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 the first 5 books from September 1962.
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 August 1962, part 1 August 1962, part 2
Caleb Russell
The first 5 September 1962 books were all published September 4th, and are the same titles we remember from the first week of July:
"The End of the Fantastic Four!" by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby/Dick Ayers, lettering by Artie Simek
Stan takes the ultimate step in acknowledging creators this week, adding a credit box to the splash panel of the story that provides full script, penciling, inking and even lettering credits. This is far and above what anyone had ever done before and a HUGE step in creating fandoms for individual creators.
Here's the "How the Torch can fly" feature page that was promised last issue, which actually goes quitea bit indepth with new details about the kind of regular training Johnny puts himself through.
Man, imagine reading this at the time. You can definitely see DC doing a story like this, where some villain temporarily tricks the hero into thinking he has to retire for some reason...
...but then you get to this page and learn that there IS no trickery or evil plot, they just lost bad at the stock market. Even today this feels like a shockingly realistic twist.
Ben is such a bro. This is where it becomes clear that all he needed in life was love and support to clear away his grumpiness. Alicia is a great addition to the cast.
And here's our letter page, where readers have the following to say: *Issue 6 was the best one yet. *The reduction in giant monsters is a positive. *Namor should be redeemed and become a superhero. *Spider-Man and Thor should join the Fantastic Four. *There should be an (official) FF fan club. (Stan tells readers that have started their own clubs to send member lists and they'll see if there's demand for official organization) *All the other Marvel heroes are great too. *The letter page is stupid and Stan's answers are dumb. *The letter page is great and should be expanded to two pages (Stan opens a poll) *The "realism" is really unrealistic and feels artifical and fake. *There should be a Sue pinup (Stan promises there'll be one next issue)
Stan also apologizes for the "reducing gas" flub in the final panel of issue #7 that he got a ton of letters about and answers a couple fan questions (How can the Torch see through his flame? That's just how his body works. Why weren't the earthlings still mad at the FF after #7? Because the ray wore off)
First time Johnny does his flame illusion trick in FF, right? I remember he did it in ST101.
Wyatt Cruz
Gunsmoke Western #73
Here's our first time seeing a split cover for Gunsmoke Western. These used to be the standard back when the book had multiple recurring features, but ever since it starting having a single Kid Colt story followed by a couple standalone westerns, they haven't been a thing. The cover also doesn't QUITE represent what the Kid Colt story is all about all that well...
This issue's text story. Reprint from Quick-Trigger Western #14 from 1956. We've read this one before when it got reprinted in Rawhide Kid #26 back in November.
GREAT story, definitely the best one yet. The ending really hammers in how Namor isn't actually human and shouldn't be judged by human standards, which was always one of the more fascinating aspects of him.
Last issue had three separately titled stories that flowed into each other and carried on the same page numbering. This issue gives us two, but this time they're clearly marketed on the cover as separate and do not have shared page numbers or (presumably) job numbers. It's an odd change.
