Stan, Jack, and Steve - The 1960's (1964) The Slow Build 5 5

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1964

Tales of Suspense #56 - Story Plot: Stan Lee   Script & Art: Larry Lieber  Inking: Geo Bell  Lettering: Art Simek

I can't wait for the end of this silly series...

 

[Steven Valdez]

On 11/8/2023 at 8:40 AM, Prince Namor said:

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1964

Tales of Suspense #56 - Written with Consummate Skill by: Stan Lee  Illustrated with Blazing Drama by Don Heck

 Lettered with Bloodshot Eyes by S. Rosen

Cover by Jack Kirby (inks by Dick Ayers) - Instead of having Sol Brodsky, a staffer, do the inks for free on this issue, Lee gives the work to Ayers, most likely because he didn't get to draw the Human Torch story for the month.

Another villain, with zero purpose, other than to show up and try and beat Iron Man. 

Part ONE:

I don't think Ayers inked that cover, it doesn't have his trademark blunt-stick-dipped-in-tar look about it. More likely it's Don Heck or even Vinnie Coletta.

[Dr. Haydn]

On 11/7/2023 at 12:30 AM, Steven Valdez said:

Anyone collecting the outstanding Marvel Comics Library books by Taschen?

 

Checked online. They're kinda pricey!

[Dr. Haydn]

On 11/7/2023 at 9:03 PM, Steven Valdez said:

I don't think Ayers inked that cover, it doesn't have his trademark blunt-stick-dipped-in-tar look about it. More likely it's Don Heck or even Vinnie Coletta.

GCD thinks it's Ayers (for what it's worth--they have been known to be wrong), but I see what you mean--it seems a bit thin for him. I'm pretty sure it's not Colletta, though: he would have erased most of the backgrounds!

Edited November 8, 2023 by Dr. Haydn
minor rewording

[Steven Valdez]

On 11/8/2023 at 2:27 PM, Dr. Haydn said:

Checked online. They're kinda pricey!

They sure are! I only have the first FF edition so far, grabbed it when it was briefly at half-price on Amazon. They are gigantic and the print quality is so much better than the omnibii.

[Steven Valdez]

On 11/8/2023 at 3:05 PM, Dr. Haydn said:

GCD thinks it's Ayers (for what it's worth--they have been known to be wrong), but I see what you mean--it seems a bit thin for him. I'm pretty sure it's not Colletta, though: he would have erased most of the backgrounds!

The Marvel Database just says 'Jack Kirby' for the cover. So maybe Jack inked himself...? Geo. Bell? Either way it was inked in pen, whereas Ayers only ever used twigs, er... brushes.

[KirbyJack]

I would also vote Colletta. 

The original features a well-attended cocktail party going on in the background.

Edited November 8, 2023 by KirbyJack

[N e r V]

On 11/6/2023 at 6:40 AM, Steven Valdez said:

The Kirby tropes and poses are magnificent here.

This period of FF I most associate with the look and feel done in the 1967 cartoon series.

 

[BLUECHIPCOLLECTIBLES]

On 11/10/2023 at 12:00 PM, N e r V said:

This period of FF I most associate with the look and feel done in the 1967 cartoon series.

 

 

[Mmehdy]

On 11/6/2023 at 10:30 PM, Steven Valdez said:

Anyone collecting the outstanding Marvel Comics Library books by Taschen?

 

I do and highly recommend them...I would rank them FF 1, Spiderman 1, Spiderman 2, Silver Surfer 1 ( (yet to get), X men 1, and Avengers 1.....the size of them helps me remember that when I went back many later to my first school...everything seemed smaller... a lot smaller....and so was I back then....but being of small size the comic books seemed larger than life...When read both the FF and SM it kind of transported me back to that time...I remembered that I would like a comic book panel for a long time. Well this size has taken me back and I have noticed things I have never seen before...so A plus, and the SM2 is what I am currently right now and cannot wait for Cap 1-13 GA......wow just wow

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1964

Journey Into Mystery #106 - Written Fairly Well by Stan Lee  Drawn Not Too Badly by Jack Kirby   Inked Kinda Nice by Chic Stone  Lettered Pretty Fair by Art Simek

Cover by Jack Kirby (inked by Chic Stone)

Part ONE:

Edited November 13, 2023 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1964

Journey Into Mystery #106 -

Part TWO:

Edited November 13, 2023 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1964

Journey Into Mystery #106 - Written with Passion by Stan Lee  Drawn with Pageantry by Jack Kirby   Inked with Power by Vince Colletta Lettered with Pride by Art Simek

[Steven Valdez]

On 11/13/2023 at 3:54 PM, Prince Namor said:

ON NEWSSTANDS MAY 1964

Journey Into Mystery #106 - Written with Passion by Stan Lee  Drawn with Pageantry by Jack Kirby   Inked with Power by Vince Colletta Lettered with Pride by Art Simek

I actually really like Colletta's inks on Kirby's Thor (and FF), notwithstanding his erasing antics.

[Dr. Haydn]

Concerning #106: Tales of Asgard was certainly a hidden gem of Marvel's Silver Age. Kirby knew the Norse legends, but I was reminded of another tale--Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac--which Jack surely knew as well.

[Dr. Haydn]

On 11/12/2023 at 11:36 PM, Steven Valdez said:

I actually really like Colletta's inks on Kirby's Thor (and FF), notwithstanding his erasing antics.

Though I must suggest that this was not one of Colletta's better efforts. I'm not sure what Jack intended Balder's clothes to look like, but it appears that Colletta dragged this panel through the mud.

[Prince Namor]

You can see Kirby in the Tales of Asgard stories using the dialect more associated with the Thor stories, while Lee continues to use basic dialogue in the regular stories...

[Steven Valdez]

On 11/14/2023 at 2:16 AM, Dr. Haydn said:

Though I must suggest that this was not one of Colletta's better efforts. I'm not sure what Jack intended Balder's clothes to look like, but it appears that Colletta dragged this panel through the mud.

I don't mind it, just a bit of stippling and shadow. Colletta's inks give Kirby's art a level of sophistication, compared to the cartoonishness of Chic Stone's in the same issue. It's night and day.

[Dr. Haydn]

On 11/13/2023 at 6:20 PM, Steven Valdez said:

I don't mind it, just a bit of stippling and shadow. Colletta's inks give Kirby's art a level of sophistication, compared to the cartoonishness of Chic Stone's in the same issue. It's night and day.

I'm not fully convinced by Colletta's thin lines, but I must admit, the better paper of the omnibus versions shows his detailed inking in a far better light. The cheap newsprint of the original printing tended to swallow up most of his subtlety. This is a particularly fine image, though it requires the colorist (still Stan Goldberg, I think?) to contribute to the three-dimensional illusion.

[Dr. Haydn]

On 11/13/2023 at 4:54 PM, Prince Namor said:

You can see Kirby in the Tales of Asgard stories using the dialect more associated with the Thor stories, while Lee continues to use basic dialogue in the regular stories...

I suspect Stan was still doing the final version of the dialogue in these stories. Notice in the panel I posted above from page 2 that there was a lettering correction to "inscrutable." Whatever Jack wrote in the margins, Stan probably had altered it to "inscrutible," which an attentive proofreader (Flo Steinberg?) fixed. In his own dialogue, Jack's spelling is almost always beyond reproach, while Stan's mistakes in this regard are numerous and famous (Pharoah, anyone?)