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Stan, Jack, and Steve - The 1960's (1961) The Castaway Strikes Back
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Started by Prince Namor,

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Prince Namor

Prince Namor

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ON NEWSSTANDS SEPTEMBER 1961

You remember the Death of Superman, right? No, not THAT one, the one in Superman #149 (Curt Swan cover). Written by Jerry Siegel (its only fitting, I suppose), with art by Curt Swan and inks by Sheldon Moldoff.

Part TWO:  Lex Luthor reveals that he was only pretending to be good and kills Superman!!!

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Prince Namor

Prince Namor

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ON NEWSSTANDS SEPTEMBER 1961

You remember the Death of Superman, right? No, not THAT one, the one in Superman #149 (Curt Swan cover). Written by Jerry Siegel (its only fitting, I suppose), with art by Curt Swan and inks by Sheldon Moldoff.

Part THREE:  Superman is buried and Supergirl brings Lex Luthor to justice!

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Prince Namor

Prince Namor

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ON NEWSSTANDS SEPTEMBER 1961

Superman #149 Letters page.

What did Marvel have that DC didn't? (Besides Jack Kirby?)

Stan would become a buttkisser a master at answering fan mail, especially on the letters pages that would soon follow. DC... not so much:

"You're way off base chum. Lex Luther is a bona fide representative of the human race. And how about the infamous Metallo? We could mention dozens of other earth villains, but space prohibits their mention. We suggest you go through a pile of back issues and keep score ----Ed.)

Wow!

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Prince Namor

Prince Namor

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ON NEWSSTANDS SEPTEMBER 1961

Other super heroes were seeing expansion.... The Adventures of The Fly #14 - Written by Robert Bernstein with art (and cover) by John Rosenberger.

The Origin of Fly Girl!

Wait, the Superman #149 was a 25 page story and The Fly #14 was a 20 page story... it appears these long stories are catching on...

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Prince Namor

Prince Namor

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ON NEWSSTANDS OCTOBER 1961

Marvel would release ZERO titles to the newsstand in October of 1961. 

The actual days between releases would be 34 days (09/28/1961 to 11/02/1961).

This still puts their average at 10.1 issues per month, a full 2 issues above what people believe their minimum was. 

I'm not sure why this hiatus exists other than speculation that Goodman was again looking to close down the comics division. Stan Lee has tried to deny this, of course, but I just don't know. I'm DO know that Stan Lee's 'nothing was going on in comics at the time' is nonsense...

DC Comics released 27 titles to the newsstand this month and was averaging 27.9 titles a month.

Charlton Comics released 26 titles to the newsstand this month and was averaging 25 titles a month.

Dell Comics, despite its price increase, released 26 titles to the newsstand this month and was averaging 31.1 titles a month.

There was still plenty going on...

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Prince Namor

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ON NEWSSTANDS OCTOBER 1961

The numbers for Statement of Ownership started to be put together and would be published in the books coming out in February.

With 4 of Jack Kirby's books averaging 2 million copies sold, there was nothing else Marvel was selling prior to Fantastic Four #1 that even came close to that. (We don't know what FF #1 sold and wouldn't see a Statement of Ownership for that until 1966). Millie the Model's average copies per issue went up, as did Kid Colt and Rawhide Kid. 

According to Marvel, they sold 18.7 Million Copies of Comics in 1961... that means Kirby's 4 monster books accounted for almost HALF those sales, while the rest of the line accounted for the other half... if we're to assume that  Amazing Adventures, Amazing Adult Fantasy, and especially the Fantastic Four had any sort of sales impact... that means the rest of the line... sold absolutely horrible. 

THIS is why it was imperative for Stan to suddenly become interested in Sci-Fi and take control of 'writing and editing'. Kirby was dominating the line. It's also why it would be the Westerns that suffered at the expense of the superheroes and NOT the dumb blonde books - Stan enjoyed writing those and it was an easy paycheck (Goldberg and Hartley did them Marvel Method), regardless of their lack of sales.

 

Strange Tales #96                  191,261  (#82-92)   11 issues - 2,103,871 Total Copies Sold (Up 21,660 per issue)

Tales to Astonish #31            184,895 (#17-27)   11 issues -  2,033,845 Total Copies Sold  (Up 21,739 per issue)

Millie the Model #108              184,733 (#101-106)  7 issues - 1,293,131 Total Copies Sold (Up 29,761 per issue)    

Tales of Suspense #29          184,635 (#17-26)    10 issues - 1,846,350 Total Copies Sold (Up 35,706 per issue)

Journey Into Mystery #79     182,090 (#65-75)  11 issues - 2,002,990  Total Copies Sold (Up 14,965 per issue)

Kid Colt Outlaw #104              152,877 (#97-102)  6 issues - 917,262  Total Copies Sold  (Up 8,131 per issue)

Rawhide Kid #28                     150,162 (#21-25)  5 issues - 750,810 Total Copies Sold

 

Amazing Adventures #1-6 - 6 issues

Amazing Adult Fantasy #7-10 - 4 issues

Fantastic Four #1-#3 - 3 issues

Kathy #10-15 - 6 issues

Life with Millie #10-15 - 6 issues

My Girl Pearl #11??? Cancelled - 1 issue

Patsy & Hedy #75-80 - 6 issues

Patsy Walker #94-99 - 6 issues

Two Gun Kid #59 - 1 issue

Gunsmoke Western #64-68 - 5 issues

Teen-Age Romances #81-85  - 5 issues

Love Romances #93-97 - 5 issues

Linda Carter, Student Nurse #1-4 - 4 issues

Edited by Prince Namor
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Prince Namor

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Overall.. it's still a pretty sad showing as Marvel's #1 book would rank #40 in the Top 48, as shown in Comichron's https://www.comichron.com/yearlycomicssales/postaldata/1961.html  yearly sales list.***

Dell began to lose some of it's hold on the market with their 15 cent cover price. DC continued to have a dominant hold on 2nd place as the Superman Family of titles sold unlike anything else. Archie Comics had a few of their regulars in the Top 25, and surprisingly... The Adventures of the FLY was one at #24. Long since abandoned by Joe Simon, and contrary to 'history', the writer/artist team of Robert Bernstein and John Rosenberger had some decent numbers with that book!

It's weird to think that Sugar & Spike outsold anything Marvel published in 1961...

(Keep in mind this list is incomplete, and based upon reported sales AVERAGES. There's plenty of numbers I'd LOVE to be able to see that would give a more complete story but... this is what we have)

And Mad Magazine hits 1.2 million copies per month for the year. 

 

***Average Total Paid Circulation as Reported in Publishers' Statements of Ownership and Filed with the United States Postal Service - This list includes only those titles which offered subscriptions via the USPS Second or Periodical Class, and which published their sales reports in their titles.

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Prince Namor

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ON NEWSSTANDS NOVEMBER 1961

For November, Marvel would release 10 titles to the newsstand (Now averaging 10.1 titles per month). 

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

 

Patsy & Hedy #80  -  with Al Hartley art 

Rawhide Kid #26 - with art by Jack Kirby

Amazing Adult Fantasy #9 - 5 stories with Steve Ditko

Gunsmoke Western #68 - 1 story each with Jack Keller, Don Heck, Paul Reinman, and D. Ayers

Love Romances #96 - 4 stories with Kirby! 

Teen-Age Romance #85 -  3 stories with Kirby! and 1 story with Gene Colan

 

 

The other 4 are:

Journey Into Mystery #76

Tales to Astonish #28

Tales of Suspense #26

Strange Tales #93   

Edited by Prince Namor
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