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 remaining 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 September 1962, part 1
Lucas Ross
The last 5 September 1962 books were all published September 11th, and are the same titles we normally get the second week of odd numbered months:
"The Rage of the Roaring Twenties!" by Stan Lee and Al Hartley
Remember that dumb retcon that all these early Patsy stories were written by her mother? Well, this story reveals that they were actually written by Stan. And that Hedy can bully him into writing them the way she wants.
This issue's text story. Reprint from Marvel Tales #136 from 1955. We've read this one before when it got reprinted in Tales of Suspense #32 back in May.
So, we're reading a comic about two girls reading a comic about themselves... I swear, if we see Patsy and Hedy reading about themselves reading a comic about themselves, I will have an existential crisis!
I like this detail where Reed helps out a bit, but writes this off as something Johnny can look into himself since the others are busy. Stan and Larry make an effort to explain WHY these are Johnny solo stories.
One good thing about the Torch's solo strip is that he showed him going to high school, I don't think Johnny's schooling was ever mentioned in THE FANTASTIC FOUR, was it?Hate to think he was a dropout setting a bad example for readers,
