Hi anons, let try out a new type of storytime. As most probably know, the Marvel Universe proper debuted in August 1961 with the release of Fantastic Four #1... but that was of course not the only comic book Marvel was publishing at the time.
During the 1950s, Marvel, then known as "Timely" or "Atlas" (they didn't really market their books under a specific label and had a ton of different publishing labels) was publishing an absolute ton of titles, but in 1957 Martin Goodman in his infinite wisdom decided it would be a good idea to shut down his distribution company and have his books distributed by American News Distribution instead. American News Distribution went bankrupt very soon after signing their deal with Marvel, and a scrambling Goodman had to settle for having his books distributed by the DC Comics-owned Independent News instead. Independent News limited Marvel to only 8 comics a month, so Goodman ended up canceling pretty much his entire line of comics and change the few titles he had left to bimonthly books so he'd at least get 16 different titles on the shelves. This is known as the Atlas Implosion and was a pretty significant milestone in Marvel history.
In 1960, Goodman eventually managed to talk his way into getting 10 books a months, and in 1961 he had just managed to argue forth an increase to 11, which in actuality ended up being alternating months of 10 and 12 books each. August 1961 was the first of these 12-book months, and one of the new bimonthly books he added to his lineup was of course Fantastic Four.
But why don't we take a look at EVERYTHING he was publishing at the time? These 10 and 12 book months are pretty easy to split up into 5 and 6 books per thread, so this time we'll check out what Marvel had in store for us in August 1962 as we begin year 2.
Previous threads August 1961, part 1 August 1961, part 2 September 1961, part 1 September 1961, part 2 October 1961, part 1 October 1961, part 2 November 1961, part 1 November 1961, part 2 December 1961, part 1 December 1961, part 2 January 1962, part 1 January 1962, part 2 February 1962, part 1 February 1962, part 2 March 1962, part 1 March 1962, part 2 April 1962, part 1 April 1962, part 2 May 1962, part 1 May 1962, part 2 June 1962, part 1 June 1962, part 2 July 1962, part 1 July 1962, part 2
Nathaniel Scott
The first 6 August 1962 books were all published August 2nd... and there's quite an interesting change going on this month.
Brandon Mitchell
Journey into Mystery #85
Note the mention of the non-Thor stories in the cover blurb. Stan (or Goodman) apparently isn't entirely sure this superhero business can sell books on its own.
I read the 80's crossover between this guy and Daredevil, it was fucking goofy, how was this character not sued into oblivion by whoever holds the Lone Ranger license?
Nathaniel Gonzalez
Thor the Mighty: "Trapped by Loki, the God of Mischief!" by Jack Kirby/Dick Ayers
This issue's text story. Reprint from Marvel Tales #148 from 1956. We've read this one before when it got reprinted in Tales to Astonish #29 back in December.
This is pretty interesting dialogue. Loki is clearly the real mythological Loki, yet "Thor" is Don Blake armed with the power of Thor. I'm not entirely sure what the intent was here.
There aren't really any similarities beyond the mask. Two-Gun has a civilian identity as a lawyer, a love interest, an ex-boxer sidekick; The Lone Ranger has none of these. He stays masked and anonymous, no interest in women, a Powatomie Indian for a partner, no fixed area of operation and a completely different origin. And of course there were plenty of other masked cowboy heroes before Two-Gun showed up.
It IS ambiguous. Loki says early on that Thor has not been seen in Asgard for "ages" and he seems unsurprised that Thor has a double life as a mortal.
After this, the dialogue and captions rapidly move to the idea that this is the real Thor of myths but it's not for several years that a final explanation is provided for who Blake is (around 1968, I think).
Odin shows up soon but he's no help, as you might expect from him. He treats Thor as his son and doesn't explain anything.
Not a very good story, really. Loki's entire plan is to hypnotize Thor, and when that fails for reasons he doesn't understand, he spends the rest of the story just running away until his pretty uninspired defeat. The initial setup implied something more interesting than that.
>Odin shows up soon but he's no help, as you might expect from him. He treats Thor as his son and doesn't explain anything. That's in this story, at the very end. Fourth panel in
Oh, you're right. It's interesting that Loki is standing right there when Blake turns into Thor. That should have been a big hint to him.
Now I'm wondering, did the Asgardians know Odin had created the Blake identity? If Thor has been mysteriously absent for years, the gods certainly would have been asking questions about his whereabouts. Room for an Untold Tale there.
