Stan, Jack, and Steve - The 1960's. (1960) Showing Signs of Life! 2 2

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1960

Meanwhile over at Archie, the Fly was still going (The Adventures of the Fly #7), written by Robert Bernstein with art by John Giunta. He gets the idea to team-up the Fly with (the first Silver Age appearance of) the Black Hood. No, Marvel and Stan Lee did NOT invent the Superhero Team-up. They certainly could've used Stan's eye for coming up with better covers though...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1960

But where else was a kid going to learn Judo in 1960?  

from The Adventures of the Fly #7... writer and artist probably purposely unknown...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1960

For June, Marvel would again release 10 titles to the newsstand

Stan Lee would write 6 of the titles for the month. The 4 titles he didn't write, were 4 of the top 5 sellers for Marvel. 

 

Kid Colt Outlaw #94 - 2 stories with Jack Keller and 1 with Paul Reinman. 

Millie the Model #99 - with Stan Goldberg art.

Patsy Walker #91 - with Al Hartley art 

Two Gun Kid #56 - 3 stories with John Severin, and 1 with Don Heck. 

Kathy #7 - with Stan Goldberg art.

A Date with Millie #7 - with Stan Goldberg art.

 

The other 4 were:

Tales to Astonish #13 

Tales of Suspense #12 

Journey Into Mystery #61

Strange Tales #78 

Edited October 18, 2022 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1960

No Kirby Western stories this month, he has 4 best selling titles for Marvel to focus on.

He DOES do the cover for Two Gun Kid #56 and Kid Colt Outlaw #94.

 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1960

Jack Kirby does the cover (inked by George Klein), writes and pencils a 7 page story in Journey Into Mystery #61. 

Story inks by D. Ayers. 

The Editor seems to have missed the spelling error of Pharaoh on the cover. Kirby's penciled spelling of it on the Splash page is correct. This is not the last time we'll see this...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1960

Strange Tales #78 is another example of a story that Stan later removes the Kirby & Ayers byline from when it appears in Strange Tales Annual #1 in early 1962. I'll show through various examples, how over a one year period, Stan Lee was trying to remove any proof that Kirby was the creative force behind Marvel. (Previously: see March 1960).

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1960

Jack Kirby does the cover (inked by George Klein), writes and pencils a 7 page story in Strange Tales #78. 

Story inks by D. Ayers. 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1960

Jack Kirby does the cover (inked by George Klein), writes and pencils a 7 page story in Tales of Suspense #12. 

Story inks by D. Ayers. 

Strangely, Tales of Suspense (ranked as #5 on Marvel's best seller list) is over looked by Lee to go monthly, in favor of Kid Colt Outlaw (#6), and Two Gun Kid (Unranked in Top 8), but by August this changes and Kid Colt and Two Gun both skip a month, and TOS is monthly.

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1960

Groot's first appearance, though completely unrecognizable from what modern readers would come to know him. 

Jack Kirby does the cover (inked by Steve Ditko), writes and pencils a 7 page story in Tales to Astonish #13. 

Story inks by D. Ayers. 

He also does a second 6 page story inked by Steve Ditko.

Story ONE:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1960

Jack Kirby second story (inked by Steve Ditko), from Tales to Astonish #13, is 'I Found the Abominable Snowman!'

comic.org says it is a retelling of Steve Ditko's 'I Captured the Abominable Snowman!' from Strange Worlds #1.

It's NOT. It's clearly two different stories, but they have some minor similarities. I'll post the other after this for comparison.

Did Kirby give Ditko the story idea to work and then reworked it himself 2 years later?

Story TWO:

[Prince Namor]

Here's Ditko's version from almost 2 years earlier in Strange Worlds #1

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1960

Because some of the Better Selling Monster Books get bumped up to monthly, Steve Ditko does 4 stories for Marvel in June. From Tales to Astonish #13. 

Penciled and inked by Steve Ditko. Writer unknown. NOT written by Stan Lee. 

He also inks the cover (and Kirby's second story).

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1960

Because some of the Better Selling Monster Books get bumped up to monthly, Steve Ditko does 4 stories for Marvel in June. From Tales of Suspense #12. 

Penciled and inked by Steve Ditko. Writer unknown. NOT written by Stan Lee. 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1960

Because some of the Better Selling Monster Books get bumped up to monthly, Steve Ditko does 4 stories for Marvel in June. From Strange Tales #78. 

Penciled and inked by Steve Ditko. Writer unknown. NOT written by Stan Lee. 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1960

Because some of the Better Selling Monster Books get bumped up to monthly, Steve Ditko does 4 stories for Marvel in June. From Journey Into Mystery #61. 

Penciled and inked by Steve Ditko. Writer unknown. NOT written by Stan Lee. 

This is one of my favorite Ditko stories from this era. Even as a young man, the 4th page, where the Thief continues to go through what seems like multiple doors, and the way Ditko changed his camera angle/the flow... I knew this was something pretty cool...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1960

Steve Ditko also did a few stories for Charlton, including two in Space Adventures #35. 

Penciled and inked by Steve Ditko. Written by Joe Gill. 

Story ONE: 

Edited October 19, 2022 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1960

Ditko's second story for Space Adventures #35, was the Captain Atom story. 

Penciled and inked by Steve Ditko. Written by Joe Gill. 

Story TWO: 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1960

Steve Ditko also did a few stories for Charlton, including this one from Space War #6. 

Penciled and inked by Steve Ditko. Written by Joe Gill. 

In the artist's studio you can see in the background a pin-up of the Mysterious Traveler and on page 2, Captain Atom!

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1960

Steve Ditko also did a few stories for Charlton, including this one from Unusual Tales #23. 

Penciled and inked by Steve Ditko. Written by Joe Gill. 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JUNE 1960

Archie was way ahead of the curve, not only in creating an 'annual' for its books (for the last 12 years!), with 84 pages at 25 cents, but in commenting on trends of the day. They'd ALWAYS done that, and Dan DeCarlo was a big part of bringing it even closer in content to a teen audience. Here they have a play with the manufactured teen idol craze of the day.

While Millie the Model concentrated on repeated cliches over and over again, DeCarlo would go to Archie Comics and really let loose, and the results would be legendary for him and Archie.

Pencils by Dan DeCarlo. Writer unknown. 

Cover art is unknown, but my guess is that Archie face is by Bill Vigoda. 

Edited October 19, 2022 by Prince Namor