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

[Zonker]

 Good stuff!

Most of my Marvel Silver Age insight is second hand, but it might be interesting to share this observation from Douglas Wolk's book All the Marvels:

Quote

One Silver Age insight he had that was new to me was his identification of the issues on the stands in March 1965 as something of a turning point. There were plenty of crossovers prior to that date, but as of March 1965 the reader becomes aware of actually reading a single story of various characters who could appear in any of the several then-published Marvel Comics.  Wolk's prime example is X-Men villains quitting Magneto's group in one week and then joining the Avengers as heroes in the next week.  And one of the vacancies created in the Avengers is because of a Thor storyline launched that same month in Journey Into Mystery.  And that month's JIM story is itself a bridge between the most recent Daredevil issue and that month's Fantastic Four #39.

 

Edited March 21 by Zonker
synonym

[Hepcat]

On 3/21/2024 at 4:40 AM, Prince Namor said:

.I wasn't old enough to experience that one (1961-68), but it's brother mag CARtoons ran from 1959 to 1981! 

 

 

 

No. CARtoons was published by Petersen Publications and was thus the competing "Brand X" to Drag Cartoons:

 

The brother and sister publications to CARtoons later in the 1960's included Hot Rod Cartoons, Cycletoons and Surftoons:

On 3/21/2024 at 4:40 AM, Prince Namor said:

.People underestimate how popular these were...

 

Yes indeed! But just you try to find any of these magazines in a comic shop these days. You'll be very lucky to get anything beyond a dumb look.

Edited March 21 by Hepcat

[Hepcat]

"One Silver Age insight he had that was new to me was his identification of the issues on the stands in March 1965 as something of a turning point. There were plenty of crossovers prior to that date, but as of March 1965 the reader becomes aware of actually reading a single story of various characters who could appear in any of the several then-published Marvel Comics.  Wolk's prime example is X-Men villains quitting Magneto's group in one week and then joining the Avengers as heroes in the next week. "

I remember that very clearly with Hawkeye also transitioning from an Iron Man villain to a hero at the same time. I found this very unsettling as a thirteen year old.

In the case of the Scarlet Witch perhaps it's now understandable because there's been a history of not truly "bad" villainesses in comic history. For example back in the Golden Age Alan Scott's secretary Molly Mayne decided that the only way to attract the attention of the dashing Green Lantern was to become a criminal since he seemed to have no interest in or time for anything but. She therefore donned the colourful garb of the Harlequin and set out to plague Green Lantern:

 (Not mine.)

 

Eventually though she did succeed in enticing him to the altar.

Even earlier there was Catwoman. The theme wasn't well explored in the Golden Age but it was eventually revealed that she too had turned to crime only to capture the attention of the Batman and lure him into her boudoir:

That's women for you I guess. They're always allowed some leeway for those raging hormones I guess.

Edited March 24 by Hepcat

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JULY 1964

Tales to Astonish #60 - Lee, Ayers, Reinman, and Simek

One of my favorite unintentionally funny Ant-Man stories. This is NOT advanced writing aimed at a college crowd. The Ray that gives Gorillas the Intelligence of Humans still makes me laugh out loud when I read it.

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JULY 1964

Tales to Astonish #60 - Lee, Ditko, Bell, and Rosen

Lucky for Stan, he had Ditko to rework the Hulk and give us a fairly plain but readable story.

[Hepcat]

On 3/23/2024 at 6:03 PM, Prince Namor said:

ON NEWSSTANDS JULY 1964

Tales to Astonish #60 - Lee, Ayers, Reinman, and Simek

 

 

Is there a list anywhere of the comics in which Marvel heroes confront the Reds? I'd be willing to build up a collection of those.

Edited March 24 by Hepcat

[Hepcat]

On 3/23/2024 at 6:11 PM, Prince Namor said:

ON NEWSSTANDS JULY 1964

Tales to Astonish #60 - Lee, Ditko, Bell, and Rosen

Lucky for Stan, he had Ditko to rework the Hulk and give us a fairly plain but readable story.

 

 

Steve Ditko was responsible for which changes to the Hulk if any?

Edited March 24 by Hepcat

[Math Teacher]

On 3/23/2024 at 5:03 PM, Prince Namor said:

ON NEWSSTANDS JULY 1964

Tales to Astonish #60 - Lee, Ayers, Reinman, and Simek

One of my favorite unintentionally funny Ant-Man stories. This is NOT advanced writing aimed at a college crowd. The Ray that gives Gorillas the Intelligence of Humans still makes me laugh out loud when I read it

If you've ever read any books like DC's Strange Adventures, you would know that intelligent gorillas were not uncommon.

[Hepcat]

A couple of my favourite super-intelligent gorilla covers:

Edited March 25 by Hepcat

[Dr. Haydn]

Tales to Astonish #60 - Lee, Ayers, Reinman, and Simek

One of my favorite unintentionally funny Ant-Man stories. This is NOT advanced writing aimed at a college crowd. The Ray that gives Gorillas the Intelligence of Humans still makes me laugh out loud when I read it.

 

Even better: the same ray gives humans the intelligence of gorillas!

[Dr. Haydn]

On 3/24/2024 at 12:30 PM, Math Teacher said:

If you've ever read any books like DC's Strange Adventures, you would know that intelligent gorillas were not uncommon.

What was the name of that intelligent gorilla in Doom Patrol? Now there was an interesting character--especially in Grant Morrison's hands a generation later!

[Dr. Haydn]

Rather convenient that the Hulk transformed back to Banner in the exact location of his glasses. What are the odds? 

[Hepcat]

On 3/24/2024 at 11:08 PM, Dr. Haydn said:

What was the name of that intelligent gorilla in Doom Patrol? Now there was an interesting character--especially in Grant Morrison's hands a generation later!

Monsieur Mallah who had genius level intelligence bestowed upon him by the Brain who led the Brotherhood of Evil.

Edited March 25 by Hepcat

[The humble Watcher lurking]

On 3/24/2024 at 2:53 PM, Hepcat said:

 

Infantino was a master cover artist.

Carmine Infantino and Gil Kane gave Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko a run with creating new villains in the 1960s. I say they finished a close second to the duo of Kirby and Ditko when it came to creating new villains.

Edited March 25 by The humble Watcher lurking

[Prince Namor]

On 3/24/2024 at 11:56 PM, Hepcat said:

Steve Ditko was responsible for which changes to the Hulk if any?

In Ditko's early 2000 essay's he wrote of how Stan asked him to do the Hulk for TTA. He wrote that he came up with Major Talbot, the reason for the change being 'anger', the Leader, etc.

[Prince Namor]

On 3/25/2024 at 12:30 AM, Math Teacher said:

If you've ever read any books like DC's Strange Adventures, you would know that intelligent gorillas were not uncommon.

 I'm aware of the whole 'gorillas on the cover make sales go up' thing at DC Comics, but if Marvel is so much better than DC, why would Stan be imitating those ideas?

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JULY 1964

Strange Tales #125 - Lee, Ayers, Reinman, and Rosen

Can this team do better using just classic FF characters?

The story has some glaring holes (how is Ben breathing underwater??), but the ending surprise as to the why of it all is actually pretty good. Not a bad story here!

[Prince Namor]

ON NEWSSTANDS JULY 1964

Strange Tales #125 - Lee, Ditko, Bell, and Simek

Ditko's Dr. Strange is also a battle issue without much added to the mythos (it would pick up steam once Ditko took it over completely). The benefit here is how he uses his artwork creatively to tell what is essentially a pretty standard story.

Edited March 25 by Prince Namor

[Prince Namor]

Got the news just now that Bob Beerbohm had passed away...

I only got to know Bob on Facebook over the last couple of years, but man what an amazing reservoir of knowledge about this business... 

But it wasn't just that. I could message Bob anytime and run thoughts or questions or ideas by him and he always responded and gave his time freely. 

I'm going to miss his posts - he spoke his mind and didn't cater to the (censored) up, soulless, (censored) that make up most of this insipid business. He searched for the truth, regardless of the consequences, regardless of who got mad - collector OR creator - the truth was what was most important. 

For THAT I say, "RESPECT".

RIP Bob...

[Math Teacher]

On 3/25/2024 at 7:14 AM, Prince Namor said:

 I'm aware of the whole 'gorillas on the cover make sales go up' thing at DC Comics, but if Marvel is so much better than DC, why would Stan be imitating those ideas?

I wasn't suggesting that Stan Lee was imitating those ideas. I was just saying that the idea of an intelligent gorilla had been done multiple times before.