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

[Prince Namor]

ANATOMY OF A STORY

Marvel wasn't the only one who could borrow from their own past ideas!!  Edmond Hamilton and Al Plastino first introduced SUPERMAN's 'Big Brother' in 1953's Superman #80... Halk Kar would retroactively become "Earth-2's Mon-El."

[gunsmokin]

On 11/26/2022 at 2:28 PM, Prince Namor said:

Well... I may be a stickler here for detail, but...

By #26, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko were no longer talking and according to Ditko, Lee had absolutely no idea what the story was until Ditko turned it in. That would last until Ditko left Marvel a year later. 

But hey, baby steps... its nice to see SOME acknowledgement!

Agreed. 22-38 were ALL Ditko. Just happy to see them moving in the right direction. I wonder if CGC authenticating Ditko personal copies had anything to do with it?

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1961

For May, Marvel would release 10 titles to the newsstand (Now averaging 9.2 books per month)

Stan Lee would write 3 of the titles for the month, and one of those would be Rawhide Kid, that Kirby was actually writing (as his handwritten '--script' as he would call it was lettered in pencil, right in the word balloon on the page). 

(And actually Al Hartley was writing Patsy & Hedy...)

 

Rawhide Kid #23 - Two stories with Jack Kirby (18 pages), and one 5 pager with Paul Reinman

GunSmoke Western #65 - One story each with Jack Keller, Jack Kirby, Paul Reinman, and Don Heck.

Patsy & Hedy #77 - with Al Hartley art 

 

The other 7 were:

Tales to Astonish #22 

Tales of Suspense #20 

Journey Into Mystery #70

Strange Tales #87

Amazing Adventures #3

Love Romances #94

Teen-Age Romance #82

 

Why did Marvel continue to produce Romance titles that didn't sell? Why'd they continue to produce Humor books, that, other than Millie's main title, didn't sell?

 For the simplest reasons possible: Because they had NOTHING else to publish, and Kirby could only be stretched so far...

THIS is where Marvel ACTUALLY was in May 1961.

Edited November 27, 2022 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1961

For May, Jack Kirby would do the cover and 2 stories (one is a two parter) for Rawhide Kid #23 (all inked by D. Ayers). The first story, a retelling of the Origin from 6 issues (last year), using Kirby's exact same --script, but completely redrawn!

This is Kirby, seeing Lee signing his name to these stories, saying, "Okay Stanley... so give me a story to write." Stan, of course is limited in his options and has Kirby completely redraw the origin using the same story and dialogue from a year ago... 

Edited November 27, 2022 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ANATOMY OF A STORY

Let's compare page by page... Rawhide Kid #17 and Rawhide Kid #23... #17 on the left and #23 on the right. 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1961

For May, Jack Kirby would also do the cover and a 5 page story for GunSmoke Western #65 (all inked by D. Ayers). 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1961

For May, the majority of Jack Kirby's work was again on his monster comics. He'd do the cover and a 2 part, 13 page story and a 5 page Dr. Droom story for Amazing Adventures #3, (all inked by D. Ayers)

Part ONE:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1961

For May, the majority of Jack Kirby's work was again on his monster comics. He'd do the cover and a 2 part, 13 page story and a 5 page Dr. Droom story for Amazing Adventures #3, (all inked by D. Ayers)

At the end it says: "Editor's Note: the story you have just read is, of course, pure fiction! At least, so the writer told us! But it made us stop and think -- and wonder!! How about you?" (an incentive to write as an announcement for a future letters page)"?

Part TWO:

Edited November 28, 2022 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1961

For May, the majority of Jack Kirby's work was again on his monster comics. He'd do the cover and a 2 part, 13 page story and a 5 page Dr. Droom story for Amazing Adventures #3, (all inked by D. Ayers)

THIRD Dr. Droom story:

[Prince Namor]

 

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1961

For May, Jack Kirby also would do the cover and a 2 part, 13 page story for Journey Into Mystery #70 (all inked by D. Ayers).

Part ONE:

Edited November 28, 2022 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1961

For May, Jack Kirby also would do the cover and a 2 part, 13 page story for Journey Into Mystery #70 (all inked by D. Ayers). All Spider-man (or Stan Lee) had to do to figure how to defeat the Sandman (Flint Marko) was to read this story. 

Part TWO:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1961

For May, Jack Kirby also would do the cover and a 2 part, 13 page story for Strange Tales #87 (all inked by D. Ayers), featuring Grogg. 

Grogg last appeared in Strange Tales #83. 

Part ONE:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1961

For May, Jack Kirby also would do the cover and a 2 part, 13 page story for Strange Tales #87 (all inked by D. Ayers), featuring Grogg. 

Grogg last appeared in Strange Tales #83. 

Part TWO:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1961

For May, Jack Kirby also would do the cover and a 2 part, 13 page story for Tales of Suspense #20 (all inked by D. Ayers), featuring Colossus. 

Colossus last appeared in Tales of Suspense #14.

Part ONE:

Edited November 28, 2022 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1961

For May, Jack Kirby also would do the cover and a 2 part, 13 page story for Tales of Suspense #20 (all inked by D. Ayers), featuring Colossus. 

Colossus last appeared in Tales of Suspense #14.

Part TWO:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1961

For May, Jack Kirby also would do the cover and a 2 part, 13 page story for Tales to Astonish #22 (all inked by D. Ayers)

Part ONE:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1961

For May, Jack Kirby also would do the cover and a 2 part, 13 page story for Tales to Astonish #22 (all inked by D. Ayers)

Part TWO:

[Prince Namor]

Jack Kirby was doing something that no one in the history of Timely/Atlas/Marvel had ever done.

He had 5 MONTHLY comics, where he was doing the cover, and writing/drawing more than half the book himself. Of those 5, we know that 4 of them are the best selling books that Marvel has at the time. 

Jack has done 31 of the 46 covers for the year (67%) so far.

For May he does 94 pages of penciled art and 7 covers vs the other 8 artists doing 145 total story pages (about 18 pgs each average).

Jack was keeping Marvel alive... 

 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1961

In May, Steve Ditko did pencils and inks for a 5 page story in Amazing Adventures #3. 

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

[Prince Namor]

 

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1961

In May, Steve Ditko did pencils and inks for a 5 page story in Journey Into Mystery #70. 

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