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

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JANUARY 1962

Amazing Adult Fantasy #11 - Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Story FOUR:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JANUARY 1962

Amazing Adult Fantasy #11 - Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Letters Page!

First of all, I don't believe the nonsense that the 'John Doe' letter is legit. I believe it was created by Stan Lee due to sagging sales, and as a convenient excuse that the reason was because it had 'Adult' in the title. The only letter shown that ever mentions it is form a 'John Doe'? Hmmm...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JANUARY 1962

Amazing Adult Fantasy #11 - Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Story FIVE:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JULY 6, 1955

The last we'd seen of the Sub-Mariner was from Sub-Mariner Comics #42, released in early July of 1955. Written and drawn by creator Bill Everett, it had been 7 years since we'd last seen the character... below is the final story in that issue...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS SPRING 1956

Strangely though... the following spring THIS story appeared in the short lived Atlas title 'Adventure Into Mystery #1' (a victim of the implosion, lasting 8 issues). Tony Mortellaro art, but Bill Everett did the cover... wonder what HE thought of this...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS FEBRUARY 1962

The cover to Fantastic Four #4 had to jump out at the newsstands in a way I can't even imagine. Part One deals with Johnny Storm having left the team at the end of the last issue...

Written below the 2nd page of the story is 'THE HULK IS COMING' and written above the 3rd page of the story is  'WHO IS THE HULK?'

Part ONE:

Edited January 3, 2023 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS FEBRUARY 1962

Fantastic Four #4 - Chapter 2, 'Enter the Sub-Mariner' 

Written below the 2nd page of the chapter is 'WHAT IS THE HULK??' and written above the 3rd page of the chapter is  'YOU'VE NEVER SEEN ANYONE LIKE THE HULK!'

Part TWO:

Edited January 3, 2023 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS FEBRUARY 1962

Fantastic Four #4 

Written below the 2nd page of the chapter is 'WHAT IS THE HULK??' 

Part THREE:

Edited January 3, 2023 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS FEBRUARY 1962

Fantastic Four #4 

Written below the 2nd page of the chapter is 'WHO IS THE HULK??' and written above the 3rd page of the chapter is  'YOU'VE NEVER SEEN ANYONE LIKE THE HULK!'

Part FOUR:

Edited January 3, 2023 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS FEBRUARY 1962

Fantastic Four #4 

Written below the 2nd page of the chapter is 'WHAT IS THE HULK??' and written above the 3rd page of the chapter is  'WHO IS THE HULK??' and written above the 5th page of the chapter is 'YOU'VE NEVER SEEN ANYONE LIKE THE HULK!'

They are advertising the Hulk like nothing they ever have before....

Part FIVE:

Edited January 3, 2023 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS FEBRUARY 1962

Fantastic Four #4 - My favorite Subby moment...

Edited January 3, 2023 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS FEBRUARY 1962

Fantastic Four #4 - A Mr. Fantastic Pin-Up - Signed by Stan Lee! ('Lee & Kirby') - talk about signing his name to everything not nailed down... also another Ad for the Hulk!

Edited January 3, 2023 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS FEBRUARY 1962

Fantastic Four #4 - The letters page has at least one fake letter (from S. Goldberg, the colorist) and another that I'm highly suspicious of (the last one by 'unsigned'). You'd think by this point they'd have enough letters to actually print...

Edited January 3, 2023 by Prince Namor

[Zonker]

Seeing the S. Goldberg and the "Len Blake" letters really highlights the strategy of flattering the audience by telling them they were reading "a more adult approach to the stories than any other mag I've read (except for 'Amazing Adult Fantasy,...')  

[Get Marwood & I]

On 1/3/2023 at 12:28 PM, Prince Namor said:

They are advertising the Hulk like nothing they ever have before....

I thought that rang a bell... 

 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS FEBRUARY 1962

For Journey Into Mystery #79, Jack Kirby does the cover and writes and pencils a 7 page story (no signature), inked by... D. Ayers? I'm not sold on that. It looks more like Vince Colletta or even Don Heck. And whoever is approving these covers like this... ugh. 

And this story seems a bit misplaced, one month before Hulk #1...

The last page includes an advertisement for the Fantastic Four.

Edited January 3, 2023 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS FEBRUARY 1962

Stan Lee and Steve Ditko also have a story in Journey Into Mystery #79, signed Stan Lee & S. Ditko. 

The last page includes an advertisement for Amazing Adult Fantasy, and each of those for the comic is prefaced with 'Like this type of story?' 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS FEBRUARY 1962

Journey Into Mystery #79 - We also get the Statement of Ownership in this issue for the 5th best selling Marvel Comic (182,090).

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS FEBRUARY 1962

Jack Kirby also did the cover for Kid Colt Outlaw #104 (inked by D. Ayers). 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS FEBRUARY 1962

Even though they are among Marvel's lowest sellers (Life with Millie sales are respectable)... Stan Lee gets full freelance writing pay for each of these titles* and so they continue to be published. Linda Carter, Student Nurse would last a full 9 issues... the same as Amazing Adult Fantasy... and despite Stan obviously favoring them, they would be canceled. 

Life with Millie would finish with issue #20 in October, and Kathy would last until early 1964 with #27.

 

*According to testimony,  $7.50 per 'story' (about $74 in 2022 money). I wonder if a Paper Doll page counted as a 'story'?

Edited January 3, 2023 by Prince Namor