Stan, Jack, and Steve - The 1960's (1961) The Castaway Strikes Back 1 1

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Fantastic Four #1 - Ben, the wise guy from the very beginning...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Fantastic Four #1 - Some of these panels, Jacks could've just phoned it in... instead he creates, as Mitch called it, little panels of pop art. Yeah, the hell with Roy Lichtenstein, Kirby could've made any of these a 5 ft 7 in × 13 ft 4 canvas masterpiece...

[Zonker]

On 12/5/2022 at 6:16 PM, Prince Namor said:

Nice catch! I never noticed that before...

 

Throughout his 1970s DC work, it was a pretty distinctive Kirby scripting "tell".

Later, when Crisis on Infinite Earths came out, I got quite a chuckle from Marv Wolfman's (affectionate, I think) homage to Kirby's speech pattern for Darkseid:

a 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Fantastic Four #1 - If I have one fault with the issue it would be its need to cram a great deal of story into one book. On one hand its AMAZING how much is actually covered in this first issue, BUT 1. they show up, tussle, and then defeat the Mole Man pretty easily (considering all the monsters) and 2. the size and scope of these monsters is a trait of Kirby's from what he had been doing that is missed out on here. Even the cover monster is a bit less than overwhelming as he could be - and the three headed monster... that should've been another Fin Fang Foom. 

But I get it... they had a LOT to include in the issue. 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Fantastic Four #1 - The template for a new breed of 'super' villain - the creepy dude shunned by society that wants his revenge. I always thought the Mole Man and Doc Ock might be cousins...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Fantastic Four #1 - The finale... which starts off with Sue in distress, with Ben (in his big brown diaper) getting a chance to show what he can do...

Part FOUR

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Fantastic Four #1 - Again, there had never been anything quite like this previously. Ben's snarky dialogue was so in contrast to the squeaky clean image of most heroes, and yet it was also like a perfect comic relief. 

When I saw the Guardians of the Galaxy movie, I was kind of surprised no one made the connection with the original FF as far as the interaction between the characters... sure, they sometimes ALL seem to be Ben Grimm, but that comic relief... I hope they really understand the importance of that when the make the first real FF movie... that personality dynamic between the four of them...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Fantastic Four #1 - Stan had spent years writing dialogue like this...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Fantastic Four #1 - Very Kirby - though I'd have preferred a big monster splash... still, this kind of thing would influence Ditko (who I don't believe ever mentioned it) - right? Though he'd bring his own flair to it - and both styles would influence Marvel artists for years to come... (Jim Starlin used it to great effect on his 70's Captain Marvel series ). 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Fantastic Four #1 - So much information in three oblong panels... setting up the ending... yeah really we could've used another two pages to flesh things out, but... this book was a masterpiece.

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Fantastic Four #1

Even Roy Thomas thought so...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Next! A panel by panel breakdown of the latest Life With Millie!

 

 

 

 

joking...

Edited December 6, 2022 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

23 days later, Marvel would end the month (08/31/1961) with 5 other titles...including...

Journey Into Mystery #74 - Again Kirby does the cover and two separate stories, completely deviating from what he'd previously down with 2 part, 13 page stories. Did HE decide to stop doing them or was he TOLD to stop doing them? We may never know... (All inked by D. Ayers, which means again Kirby's name is absent from anything other than what he has done with Stan Lee this month).

Story ONE:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Journey Into Mystery #74 - Kirby, story and pencils, D. Ayers inks.

Story TWO:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Journey Into Mystery #74 - The team of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko also have a story in this issue...

Ditko takes a simple one page synopsis 'An alien plot to infiltrate Earth with robotic dolls is unwittingly foiled by a police officer trying to get rid of peddlers.' and turns it into a Splash page and 34 panel story... 34 panels in 4 pages (8.5 per page).

Kinda thin... we'd see more of this...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Love Romances #96 - But what is this? The team of Stan Lee and JACK KIRBY have a story that leads off this issue...

Wait a minute! Maybe at Marvel Comics, Stan Lee is the writer and Jack Kirby is just an artist!

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Teen-Age Romance #84 - The team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby have not one but TWO stories in this issue... Jack also does the cover (inked by George Klein), with all interior art inked by Vince Colletta. 

Story ONE:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Teen-Age Romance #84 - The team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby have not one but TWO stories in this issue... Jack also does the cover (inked by George Klein), with all interior art inked by Vince Colletta. 

I'm not sure if Jack half-timed this work or Colletta erased a lot of backgrounds he didn't want to ink...

Story TWO:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Gunsmoke Western #67 - BUT, Stan Lee also writes a story with Jack Kirby for THIS issue, but because it's inked by D. Ayers, it means that only Stan's signature shows. Sheesh! What a revoltin' development!

D. Ayers also does pencils and inks for two stories on his own, so... Stan and D. Ayers have their signatures ON those stories (along with Stan on the story he does with Jack Keller, who also signs). 

Stan is specifically targeting Jack Kirby's signature on stories that HE is not involved with him on. 

Kirby also does the cover, inked by D. Ayers.

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1961

Also on 08/31/1961. Amazing Adventures is no more, and in it's place is Amazing Adult Fantasy #7 - 'The Magazine that Respects Your Intelligence!' it says right there on the cover, along with a list of five stories inside. '5 Fantastic Thrillers For the More Mature Reader', it promises.

The cover is signed Stan Lee & S. Ditko

Stan has eliminated one of Kirby's monster books, and in it's place created a show piece for HIMSELF (with Ditko as the artist) - a 'writer'/artist team, creating those popular twist ending stories that have sold so well over the last three years...

The problem is... a) Right off the bat, they'll waste two pages on a table of contents and another on, basically, a preview of next months table of contents. Talk about immediately kicking things off by NOT respecting the audiences intelligence. 

b) Each of the 5 stories has a one page splash that doesn't TELL the story. It's like it's own mini cover. So in actuality there are only 18 pages of actual story...

and 

c) most of the stories again all seem to be one sentence synopsis' that Ditko tries to flesh out as best he can. He REALLY begins to use that 9 panel grid... the great thing about the series (and none of it is anywhere near Ditko's best work), is that Sturdy Steve really gets to learn how to WRITE, and expand upon Lee's minimal ideas. It would benefit him tremendously in just a few short months...

Ultimately though, knowing what we know now, it feels like a showcase for Lee to put his name out there.