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Post by Rob Allen on Dec 10, 2015 11:53:52 GMT -5
BTW, "R. Berns" was Robert Bernstein, who had been writing comics since the mid-40s. In the early 60s he was writing for Mort Weisinger and scripting The Fly and The Jaguar for Archie Comics along with his work at Marvel.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Dec 10, 2015 11:55:30 GMT -5
Yep. I'm learning the real names of a lot of these Golden Age creators thanks to the Grand Comics Database.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Dec 12, 2015 13:52:59 GMT -5
Strange Tales #109
Story Title: “Imps from Pandora’s Box!” Cover Date: June, 1963 Credits
Script: Stan Lee Pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Dick Ayers Colors: Stan Goldberg Letters: Artie Simek (cover), Mart Epp (interiors) Cover Art: Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers Synopsis: The Human Torch fights a crazy old hermit, called the Sorcerer, who gains access to the fabled Pandora’s Box of Greek Myth. After the Sorcerer uses the evils in the box to rob a bank and steal some jewels, the Torch manages to defeat him. Character Appearances: Human Torch [Johnny Storm]; Sorcerer [Dorian Murdstone] (introduction); Thing [Ben Grimm] (cameo); Mr. Fantastic [Reed Richards] (cameo); Invisible Girl [Sue Storm] (cameo); Pandora (flashback); Circe (flashback) Comments: One thing I can say for this story is that there seemed to be an effort to bring the Torch more in line with his portrayal in The Fantastic Four. The Sorcerer is probably the first villain in history to gain his “powers” by way of a bonehead shipping error. Apparently, the box was “unwittingly” shipped to him by mistake. You have to think that the guy responsible didn’t retire with honors from his job at the museum. The Sorcerer was so lame in appearance that when he first goes to the local bank to use the box to commit a robbery, the security guards, not threatened in the slightest, feel pity for him and attempt to take him to the local psych ward. The art by Kirby and Ayers was, yet again, quality, but the Bernstein dialog and characterization was about as mediocre as usual. In one scene a police officer is perplex and asks, “But why do all the crimes occur near Glennville?” with the Torch quickly unburdening his troubled mind by answering, “Probably because the criminal lives in the vicinity of Glennville.” Wow. I’m also not sure how water/flood and sleepiness can be considered “evils” but that didn’t stop Bernstein from using them. Character Development: In the opening scenes with the FF, the Torch is more in line with his FF portrayal, which is about the only good bit of writing in the whole story. Even then, the banter between the Thing and the Torch isn’t nearly as good as when Stan writes the dialog himself. Personal Rating: 3. This was a hokey story that has very little to recommend it. The Torch simply doesn’t have interesting villains to go up against. Historical Rating: 5. The Sorcerer being a new character is something…but not much.
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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 12, 2015 15:55:43 GMT -5
FYI, this is the first appearance of Sersi of the Eternals (albeit in her mythological guise of the "sorceress" Circe).
Cei-U! How's that for obscure?
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Post by Nowhere Man on Dec 13, 2015 3:15:49 GMT -5
FYI, this is the first appearance of Sersi of the Eternals (albeit in her mythological guise of the "sorceress" Circe). Cei-U! How's that for obscure? I forgot to bring that up. That's the first thing I thought about when reading that panel. Since Sersi IS the mythological Circe in the Marvel Universe, it had to be the case.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Dec 14, 2015 2:43:05 GMT -5
Tales of Suspense #42 Story Title: “Trapped by the Red Barbarian” Cover Date: June, 1963 Credits
Script: Stan Lee (plot); Robert Bernstein (script) Pencils: Don Heck Inks: Don Heck Colors: Stan Goldberg Letters: Artie Simek (cover); E. Thomas (interiors) Cover Art: Jack Kirby (pencils); Don Heck (inks) Synopsis: A Soviet spymaster sends a master of disguise to steal the design of Tony Stark's latest weapon. The Actor steals the plans and learns Iron Man's secret identity, but Iron Man regains the plans and tricks the communists into killing their own agent. Character Appearances: Iron Man [Tony Stark]; the Red Barbarian (introduction); the Actor (introduction) Comments: Even though the Actor is a pale imitation of The Chameleon of Amazing Spider-Man fame, I feel that the twist that his character adds to an otherwise bland story make it more enjoyable than it would have been otherwise. I do have to take issue with Stark being able to design a weapon as powerful as his “Disintegrator Ray.” According to Stark, it could be fitted on the end of a jet, and if fired at a metropolis, it was powerful enough to disintegrate the entire city! This seems way overpowered for the early Marvel Age where the general tone of the stories, even when fantastic devices and aliens were involved, was a more down-to-earth, “believable” approach. There is a funny panel where, after Iron Man bust up a group of spies attempting to steal a phony Atom Bomb (Iron Man is hiding in the crate), he swings away into the night, on a rope, strangely similar to Batman. In Iron Man’s defense, he did make it a point to mention that his transistors were running down. You would think that if Stark could invent a disintegration ray capable of wiping out a large city, that he could figure out how to increase the transistor power of his armor so he could operate as Iron Man a bit longer… Don Heck's art was a bit shaky in this issue. Some of the panels look a tad rushed to my eyes, but the storytelling was solid throughout. Character Development: We see none of Tony Stark “ladies’ man” in this issue, with the focus being solely on Stark the inventor and industrialist. Personal Rating: 4. Not good, not terrible, just a below average Iron Man story. I think Stark’s adventures are more interesting when they attempt to show the socialite aspects of his character as well as the inventor/industrialist stuff. Historical Rating: 4. I have to give this a below average historical rating as well. The Red Barbarian and the Actor, while new characters, are hardly great villains that made much of an impact.
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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 14, 2015 9:39:35 GMT -5
This was the first Iron Man story I ever read (in an issue of Marvel Collectors' Item Classics), not counting his guest appearance in the first Amazing Spider-Man Annual. He would become one of my favorite Marvel characters but definitely NOT on the basis of this story.
Cei-U! I summon the slow start!
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Post by Nowhere Man on Dec 16, 2015 11:11:16 GMT -5
Tales to Astonish #44
Story Title: “Ant-Man and the Wasp vs The Creature from Kosmos!” Cover Date: June, 1963 CreditsScript: Stan Lee (plot); H.E. Huntley (script) Pencils: Jack Kirby Inks: Don Heck Colors: Stan Goldberg Letters: Artie Simek Cover Art: Jack Kirby (pencils); Don Heck (inks) Synopsis: When a fellow scientist is killed by an alien being, Ant-Man enlists the help of the dead man's daughter. He gives her the ability to shrink and tiny wasp wings, and she joins him as his partner the Wasp. The duo use the alien's acidic nature to destroy it, saving the city. Character Appearances: Ant-Man [Henry Pym] (origin detail); Wasp [Janet Van Dyne] (introduction, origin); Creature from Kosmos [Pilai] (introduction, named in a later comic); Maria Trovaya-Pym (flashback, introduction); Vernon Van Dyne (introduction); Lee Kearns (voice only) Comments: The Wasp’s addition to the Ant-Man series was an immediate improvement. Ant-Man is a good enough character, but the concept of a lone-miniaturized hero without a supporting cast (sorry, ants don’t count) simply wasn’t cutting it. We don’t know exactly how old Janet is in the first appearance other than the fact that Pym views her as “little more than a child.” This makes the budding romance a tad creepy, but I’m guessing she’s supposed to be at least 17-18. If memory serves, there is no mention of her being in high school in the following issues, so she must be at least 17. The flashback sequence that recounts the tragic fate of his first wife, Maria Trovaya-Pym, even though it was sanitized in the typical 60’s comic fashion, was surprisingly dark and tragic for this era. The story even goes so far as to state that Pym suffered a physical and mental breakdown hunting down her killers, to no avail. The story itself is forgettable, with an alien monster that either Kirby barely laid out or Heck screwed up when he inked it. I swear that the thing looked different in every panel and you never get a good sense of it. I get the feeling that the monster was an afterthought to the far more important introduction of the Wasp. As much as I like the overall developments of this issue, I found H.E. Huntley’s dialog to be overly wordy and expository even for the Silver Age. I sort of feel story for Stan having to edit and go with this kind of clunky dialog seeing as how good his own stuff was, comparatively, on Spider-Man and the FF. Reading stuff like this makes you understand why Stan was so eager to hire Roy Thomas. Character Development: Pym finally gets some decent development, mainly in the revelation of his previous marriage. Janet comes off more or less like most Silver Age female characters, but there is already an indication that she’s more spirited than the female heroines that we’ve seen so far; Janet is the one making the advances early on, and Pym is stuffy and hesitant because she's so young. This gives the budding romance between the two a humorous tone that isn't present in the relationships that we've seen so far (Reed/Sue, Bruce Banner/Betty Ross, ect.) Personal Rating: 6. Normally, I’d probably score this issue no more than a 3 or 4, but Janet makes the story far more enjoyable than it otherwise would have been. I also feel that the insight into Pym’s tragic past makes him far more interesting as a character. Historical Rating: 9. The Wasp has always been one of my favorite heroines and it goes without saying that she’s vitally important to the history of the soon to be introduced Avenger’s. I think she’s one of Marvel’s best heroes, period, and even with the latent sexism of the Silver Age, I always felt that she had the most interesting personality of the original "founding" Marvel heroines.
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Post by MDG on Dec 16, 2015 12:35:06 GMT -5
I never heard of H.E. Huntley before (apparently it's this guy who was a Timely writer), but has anyone ever said why Stan was seemingly burning through writers at this time? I wonder if the Marvel Method was just such a change of process for writers that they couldn't get used to it, or if it seemed like extra work for the pay, which was probably the usual page rate.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 16, 2015 12:41:50 GMT -5
Didn't they use Pandora's Box in a Thor story around this time, too? With some guy with a similarly generic name?
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Post by Rob Allen on Dec 16, 2015 13:27:36 GMT -5
I never heard of H.E. Huntley before (apparently it's this guy who was a Timely writer), but has anyone ever said why Stan was seemingly burning through writers at this time? I wonder if the Marvel Method was just such a change of process for writers that they couldn't get used to it, or if it seemed like extra work for the pay, which was probably the usual page rate. I don't think Hart or Bernstein or Rico or Siegel or Larry Lieber ever worked Marvel Method. They wrote full scripts. Stan just wasn't happy with the results and developed the Marvel Method because he couldn't crank out scripts fast enough himself.
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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 16, 2015 14:11:41 GMT -5
I never heard of H.E. Huntley before (apparently it's this guy who was a Timely writer), but has anyone ever said why Stan was seemingly burning through writers at this time? I wonder if the Marvel Method was just such a change of process for writers that they couldn't get used to it, or if it seemed like extra work for the pay, which was probably the usual page rate. I don't think Hart or Bernstein or Rico or Siegel or Larry Lieber ever worked Marvel Method. They wrote full scripts. Stan just wasn't happy with the results and developed the Marvel Method because he couldn't crank out scripts fast enough himself. I concur with my esteemed colleague's argument. Cei-U! Them's the facts, Jack!
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Post by Farrar on Dec 16, 2015 16:52:01 GMT -5
I never heard of H.E. Huntley before (apparently it's this guy who was a Timely writer), but has anyone ever said why Stan was seemingly burning through writers at this time? I wonder if the Marvel Method was just such a change of process for writers that they couldn't get used to it, or if it seemed like extra work for the pay, which was probably the usual page rate. The "Marvel Method" could be called the "Stan Lee method." This was Lee's personal method that he'd used for several years prior to the 1960s Marvel superhero explosion. Don't forget he was editor-in-chief, so he had many other responsibilities that took up his time. In the late 1950s when the company's output consisted largely of a handful of horror books, he usually dispensed with a formal written script and gave the artists a premise. He then entrusted those artists--principally Kirby and Ditko--with task of plotting, as he knew they could handle it. (Other artists such as Ayers and Heck may have required a bit more in the way of plot, so Stan would provide more details for them, or have kid brother Larry write something up.) Stan Goldberg (Stan G) has also said that that's how he normally worked with Lee too on the Millie comics. During the first half of the 1960s as Marvel expanded, Lee hired other writers, partly at the behest of Martin Goodman, who didn't want his company Marvel to become overly-dependent on Stan. These writers were usually veterans, who were used to writing traditionally, i.e., full script-mode, and they delivered full scripts. But as we know Lee felt the veteran writers didn't provide what he wanted and most of them didn't receive many Marvel assignments. (He did give Jerry Siegel other work--proofreading, for example.) Stan doesn't seem to have been satisfied with other writers until the young Roy Thomas came along in 1966.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Dec 16, 2015 19:54:09 GMT -5
I wonder what happened to all the writers that were working with Stan pre-Atlas explosion, when they were one of the biggest companies around? (I believe Atlas published the most Western titles of any company, for instance, and were right up there in # of Horror titles. Way ahead of EC.)
Seems like many of Stan's favorite artists made it back to Marvel... but not the writers.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Dec 16, 2015 21:31:44 GMT -5
I guess when you have storytellers of the caliber of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko you don't need that many additional writers. I think it might have been a simple case of the older writers not getting Stan's new spin on superheroes. Roy Thomas, being a passionate fan in his early 20's, obviously got it from the beginning. Funny thing about Roy Thomas is that I sometimes view him as a child prodigy, like Jim Shooter, but he was already 21 when FF #1 hit the stands.
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