ayers inks) as well as write the 6 page lead story and art (also D. Ayers inks). The genie returns from the previous issue. Marvel hadn't been doing continued issues, just churning out the next piece of product - but Jack couldn't help himself - he was a storyteller - and that ability would serve Marvel well from this point on...

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Prince Namor

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ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1959

It's interesting to see the lengths that people went to, in order to NOT see the influence that the Challengers of the unknown had on the history of superhero comics... even as simple as the first cover of the Justice League of America in Brave and the Bold #28...

It's influence does nothing to diminish how important BnB#28 is... it wasn't a HUGE success that Lee said Jack Liebowitz made it out to be in his golf game with Martin Goodman (a lie in itself that's been proven false), but it did prove to be a consistently good seller* that was better than anything Marvel had on the newsstands at the time. 

The fact that Kirby INFLUENCED its concept - a team of heroes in modern times battling out of this world adventures -  is covered up because it exposes the nonsense that Lee spun to make himself a celebrity. It needed to be covered up to help Lee's fairy tale, one of his few successful ones, that HE was the genius behind it all. 

Stan had his part in the success of Marvel - VITAL to it's success - no one could sling BS like he could and his hipster lingo and grotesque pandering to fanboys proved to be huge, but... Lee had done those things for over a decade with ZERO results in Millie the Model and his copycat comics.

It took Kirby's Electric Genius - Stan knew full well what was there - maybe, through jealousy, envy, greed... a hunger from his wife for more and more wealth and lifestyle, that he zeroed in on how Joe Simon mishandled it... Stan made that decision to benefit himself... it really is a shame that he just couldn't take care of Jack...

Jack Kirby was maybe the only artist during this period who DIDN'T sign his stories. Everyone else at Marvel did - Ditko, Reinman, Heck... it wasn't until Ayers started inking his work that old Dicky boy decided to start signing the work 'Kirby + Ayers'. And this would be where Stan would first be challenged...

 

 

 

 

*It shows as #23 on the 'hot' 48, which should include the issues #27-34 (3 JLA's, 3 Cave Carson's and a Hawkman) and 214,000 Average Total Paid Circulation - about the same as Wonder Woman...

 

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Prince Namor

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ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1959

Where was I?

Oh yeah, Brave and the Bold #28! The other thing that this issue does is find a way to tell a full story... they do it by breaking it down into chapters - the concept of a full story in a comic is still unsure at this point - but its also something they got from Kirby's Challengers who did this a number of times. 

But it brings it out and it would eventually become the way...

Part One:

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