Stan, Jack, and Steve - The 1960's (1962) Jack Kirby creates the Marvel Universe! 4 4

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1962

Amazing Spider-man #1 - Stan Lee & Steve Ditko

Chapter THREE:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1962

Amazing Spider-man #1 - Stan Lee & Steve Ditko

Story TWO:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1962

Amazing Spider-man #1 - Promo Ad at the end of the book. Not sure who drew that Spidey, but it wasn't Ditko. Kirby? Sol Brodsky? My guess would be Brodsky...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1962

Amazing Spider-man #1 - My memories of this issue. Most likely I first read this in Marvel Tales #138 in 1982. I just remembered I was pretty underwhelmed by the story and art. I'm sure the reaction to the original was pretty crazy... it obviously was a huge event in the history of comics, but for me, having already experienced most of the modern Spidey, this issue was weird. As Ditko said, the settings just didn't seem... Spider-man-like. (Much how I always thought it weird when Spider-man would get pulled into cosmic adventures out in space )

Anyway... still a landmark in comics history!

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1962

Millie the Model #113 and Patsy Walker #105

[Prince Namor]

And that wraps up 1962! More exciting adventures to come in the next thread! 1963 would be an even crazier year!!! With more adventures of... Peter Palmer???

Edited February 2, 2023 by Prince Namor

[Zonker]

Do you think Stan is trying to send a message here to his collaborators?

[Dr. Haydn]

On 2/2/2023 at 2:14 AM, Prince Namor said:

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1962

Amazing Spider-man #1 - here's how Steve Ditko remembers it...

Notice how much thought went into Steve Ditko's concept of the character. No "I saw a spider on the wall," or "I was trying to do something different."

[Prince Namor]

On 2/2/2023 at 10:52 AM, Dr. Haydn said:

Notice how much thought went into Steve Ditko's concept of the character. No "I saw a spider on the wall," or "I was trying to do something different."

Exactly. 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1962

Two OTHER important books came out in December, but they were over at Archie Comics! The first was She's Josie, by Frank Doyle and our old friend Dan DeCarlo. With the character based upon his wife Josie, DeCarlo and Doyle would put the series through some changes over the years but.. eventually it would get it's own Saturday Morning Cartoon!

Just "Josie" in Indicia for issues #1-3, and "She's Josie" for 4-16, it would again become just "Josie" with issue #17 and stay that way until it becomes "Josie and the Pussycats" with issue #45. THAT of course is when it got the TV show...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1962

The other was Archie's Pals 'n' Gals #23 with a story that included the SECOND appearance of Josie.  

Some sources claim this is the first Josie story, but it actually comes out a week AFTER She's Josie #1.

But I thought I'd include it anyway!

P.S. Melody is one of my favorite characters EVER. Seriously. 

 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1962

Archie's Pals 'n' Gals #23 - It also includes two of my favorite Archie Pin-ups ever - back to back - showing just how nuts Betty is and... something else, I can only speculate. 

[Zonker]

Haven't we seen this one before?  I'm pretty sure you showed this one to us in an earlier year's thread. I'll have to see if I can find it, now I'm curious if Archie just reprinted these things, or if they redrew/recolored Veronica's outfit based on Ann Auriemma's suggestion.  

[davidtere]

On 2/2/2023 at 11:59 AM, Zonker said:

Haven't we seen this one before?  I'm pretty sure you showed this one to us in an earlier year's thread. I'll have to see if I can find it, now I'm curious if Archie just reprinted these things, or if they redrew/recolored Veronica's outfit based on Ann Auriemma's suggestion.  

Archie Comics occasionally recycled their pin up pages. The biggest reprint (that I know of) of the early pin-ups featuring B&V are in Betty & Veronica Spectacular # 26. It's a giant size comic and every page is a pin-up page and most of them feature B&V. That's a 'must have' for all B&V fans and DeCarlo's pin-up pages in general. 

[Prince Namor]

On 2/2/2023 at 2:59 PM, Zonker said:

Haven't we seen this one before?  I'm pretty sure you showed this one to us in an earlier year's thread. I'll have to see if I can find it, now I'm curious if Archie just reprinted these things, or if they redrew/recolored Veronica's outfit based on Ann Auriemma's suggestion.  

It was from this issue... I was showing how comics in 1962 seemed to start looking a bit more sexy than they had in some time...

[Mmehdy]

The picture of who did what and when is coming into focus. With end of the hulk/AF that appears to be a make or break moment. FF was very early on very popular so I can understand how that book carried Marvel until ASM#1.... and that really put marvel in the drivers seat...I cannot wait to see at what point ASM began to outsell FF...if ever....

[Dr. Haydn]

On 2/5/2023 at 2:12 PM, Mmehdy said:

The picture of who did what and when is coming into focus. With end of the hulk/AF that appears to be a make or break moment. FF was very early on very popular so I can understand how that book carried Marvel until ASM#1.... and that really put marvel in the drivers seat...I cannot wait to see at what point ASM began to outsell FF...if ever....

Sales figures courtesy of Comichron.com.

Marvel didn't report sales figures for FF and Spidey until 1966, interestingly, but here are the numbers for that year. Here, we would be comparing the height of the Kirby-Lee FF with the end of Ditko's run on Spider-man (Lee dialogue and edits), and the beginning of the Romita, Sr. era: 

16	Amazing Spider-Man	Marvel	340,155
17	Tarzan	Gold Key	338,052
18	Flintstones	Gold Key	332,362
19	Fantastic Four	Marvel	329,379

Most of the top books in the mid-to-late 1960s are Superman and Batman titles, along with Archie.

 

Then 1967. Kirby starts holding back new ideas on FF. Romita is hitting his stride on Spidey. (A great nickname, but no plotting credits for Jazzy Johnny, as Lee is listed as writer.) Both titles are slowly climbing the ladder:

14	Amazing Spider-Man	Marvel	361,663
15	Betty and Veronica	Archie	349,632
16	Brave & Bold	DC	342,400
17	Fantastic Four	Marvel	329,536

 

And 1968. Kind of a second peak on FF. Romita is only doing layouts in Spidey (with finishes by Don Heck and Jim Mooney). Lee dialogue and edits. Numbers are up only slightly.

12	Amazing Spider-Man	Marvel	373,303
13	Life with Archie	Archie	348,130
14	Laugh Comics	Archie	347,178
15	Archie's Pal Jughead	Archie	345,269
16	Fantastic Four	Marvel	344,865

 

And 1969. Still Kirby-Lee on FF. Half Romita, half John Buscema on Spidey, with Lee dialogue and edits. Archie is #1 that year (a first, I think). Despite the price increase to 15 cents in the spring, numbers hold steady. Spider-man cracking the Top 10 for the first time must have been cause for celebration.

7	Amazing Spider-Man	Marvel	372,352
8	World's Finest Comics	DC	366,618
9	Batman	DC	355,782
10	Adventure Comics	DC	354,123
11	Archie and Me	Archie	345,869
12	Fantastic Four	Marvel	340,363

 

So, Spidey was always Marvel's #1 title (by about 10,000 to 30,000 copies over FF) for the years we have exact figures. Hard to say if that was true for 1963-1965, though.

Edited February 5, 2023 by Dr. Haydn
typo

[Mmehdy]

I think FF carried Marvel early on...but my guess is one year into Spiderman it took over.

[Prince Namor]

On 2/6/2023 at 12:33 PM, Mmehdy said:

I think FF carried Marvel early on...but my guess is one year into Spiderman it took over.

Yeah, both of those titles were so unique and interesting for the times, they really did power the entire line of comics.

The rest of that first wave, just kind of fell off, especially after Stan tried to farm them out to others... Ant-man, Human Torch, and... Thor would have, but Kirby came back and took it over  - making it the third best seller of Marvel's Silver Age. 

[Dr. Haydn]

Second to last panel: I doubt if Reed Richards EVER said "fightin'" at any time in his life! Was Stan thinking that Ben Grimm was in that panel?