Stan, Jack, and Steve - The 1960's (1963) Butting Heads, Unexpected Success and Not Expected Failures! 3 3

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1963

Fantastic Four #20 - Letters Page

[Zonker]

The first published work by the (much later!) author of Game of Thrones.

[Dr. Haydn]

On 4/20/2023 at 7:06 PM, The humble Watcher lurking said:

One of my favorite Amazing Spider-Man issues 

Yeah, Spider-man was good from the very beginning.  The other marvels (even FF) took a while to hit their stride.

[Dr. Haydn]

On 4/20/2023 at 8:40 PM, Zonker said:

The first published work by the (much later!) author of Game of Thrones.

It's interesting to see how much of a buzz these comics created 60 years ago, even among people who went on to writing careers (in comics and otherwise).

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1963

Kid Colt Outlaw #115 - Jack Kirby did the cover, with Sol Brodsky inks

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1963

Strange Tales #114 - Written By: Stan Lee (More like: Co-plotted and then Added dialogue to Kirby's story) Drawn by: Jack Kirby (More like: Co-plotted and Drawn by)  Inked by: Dick Ayers  Lettering: S. Rosen (my name is SAM!)

Cover By Jack Kirby with Dick Ayers inks

Part ONE:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1963

Strange Tales #114 -

Part TWO:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1963

Strange Tales #114 - Written By: Stan Lee (More like: Finally got onboard with a weak plot) Drawn by: Steve Ditko (More like: Co-wrote from Stan's 'plot' and Drawn by)  Lettering: S. Rosen (my name is SAM!)

Uncredited Inker: George Roussos - Probably a last minute decision to let this run, leading to that decision...

Panel One: "Well your enthusiastic mail left us only one choice..."

Wow. Again we see Stan, not having really taken part in the first two Dr. Strange stories (other than listing himself as writer and accepting the pay for it), begrudgingly accept that they continue it...

Last panel: "Now that we have re-introduced our characters and set the stage, our series gets into high gear next issue!"

In other words: "I run this show, not Ditko, so I'll be making sure the stories are dumbed down enough for the lowest common denominator to read."

Luckily for us, it didn't last long that way...

Edited April 23, 2023 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

Speaking of Ditko... here's an interesting piece that he drew specifically for Alter Ego and Jerry Bails (seen in Alter Ego #6), as a thank you for a copy of the Alley Award results (Amazing Fantasy #15 winning best short story). He even displays a healthy sense of humor in the comments...

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1963

Strange Tales #114 - I'm not sure if Ditko has ever spoken about it, the way he did Spider-man, but someone obviously changed his female characters face in these drawings (George Roussos, the inker?)... Ditko, apparently was not happy with this, and quickly began to seize control of Doctor Strange, that Stan didn't have much interest in. 

Well... other than money and credit, which Stan would still receive. 

Edited April 23, 2023 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

 

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1963

Tales of Suspense #47 - Written By: Stan Lee (...ugh) Interpreted by: Steve Ditko (Hmmm... that IS sort of right...)  Refined By: Don Heck (It's a strange pairing...)  Lettered by: S. Rosen (my name is SAM!)

Cover By: Jack Kirby with inks by George Roussos

Part ONE:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1963

Tales of Suspense #47 -

Part TWO:

[Dr. Haydn]

On 4/23/2023 at 3:37 PM, Prince Namor said:

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1963

Tales of Suspense #47 -

Part TWO:

Notice that the next issue blurb refers to "one of the greatest artist and writer teams in comics"--a tacit acknowledgement that the artist's role was the more important one?

[Dr. Haydn]

So, "interpreted by" = layouts, and "refined by" = finished art?

Stan would do similar things with the credits in 1968 when John Romita, Sr. was doing basic layouts and pacing for Don Heck and Jim Mooney on Spider-man.

Edited April 24, 2023 by Dr. Haydn
added Romita's first name

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1963

Tales of Suspense #47 - Stan's got no one to blame for lame dialogue here but himself. And this villain, and the way he's defeated is just lazy. AND he gets away. I'll take Paste Pot Pete over THIS dork any day. 

This is one that Steve Ditko might NOT want credit for co-creating. 

 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1963

Tales of Suspense #47 - Story Plot: Stan Lee  Script and Art: Larry Lieber  Inks: G. Bell  Lettering: Art Simek

Larry, the supposed genius behind the co-creation of Thor (despite Kirby having previously done a Thor) and Ant-Man and Iron Man, is down to two stories this month, both 5 page, non-hero stories.

And yet, Kirby gets MORE work, bringing back Captain America (an imposter, but...), and introducing the WASP, and changing Ant-Man to Giant Man and...

They can try and re-write history all they want, but it's pretty clear WHO was doing the actual creating. 

[Dr. Haydn]

On 4/24/2023 at 8:27 AM, Prince Namor said:

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1963

Tales of Suspense #47 - Story Plot: Stan Lee  Script and Art: Larry Lieber  Inks: G. Bell  Lettering: Art Simek

Larry, the supposed genius behind the co-creation of Thor (despite Kirby having previously done a Thor) and Ant-Man and Iron Man, is down to two stories this month, both 5 page, non-hero stories.

And yet, Kirby gets MORE work, bringing back Captain America (an imposter, but...), and introducing the WASP, and changing Ant-Man to Giant Man and...

They can try and re-write history all they want, but it's pretty clear WHO was doing the actual creating. 

It takes a team to produce a comic book. The problem is, the Lieber Brothers are presented in the official history as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, when really, they were more like Tony Lazzeri and Mark Koenig.

[Dr. Haydn]

On 4/24/2023 at 8:21 AM, Prince Namor said:

ON NEWSSTANDS AUGUST 1963

Tales of Suspense #47 - Stan's got no one to blame for lame dialogue here but himself. And this villain, and the way he's defeated is just lazy. AND he gets away. I'll take Paste Pot Pete over THIS dork any day. 

This is one that Steve Ditko might NOT want credit for co-creating. 

 

So, the Melter's ray didn't work on aluminum? Interesting, since aluminum has a lower melting point than iron. (I looked it up.)

I wonder if the kiddies were gullible enough to accept this plot twist in 1963?

[Dr. Haydn]

Now THIS was interesting! I imagine Larry made the word up, like the infamous "uru hammer," but still...

 

Bimmu in Kannada glossary

Source: Alar: Kannada-English corpus

Bimmu (ಬಿಮ್ಮು):—

1) [noun] noble, graceful behaviour.

2) [noun] haughtiness; disdainful behaviour.

3) [noun] the condition of being tied tightly.

--- OR ---

Bimmu (ಬಿಮ್ಮು):—[noun] an onomatopoeic word used to express the feeling of emptiness.

context information

Kannada is a Dravidian language (as opposed to the Indo-European language family) mainly spoken in the southwestern region of India.

 

[Zonker]

On 4/24/2023 at 3:22 PM, Dr. Haydn said:

So, the Melter's ray didn't work on aluminum? Interesting, since aluminum has a lower melting point than iron. (I looked it up.)

I wonder if the kiddies were gullible enough to accept this plot twist in 1963?

Didn't we see Stan use a similar twist in a previous story shown in one of these threads?  Something about a magnetic weapon defeated by applying black paint to some kind of a plastic macguffin? 

Edit:  Found it-- Hulk #6, vs the Metal Master

Edited April 24, 2023 by Zonker
Found it