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

[Prince Namor]

 

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1963

Journey Into Mystery #101 - Written By: Stan Lee  Drawn By: Jack Kirby  Inking: George Roussos  Lettered by: S. Rosen

What difference it makes having Kirby back. The storytelling, the pacing, the style... THIS is more the Thor we'd come to know. Without Kirby this book has been almost a joke for the last year...

Edited June 6, 2023 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1963

Journey Into Mystery #101 - Written By: Stan Lee  Drawn By: Jack Kirby  Inking: George Roussos  Lettered by: S. Rosen

Edited June 6, 2023 by Prince Namor

[Steven Valdez]

On 6/5/2023 at 8:28 PM, Prince Namor said:

Yeah, it's pretty clear. For Stan to say in a court of law that he thought up all the ideas and simply assigned an artist to it, and that any 'credit' he gave them was to make them feel better about themselves... that's just sad and pathetic.

If Bob Kane had said that, people would've lost their minds.

But Bob Kane at least paid his people for the credit of it that he stole. Stan Lee took the credit for the writing and plotting AND the pay. 

It's just a shame that Jack and Steve never kept unambiguous proof of their ideas and creations. But I suppose they were too busy doing S. Lee's work for him.

[Dr. Haydn]

On 6/5/2023 at 5:24 AM, Prince Namor said:

Well... it wasn't a 'script', it was a 'sort of' synopsis, that other than a claim by Roy Thomas, no one ever saw it until 1991. 

In the 1974 ORIGINS book even Lee wrote the synopsis was written after speaking to Goodman and Kirby.

Even if the FF #1 synopsis is legit, it still would be of little significance, as Kirby largely ignored it in his artwork.

[Dr. Haydn]

On 6/5/2023 at 5:45 AM, Prince Namor said:

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1963

Journey Into Mystery #101 - Written By: Stan Lee  Drawn By: Jack Kirby  Inking: George Roussos  Lettered by: S. Rosen

I never thought I would say this, but I think the inking of George Roussos is beginning to grow on me. He's not Joe Sinnott by any stretch, but his work over Kirby's pencils in these 5-page vignettes is really good--moody and atmospheric; well suited to the Norse fantasy world being depicted.

[Steven Valdez]

On 6/6/2023 at 3:43 PM, Dr. Haydn said:

I never thought I would say this, but I think the inking of George Roussos is beginning to grow on me. He's not Joe Sinnott by any stretch, but his work over Kirby's pencils in these 5-page vignettes is really good--moody and atmospheric; well suited to the Norse fantasy world being depicted.

He was certainly the best of the early Silver Age Kirby inkers.

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1963

Tales to Astonish #53 - Story By: Daring Stan Lee  Art By: Dazzling Dick Ayers  Lettered by: Dynamic S. Rosen

I guess this is Stan's first attempt to use adjectives to describe everyone in the credits...

It's not saying much, as the returning villain and story are ridiculously silly, but Ayers art looks a great deal better here... I could probably write a dissertation on how lame the story and dialogue are - the idea it's written for an 'older audience' is laughable. I might've liked this if I read it when I was six. 

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1963

Tales to Astonish #53 - Story Plot: Stan Lee  Script & Art By: L.D. Lieber  Inking: Don Heck  Lettered by: R. Holloway

Don Heck inking Larry Lieber, ugh. 

[Steven Valdez]

On 6/6/2023 at 6:55 PM, Prince Namor said:

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1963

Tales to Astonish #53 - Story Plot: Stan Lee  Script & Art By: L.D. Lieber  Inking: Don Heck  Lettered by: R. Holloway

Don Heck inking Larry Lieber, ugh. 

I never woulda thought Don Heck's inks could improve anybody, but I hadn't reckoned with Mr Lieber junior.

[Dr. Haydn]

This page made me chuckle. It would take at least 10,000 feet of free falling to get through all this dialogue. Was Stan paid by the word?

[Dr. Haydn]

On 6/6/2023 at 5:25 AM, Steven Valdez said:

I never woulda thought Don Heck's inks could improve anybody, but I hadn't reckoned with Mr Lieber junior.

Heck is a rather overpowering inker, but I agree that the result here is pretty good.

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1963

Jack Kirby also did the covers for Kid Colt Outlaw #115 (Sol Brodsky inks) and Two Gun Kid #68 (George Roussos inks).

Jack had settled down to doing 140-150 pages every two months, about 70-75 a month (THAT is settling down?) but he was still doing 16 covers every two months (out of 23 titles).

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1963

Amazing Spider-man #10 - Written By: Smiling Stan Lee  Illustrated By: Swinging Steve Ditko  Lettered by: Sparkling Sam Rosen

Part One:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1963

Amazing Spider-man #10 -

Part TWO:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1963

Amazing Spider-man #10 - Letters Pages

[Dr. Haydn]

And here's the page that set in motion the Master Planner trilogy (#31-33) almost two years later! I wonder if Ditko was planning that far ahead this early in the run?

[Dr. Haydn]

Uncredited Ray Holloway lettering from here to the end (pp. 13-22), just about his last work for Marvel until the mid-1970s.

On a more serious note, this scene was pretty grim and gritty for 1963. That was the sort of realistic content that disappeared from the title after Ditko left.

[Prince Namor]

On 6/7/2023 at 11:39 PM, Dr. Haydn said:

Uncredited Ray Holloway lettering from here to the end (pp. 13-22), just about his last work for Marvel until the mid-1970s.

On a more serious note, this scene was pretty grim and gritty for 1963. That was the sort of realistic content that disappeared from the title after Ditko left.

Comparing this to the writing on Tales to Astonish or Tales of Suspense, it's very clear just how big of a part Ditko played in writing and creating the world of Spider-man. Stan Lee just did not have the writing chops to compare to what Kirby and Ditko were thinking up.

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1963

Fantastic Four #24 - Lovingly Written By: Stan Lee  Tenderly Drawn By: Jack Kirby  Heroically Inked by: George Roussos  Neatly Lettered by: S. Rosen

 

Part One:

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS DECEMBER 1963

Fantastic Four #24 - 

 

Part TWO: