0058: "Early Days of Triumph"

[Silver Age Marvel History Part 7 -- see ADMIN03 ]

In the first half of the 1970's, as I entered elementary school and began getting my own comic books, reprints were ubiquitous. Marvel and DC were beginning to dominate the racks. They each published ongoing reprint titles (DC only briefly, mostly in 1973), printed double- and triple-length comics mixing new lead stories with reprint back-up stories, published lines of tabloid-sized treasury editions and on rare occasions licensed select old stories to book publishers. That was the only way you could find comic book stories in a large bookstore; if anyone other than the comic book publishers printed them.

As a teenager I learned more about the histories of the comics published by the two remaining majors, long before I knew the histories of the companies themselves. I found that by organizing a publisher's titles by their cover dates I could get a rough idea of when the  cover prices changed. I also noticed that the trade dress designs weren't just random decorations but that they would change simultaneously across the line and enable me to find other stories by my favorite creators or with my favorite supporting characters. I also learned that the diversity of formats I had grown up with hadn't always been the norm. Just a few years before I started reading, both Marvel and DC had exactly two price points. The standard comics for each had 32 interior pages for 12¢ (from roughly late 1961 to early 1969, then 15¢ until 1971). For DC, the larger price point was 80 interior pages (with a rare exception) for 25¢ and consisted almost entirely of reprints. For Marvel, they began at 72 pages for 25¢ and halfway through the decade dialed back to 64 pages for the same price. Despite the disparity in production costs, they did this with comics that were entirely new, entirely reprints or some combination of both. There was no public rationale for this, no manifesto explaining their reasons; you either bought what was on the rack or you didn't and two months later it wouldn't matter because any unsold comics would be destroyed. The publishers hoped that whatever they offered you was something that you wanted more than you wanted the quarter. However, it could be that Marvel was selling a brand identity as much as Spider-man stories. They had witnessed DC launching the 80pg/25¢ format when standard comics were still 10¢ in 1960 and keeping it even after the standard went up to 12¢. When they introduced their own line of exactly two annuals in 1962, one was all new and the other all reprint. Both were the same length and price: 72pg/25¢.

When the standard price at both companies rose to 15¢ in early 1969, they each chose again to keep the price of their longer format at 25¢ but this time DC was forced to reduce their page count to 64 pages in order to do that. A few had short stories or framing sequences of new material, but they were still primarily reprints. Marvel by that time had both a small line (fewer than ten) of summer annuals with new lead stories and features and reprint back-up stories, but also had several bi-monthly all-reprint series the same length and price. The summer annuals as of that year were all-reprint and wouldn't have new material again until 1976. [The quarterly Giant-Size comics published in lieu of annuals in 1974-1975 are a whole other breed; if I live long enough to cover all the Silver Age reprints, I would love to pick apart the Giants.]

In 1971, with another price increase looming, the 25¢ price point shrank to 48 pages at both companies, but at DC they decided to make that the standard format (for a year, anyway). Their last four Giants were 64pg/35¢, overlapping with the introduction of their 96pg/50¢ "Super Spectacular" format and the introduction of B&W magazines, digests and tabloids at both companies. For me, that diversification of formats is the demarcation between the Silver and Bronze Ages.

The cover above is my personal copy of MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS #3 (06/66). It represented a shift in the role of special format reprints. The first in 1962, STRANGE TALES ANNUAL #1, reprinted all suspense stories. The second in 1963 was STRANGE TALES ANNUAL#2 with a new Human Torch story followed by more suspense reprints, but that same year the first Fantastic Four Annual  included a reprint of the first 13 pages of FF#1, the start of Marvel's Silver Age super-hero roster. By the summer of 1964, suspense stories had just been phased out of the standard Marvel comics, so the reprint special for that year, MARVEL TALES ANNUAL #1, reprinted the super-hero origin stories that followed FF#1. It had the first six pages of the first Hulk story, the first Thor and Spider-man stories and both the first appearances of Ant-Man and Iron Man and excerpts of their upgrades (Giant-Man identity and stream-lined armor, respectively). It also had the first six pages of the first Sgt. Fury story, acting as an origin for his title. While Sgt. Fury wasn't exactly a super-hero title, Nick had already made his present day appearance in FF#21 and was fixed in the new burgeoning continuity. There were also no other war titles at the time; the last one Marvel published had been BATTLE #70, cancelled in 1960 to make way for Archie knock-off MY GIRL PEARL. Speaking of which, the four remaining teen humor titles had been represented by MILLIE THE MODEL and PATSY & HEDY Annuals, but there was no Annual or other reprint title for the three remaining westerns, the only other surviving genre in 1964. There was definitely a concerted attempt to convey the feel of the super-hero books onto the westerns, beyond just having Jack Kirby covers. Letters pages were added to all titles in late 1964. RAWHIDE KID #45 (04/65) presented a newly retold "Origin" story. KID COLT OUTLAW #121 (03/65) featured a crossover team-up with Rawhide Kid and #125 (11/65) had Two-Gun Kid. But in late 1965 the short five page back-up stories were replaced with reprints. By that time there were eleven monthly titles and five bi-monthly titles to put out, not counting the three new reprint series and various specials. Western back-ups weren't the best use of an artist. Then, out of the blue, beginning in the summer of 1966, three consecutive issues of KID COLT OUTLAW #130 (09/66)-132 (01/67) became 64pg/25¢ reprint specials, although only the first used the trade dress common for the annuals at the time. It was one of several "testing the waters" events that both Marvel and DC toyed with in the latter half of the '60's.

Part of the reason for tentative experiments with format surely had to be the zeitgeist of the decade. Asking why and pushing boundaries were the order of the day in business, academics and art; comics had always been an 'adapt or die' industry, jumping on fads and exploiting trends. If you as a publisher didn't look for something new and different in 1966, you could bet your readers would. Another part of the explanation was probably the mid-season television debut of the "Batman" series in January. [For younger readers: before cable and multi-platform viewing there were three(!) American commercial broadcast networks and most of their new shows began in September each year. A typical season was 35 episodes, but if the first dozen of those perform badly in the ratings (and every year a few shows do) then it will be prematurely cancelled and replaced in January with a series reserved for that purpose.] "Batman" was a replacement series and ran two episodes a week for 17 consecutive weeks. The second season was 30 consecutive weeks- 94 episodes in a year and a half. It was a pop culture phenomenon and DC, who were already publishing two 80pg Giants of BATMAN every year responded only by squeezing a third into their schedule in 1966. Most of their capitalization on the success of the TV show took the form of licensed products and increased sales of their existing titles. Bizarrely, they never increased the frequency of the main title. To put things in perspective:

DC Comics began 1955, their implementation of the Comics Code, by publishing:

• Ten monthly comics titles
• Twelve titles that came out eight times a year (the equivalent of eight monthly titles)
• Twenty-two bimonthly comics titles (the equivalent of eleven monthly titles)

44 titles, averaging 29 shipments a month (not counting one Rudolph comic at Christmas),

DC Comics began 1966, when the Batman TV show debuted, by publishing:

• Six monthly comics titles
• Eighteen titles that came out eight times a year (the equivalent of twelve monthly titles)
• Twenty-four bi-monthly comics titles (the equivalent of twelve monthly titles)
• Twelve monthly 80pg Giants (the equivalent of 2.5 monthly titles)

Not counting the giants, that's 48 titles averaging 30 shipments a month. That's not much growth for a pop culture boom and Marvel had nearly doubled their own output since 1958, on top of having increased sales per title. The really bizarre part of this is that the remaining monthly titles were BLACKHAWK, which had been acquired from Quality after 1955, and five pre-Code anthologies, including the three oldest titles they published: ADVENTURE, DETECTIVE and ACTION. Of their other pre-Code titles, all the super-hero titles at that time were published eight times a year. Of the titles introduced since the Code was implemented, only JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, GREEN LANTERN, LOIS LANE and FALLING IN LOVE were eight-per-year titles. Yet, neither DC or Marvel had introduced an anthology title since Marvel's AMAZING ADVENTURES in 1961, excepting reprints [DC acquired the last two titles from the defunct publisher Prize Publications in 1963, both romance anthologies]. LINDA CARTER, STUDENT NURSE and HULK were cancelled, but all Marvel's other new titles since 1961 started as bi-monthly and became monthly before 1966. Why DC had such deference for their anthology titles is curious enough, but denying monthly status to SUPERMAN, BATMAN, JLA, FLASH, etc. is mystifying. The anthology titles by that time weren't still true anthologies anyway. In general, they had a lead story and a back-up. ADVENTURE had been running reprints as back-ups to their Legion of Super-Heroes stories since 1963 and during 1966 would eliminate those to publish issue length LSH stories until 1969. The attention brought by a television series would be the perfection situation for releasing material more frequently, but none of those titles would go monthly until the 1970's, and even then only some of them.

Meanwhile, Marvel was not only producing their super-hero stories more frequently they were repackaging the earliest stories for new readers who came in late. When the first MARVEL TALES came out there was also an all-new AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #1 and a second FF Annual reprinting the first appearance of Dr. Doom from FF#5. When the second MARVEL TALES came out in 1965, the third FF Annual (reprinting FF#6 and 11) and second Spider-man Annual (reprinting AS#5, the first story from AS#1 and the second story from AS#2) were joined by the first annuals for JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY (reprinting Thor stories from #'s 85, 93, 95 and 97) and SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS (reprinting #'s 4 and 5, plus a two page feature from #1). The MARVEL TALES itself reprinted the first issues of X-MEN and AVENGERS and the origin story of Doctor Strange from STRANGE TALES #115. There wasn't much else that would fit the 'Secret Origins' format they had carved out for the book. Dr. Droom (who preceded the FF in AMAZING ADVENTURES) had a first appearance they could have used, but not an origin story. More to the point, he never made it to 1962. The Human Torch feature in STRANGE TALES wouldn't have had an origin separate from the one for the rest of the FF already reprinted in their annual. Chronologically, the next new feature would be Daredevil, whose first story wouldn't physically fit in the remaining pages. After that, the origin story of Captain America had just appeared months earlier in TALES OF SUSPENSE #63 (03/65), and the first S.H.I.E.L.D. story more recently in STRANGE TALES #135 (08/65). The Submariner feature had started the same week in TALES TO ASTONISH #70 (08/65), but his origin had been in the first FF Annual and it seemed excessive to reprint a 37-page story just for the flashback sequence. Instead, the remaining pages were filled with the final ten pages of HULK #3, a random suspense story from AMAZING ADULT FANTASY #8 and four in-house ads. It became clear that the titles and features they had were too successful for Marvel to need enough new ones to fill a 72 page special with origins and first appearances every year. Finally, a nice problem to have.

With the summer past, Marvel planned to forego annual specials of reprints and instead publish a regular quarterly special of early stories called MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS. As their first year-round series of specials it would be 64 pages instead of 72. It focused on the best sellers, with the first issue reprinting FF#2 and AS#3 with enough room left over to reprint the second Ant-man story, the first "Tales of Asgard" back-up and a house ad. The second issue reprinted the next installments of FF, Spider-man and Ant-man, but replaced the "Tales Of Asgard" with paid ads and changed the indicia to read "published bi-monthly". While it was on the stands, the Batman TV show debuted, the impact was almost immediate and the third issue (see above scans) was different. When combined with the revised MARVEL TALES, which would ship the following month, they would reproduce all the super-hero features Marvel introduced from the Fantastic Four to before X-Men/Avengers, as close to chronologically as space permitted. They did this by splitting the two best sellers between them: FF stayed with MCIC, Spider-man went with the new MT. They then shuffled the Ditko and Kirby art. Since MCIC had FF, MT got the Human Torch and Thor. Since MT had Spider-man, MCIC got Doctor Strange and Iron Man (which had variable artists, including both Kirby and Ditko). This left enough wiggle room in MCIC for short pieces (like the Watcher back-ups from TALES OF SUSPENSE) and the question of what to do with the short-lived Hulk series answered itself. The six issues, which were originally published with chapter breaks in some issues and short stories in others, would be serialized. The first two MARVEL TALES Annuals had already used such segments, MCIC would just complete them.

As with the first two issues, the third issue would employ a composite cover using the covers of the comics where the reprinted stories originally appeared. MARVEL TALES would also adopt this method starting with its third issue as well as using the inside front cover to describe contents and production credits. The rest of the contents are:

• Reprint FANTASTIC FOUR #4(05/62) "The Coming Of... Sub-mariner!", 23pp
• Reprint TALES OF SUSPENSE #40 (04/63) [Iron Man] "~ Versus Gargantus!", 13pp
• Reprint STRANGE TALES #110 (07/62) [Dr. Strange] "~ Master Of Black Magic!", 5pp
• Reprint TALES OF SUSPENSE #49 (01/64) [Watcher] "The Saga Of The Sneepers!", 5pp
• Reprint INCREDIBLE HULK #3 (09/62) "Banished To Outer Space", 11pp

The remaining seven pages and both sides of the back cover were all paid ads.

0049: All Together Now

NOTE: As promised in the previous post (ADMIN03), this post will be a condensation of the posts 0035-0039, offering information about Silver Age Marvel reprints but without the context of the impact Beatlemania had on pop culture. It will also skip the scans and details of the four Lancer mass market paperbacks. That information is still available in those posts; to find the full versions, click on the label "Beatles" in the list on the right.

First, the notes from #0035, accompanying scans of the cover and inside front cover of MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS #2 (04/66):
As with the first issue, the IFC has production credits and a sort-of table of contents. The publisher is once again listed as "Animated Timely Features" (and will be until 1968). It still features reprints of Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and Ant-Man stories. In fact, these are the stories immediately following the ones reprinted in issue #1. And it's also still 64 pages for 25¢. What's different is that where the first issue filled the page count with a "Tales Of Asgard" reprint and an in-house ad, the second issue replaces those with paid ads. It also changes the publishing frequency from 'quarterly' to 'bi-monthly'. in the two months following this issue, MCIC will join MARVEL TALES and FANTASY MASTERPIECES as Marvel's only new titles between DAREDEVIL in 1964 and GHOST RIDER (the western) in 1967. And they were all reprints.

The contents of this issue are:

• Reprint FANTASTIC FOUR #3 (03/62) "The Menace Of The Miracle Man", 23pp
• Reprint TALES TO ASTONISH #37 (11/62) [Ant-Man] "Trapped By The Protector!", 13pp
• Reprint AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #4 (09/63) "Nothing Can Stop...The Sandman!", 21pp
• (seven pages of paid ads)

Any reader who didn't see the scans from MCIC #2 can find them in the previous post. And since  I went on a bit about parallels between the Avengers greeting reporters at the dock in AVENGERS #4 and the Beatles landing at Idlewild, maybe I should share this with you. It comes from STRANGE TALES #119 (04/64) a few months after the Human Torch fought an imposter Captain America in #114. It's an ad for AVENGERS #4 (03/64) with the first Silver Age appearance of Cap, which despite the different cover dates would have shipped the week before ST #119. Because of the Human Torch story, the original version of the cover (this one) had the words "The Real..." over Captain America's name. The first AVENGERS OMNIBUS has this cover in B&W, but I thought you might like to see it as readers at the time would have.

The highlights from post #0036 -0039 are:

Jan. 3rd, 1964-- Captain America returns in AVENGERS #4 (03/64) and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (including Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver) debut in X-MEN #4 (03/64). Later that month, DC's Doom Patrol would introduce the Brotherhood of Evil in #86 (03/63) of their own comic. TALES TO ASTONISH #54 (04/64) runs its last suspense back-up story. It will run Giant-Man lead stories and Wasp back-up stories that will each vary in length.

The following week The Black Widow made her first appearance in TALES OF SUSPENSE #52 (04/64). Two part stories begin in both AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #11(04/64) and FANTASTIC FOUR #25 (04/64) and both advertised the upcoming DAREDEVIL title. The FF story involves the Avengers, now with Cap, searching for the Hulk.

Jan. 23rd-- DC releases SGT. ROCK'S PRIZE BATTLE TALES (Win/64) under the banner "Giant 80 Page War Annual", which serves as an annual for all DC's war comics despite Sgt. Rock's name and picture on the cover. That makes it the only anthology annual besides SECRET ORIGINS in 1961.

[In the first week of February] the Enchantress and Executioner [made] their first appearance in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #103 (04/64). Also out that week was DAREDEVIL #1(04/64). It would be the last time in a long, long while that Marvel debuted a character in their own title. Since the restructuring in 1957 this had only happened 7 times: Kathy, Linda Carter, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Sgt. Fury, X-Men and Daredevil. All but Kathy were within a three year period. The next three new titles would be the reprint titles I've been posting about. The western Ghost Rider (1967) was transparently a character done for Magazine Enterprises (since defunct) in the 1950's by the same artist but given a different secret identity for legal reasons. Peter the Pest stories were actually recycled Melvin the Monster stories. The Li'l Kids comics reprinted Li'l Willie, Awful Oscar, etc. from the 1950's. Conan wasn't an original Marvel character. As far as I can tell, the winner is... Archie knock-off HARVEY #1(10/70)? Looks like it. And the next candidate is Luke Cage in HERO FOR HIRE #1 (06//72), a full eight years after Daredevil.

Of course, plenty of new characters were introduced and new titles launched in that time, just not simultaneously. In fact, of all the characters granted their own features during that time it wasn't until Captain Marvel was introduced in MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #12 (12/67) that a character was even introduced in their own feature. And yet, this was not a creatively or commercially sluggish time for Marvel; they were thriving. By the end of the decade they would be on the verge of overtaking DC in sales. The idea of giving new features and new titles to characters who were introduced in existing features starring other characters was just contributing to their strengthening sense of continuity. This was being done at a time when there were no trade paperbacks in the sense we know them today. If you wanted to know where the character you've just started reading came from, you'd have to keep an eye on the reprint titles until they got around to reprinting it.

During [mid February] Marvel released the conclusions of two-parters in FANTASTIC FOUR #26 (05/64) and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #12 (05/64) (which ran a fan letter from Dave Cockrum). More notably, in TALES OF SUSPENSE #53 (05/64) the Watcher was given an origin and, on the cover, Iron Man's name was printed larger than the actual name of the comic. This was a trend that was going to be repeated.

Initially, of the super-hero titles only FANTASTIC FOUR ran a letters' page, even stating explicitly in an early issue that FF outsold all their other titles by such a margin that they assumed that anyone buying any of their super-hero comics must have bought FF first anyway. (From #9: "...you [fans] seem to feel that the FF mag is sort of the headquarters, or clearing house for the others.") In 1963, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN got a letter's page and in the first week of March, AVENGERS #5(05/64) and X-MEN #5(05/64) got their first letters' pages. They'd be followed by SGT. FURY in May. That same week that AVENGERS and X-MEN got letters' pages, Thor's name became larger on the cover of JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #104(05/64) than the series' title.

In the second week of March, TALES OF SUSPENSE #54 (06/64) ran its last suspense story, "Skrang Strikes Tonight!", which makes it the last such generic anthology story Marvel produces until they bring back the format with TOWER OF SHADOWS and CHAMBER OF DARKNESS in 1969, since JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY ran its last one the week before. The Wasp and Watcher back-up features had not been terribly different up to that point. In fact, at first they had been made by having each character narrate an old suspense story script, but TALES TO ASTONISH #56 (06/64) in the first week of March was the last time that method was used for the Wasp; she would star in short stories in the next three issues in stead of narrating them. The Watcher had already made the same change in TS#53. Newly drawn versions of the narration style would be used for the Watcher back-ups in SILVER SURFER beginning in 1968.

This meant that all the comics that still had science fiction/fantasy titles were now super-hero series with a lead of 13-18 pages and a back-up of 5-9 pages. Thus, STRANGE TALES #121 (06/64) began the perhaps overdue practice of giving Dr. Strange a portion of the cover. He had only been mentioned in blurbs since #117 and only ever appeared before on #118. It was just in time for him to guest star in FF#27 that week.

The only titles left that hadn't been renovated (aside from trade dress matters) were the 'teen humor' comics. Beginning in the first week of April, that changed as well. PATSY WALKER #115 (06/64) and MODELING WITH MILLIE #31 (06/64) converted from multiple short stories and pin-ups to 18 page lead stories with five single-page features in each issue. The next week MILLIE THE MODEL #121 (07/64) would do the same and in mid-May PATSY AND HEDY #95 (08/64) would become the last Marvel title to abandon the multi-story anthology format. The switch took half the time the westerns took. Once genuinely humor comics, these titles had been drifting more towards more of a soap opera feel for a while. With the cancellation of KATHY (to make way for DAREDEVIL in February), there really weren't any actual humor comics left at Marvel.

In the second week [of April], the Green Goblin makes his first appearance in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #14 (07/64) where the Hulk guest stars. The X-Men guest star in FANTASTIC FOUR #28 (07/64), where the letters' page mentions plans for a MARVEL ANNUAL that summer. DC comics publishes the 80-page GIANT SUPERBOY ANNUAL #1 (Summer/1964) on Apr. 23rd. In many respects it is much like the 20 DC Annuals which preceded it. However, it is actually the start of a different kind of streak.

Wow, that wasn't nearly as much material as I thought it might be. I only hope that the second half of 1964 can be summarized as neatly, since that's when Marvel's and DC's use of their 'annual' formats change.

ADMIN03: Silver Age Marvel Recap

I noticed that I'm approaching the 50th post (or past it if you count the previous two administrative notes). While that's a little early to be patting myself on the back to celebrate, it's a good excuse to reflect and assess. Checking the dashboard, it tells me that seven of the ten most viewed posts involved Marvel and that six of those are from the ongoing Silver Age reprint history I started. However, it also tells me that everyday for the last few weeks there have been one  'view' each for many of the posts, sometimes going back a few weeks. What I can't get from pure stats is a definite explanation for that. It can't tell the difference between one person (a different person every day) discovering the blog and reading backwards or jumping around by using the labels/tags, or, possibly, several people being referred to the blog by a search engine or other link not acknowledged under "traffic sources". For whatever reason, "traffic sources" only accounts for a fraction of readers. Since I rarely link to this blog outside of the G+ Comic Book Community, and I think it's improbable that multiple people are scrolling down past dozens of other CBC posts and each selecting a different post of mine every day, then I think the two best explanations are either different people just 'taking a me hour' or else the blog is turning up in searches which Google/Blogger isn't tracking for some reason.

I haven't forgotten about the Mister X trades. The short verdict is that the volume that shipped in paperback this spring is the best of the bunch, but there is still some apocrypha and other non-essential extras it left out. I'm going to give myself a few more months to dig out some contemporary Vortex comics and see what kind of unique material may have been used for promotional purposes and when.

After spending a week detailing the Beatles chart action looming over the rest of pop culture in 1964 I started to worry about readers burning out on the topic, which is why I wanted to restore a sense of variety since then. Now that I know that I haven't lost the capacity to write about anything but 1960's release schedules I think it's safe to continue the series as one more item in a larger mix of things. To that end, I must be honest with myself about the fact that my inclination to work puns and other gags into the titles of the posts might make it difficult for casual readers to trace the series from its beginnings. Simply clicking on the labels "Publication history" or "Marvel" or "1960's" would call up all of the posts, but in reverse order. As a mea culpa, I'm going to list the links chronologically below.

1. #0016: The Lost Anniversary
2. #0018: The Post Anniversary
3. #0023: "From The Glorious Past..."?
4. #0027: It must be a collectors'item; it says so on the cover
5. #0031: Three Shots, Four Victims

Those first five post include a quick explanation of Marvel's Golden Age and a detailed examination of their development during 1957-1963, giving particular attention to the extra-length format comics from both Marvel and DC during that time. The scans include unique material from the earliest issues of Marvel's three main reprint titles from 1964-early 1966.

These next five posts put changes at Marvel in the first half of 1964 into the chronological context of Beatlemania. I've decided to do a condensed, non-Beatles distillation of these as a single post to start the rest of the series. If you like, you can consider that #6. If you want the full versions, they're still here:

1. #0035: Paar For The Course
2. #0036: Lancer Corporeal Part 1
3. #0037: Lancer Corporeal Part 2
4. #0038: Lancer Corporeal Part 3
5. #0039: Lancer Corporeal Part 4

The scans include the unique parts of MCIC #2 (which I'll reproduce) and four of the six Lancer mass market paperbacks (which I won't).

See you soon.

0039: Lancer Corporeal Part 4

The last of the six Lancer Books mass market paperbacks that licensed Marvel stories was 1967's "Here Comes... Daredevil". The physical specs are identical to "The Fantastic Four Returns", profiled in the previous post. It has 160 pages for 50¢, and reprints stories in black and white by breaking up panels and rearranging them sideways on the pages, occasionally omitting some.

The cover was made using a detail from the splash page of DAREDEVIL #15 (04/66). The Spider-man figure in the upper right corner is from the last panel of the second story in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #2 (05/63).

The panel used on the first page (below) was taken from DD#15, p.12 panel 5, but the image on the second page has me stumped. I've checked every page of the first four volumes of the Marvel Masterworks for Daredevil (which actually go into 1968). I've checked his guest appearances in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, FANTASTIC FOUR and a few others. It doesn't match the T-shirt/sweatshirt design I remember from that period. Even Google Image search failed. Maybe it will come to me in a dream. Or, with luck, the comments section.
[L3] has typeset credits, which differs from the title pages of the other volumes. The indicia on [L4] is in the same manner, though.

The first reprinted story is a two-parter from DAREDEVIL #16 (05/66)- 17(06/66), so [L5-6] combines the title from #17 with #16's p.3 panels 4-5.

Page L1

[L7-8] reprints #16, p.4 panels 1-4
[L9-31] reprints #16, pp.5-12 and p.13 panels 1-2
[L32-33] reprints #16, p.14 and has a LaSalle Extension University mail order insert between them in the copy I've found. Classy. If that didn't hurt their distribution to college-operated campus bookstores...
[L34] reprints #16, p.15 panels 1-2
[L35-37] reprints #16, p.16 and p.18 panel 5
[L38-42] reprints #17, pp.5-6
[L43-44] reprints #17, p.7 panels 2-5
[L45-46] reprints #17, p.8 panels 3-5
[L47-60] reprints #17, pp.10-14
[L61-62] reprints #17, p.15 panels 1-2,4-5
[L63-73] reprints #17, pp.16-19
[L74] reprints #17, p.20 panels 5-6

The second reprinted story is the origin portion of the first issue, with the original costume used only in the last panel.
[L75] reprints only the title from #1(04/64)
[L76-77] reprints #1, p.5 panels 3-6
[L78-79] reprints #1, p.6 panels 3-6
[L80-81] reprints #1, p.7, panels 1-2,5-6
[L82-83] reprints #1, p.8, panels 1-2,6-7
[L84-89] reprints #1, pp.9-10
[L90-91] reprints #1, p.11 panels 1-2,6-7
[L92-93] reprints #1, p.12 panels 1-2, 5-7
[L94-98] reprints #1, p.13 and p.14 panels 1-5

Here's the elusive image from page 2

The third reprinted story comes from DAREDEVIL #20 (09/66)- 21(10/66)

[L99-105] reprints #20, pp.1-4
[L106-109] reprints #20, pp.6-7
[L110] reprints #20, p.9 panel 1
[L111-114] reprints #20, p.10-11
[L115-116] reprints #20, p.13 plus the caption from p.12
[L117] reprints #20, p.14 panels 3-5
[L118-122] reprints #20, pp.15-17
[L123] reprints #20, p.18 panel 2[cropped]
[L124-127] reprints #20, pp.19-20
[L128-133] reprints #21, pp.2-4
[L134-136] reprints #21, p.6 and p.7 panel
[L137-139] reprints #21, p.8 and p.9 panel 2
[L140-143] reprints #21, pp.10-11
[L144-158] reprints #21, pp. 13-20
[L159] This is the same ad for Marvel titles that appears in all the paperbacks in this series
[L160] This is a plug for the first four volumes identical to the one in "The Fantastic Four Return"

Some may wonder why I would bother to note what panels are missing from the reprints. The simple answer is that sometimes what is missing is as significant as what is seen. For instance, tens of millions of Americans saw the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan show on each of three nights (two live, one pre-recorded) in February 1964. Not everyone watching was a screaming teen-age girl. Accomplished folk musician and session guitarist Jim McGuinn saw their sound as a way to reinvigorate and sustain the much larger audiences that folk had recently attracted through Peter, Paul and Mary and televised performances the previous August during the March On Washington.

In the liner notes to the 2CD set "The Preflyte Sessions" Sundazed SC11116 (Canada, 2001), I found the following:
...in 1964, folk and rock were separate words and exclusive worlds, divided by a fence of suspicion instead of a hyphen. [Chris] Hillman recalls Troubadour hootenannies...where McGuinn jarred his peers by singing the Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand" with an acoustic twelve-string guitar. "I was thinking, 'What is this guy doing?'" says Hillman, a mandolin prodigy from the San Diego area, then exclusively playing bluegrass. "But he was so committed to it that you just couldn't help but be drawn in."

It was at the Troubadour that McGuinn met two other folk musicians, Gene Clark and David Crosby, pursing the same goal from different directions. Crosby had already recorded demos with producer Jim Dickson, who was keen on recording whatever they eventually came up with. The trio recorded under the working name "The Jet Set" while making demos with Dickson who would get them a one-single deal with Elektra Records, a folk and classical label nervously considering their first rock record. The single was released under the pseudonym The Beefeaters (a condition of the deal, and clearly a reference to British Invasion bands riding the Beatles' coattails). The mixes were submitted in mid-1964 and it would eventually be released in October.

Tens of millions saw the Sullivan broadcasts but what they didn't see is that between the arrival in New York on the 7th and the live transmission on the 9th, Brian C. Hall of the Rickenbacker guitar company had arranged to meet with the Beatles and offer them their pick of a selection of the company's guitars. Because George Harrison had been sick that day, John Lennon suggested they bring him back the electric 12-string. According to Damian Fanelli of the magazine "Guitar World", it was the second 12-string Rickenbacker ever made. Generally, 12-strings are made by matching each of the six strings that would be on a conventional guitar with one an octave higher. However, in most they are strung so that when the guitar is strummed the higher string will be struck first. On Harrison's, the lower string is struck first. After a frantic two weeks in the U.S. they returned to recording almost as soon as they got back to England.The new guitar was used to record the B-side of "Can't Buy Me Love" and the bulk of the songs that would appear in the movie and album "A Hard Day's Night", which they began filming in March.

David Crosby reading AVENGERS #22 (11/65)

After the Jet Set/Beefeaters submitted their single, the film "A Hard Day's Night" was finally released in the U.S., a month after the U.K premiere. By most accounts, McGuinn and Crosby sat through the film several times taking notes. Two major points steered the course of their project. First, the Beatles made frequent use of vocal harmonies, which Crosby had a knack for arranging. Second, according to McGuinn, "we made a laundry list of the instruments we needed, copying all of the instruments the Beatles had." That included the same model electric 12-string. Adding two members (Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke) and switching out a vowel in an animal name, shortly after the Beefeaters single failed The Byrds signed to Columbia. Like the Beatles, they also saw their first charting single go to #1. But don't feel too bad about Elektra. After missing out on the revamped Byrds, they took a whole new attitude towards rock music and, in less than five years, signed The Doors, The Stooges and The MC5.

In the previous post, Marvel had further consolidated its identity by publishing its last short 'suspense' story in what had been anthologies but had since become super-hero comics. The only titles left that hadn't been renovated (aside from trade dress matters) were the 'teen humor' comics. Beginning in the first week of April, that changed as well. PATSY WALKER #115 (06/64) and MODELING WITH MILLIE #31 (06/64) converted from multiple short stories and pin-ups to 18 page lead stories with five single-page features in each issue. The next week MILLIE THE MODEL #121 (07/64) would do the same and in mid-May PATSY AND HEDY #95 (08/64) would become the last Marvel title to abandon the multi-story anthology format. The switch took half the time the westerns took. Once genuinely humor comics, these titles had been drifting more towards more of a soap opera feel for a while. With the cancellation of KATHY (to make way for DAREDEVIL in February), there really weren't any actual humor comics left at Marvel.

At the end of the first week in April, the Beatles made Billboard chart history by occupying all of the top five spots, the only act to do so as of this writing. They also had five other song held over and added two more, "You Can't Do That" (the B-side of "Can't Buy Me Love" featuring the new Rickenbacker, at 65) and "Thank You Girl" (the B-side of "Do You Want To Know A Secret", at 79).

In the second week, the Green Goblin makes his first appearance in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #14 (07/64) where the Hulk guest stars. The X-Men guest star in FANTASTIC FOUR #28 (07/64), where the letters' page mentions plans for a MARVEL ANNUAL that summer. Capitol releases "The Beatles' Second Album", the title a deliberate Orwellian attempt to rewrite Vee Jay and its two versions of "Introducing..." out of history. Like "Meet...", the new album is a patchwork of the second UK LP and various singles, demonstrating the widening gap between the demand for more recordings and the paucity of songs not already in print. The charts had apparently reached their saturation point. Of the first seven U.S. singles only two B-sides ("I'll Get You" and "The Saints") failed to place, but the others bolstered by two Canadian A-sides made for a total of 14 concurrent charting songs. The two new entries were both from Vee Jay subsidiary Tollie: B-side "There's A Place" at 74 and imminent A-side "Love Me Do" at 81 (replacing "My Bonnie"). I say "imminent" because it appears on the charts for Apr. 11th with an official release date of Apr. 27th. I am guessing that later pressings of the Canadian Capitol version became available before the Tollie copies were manufactured. On the charts for Apr. 18th, only MGM's A-side "Why" enters, at 86, ending a three month streak of weekly entries.

Just before the Tollie "Love Me Do" is released, DC comics publishes the 80-page GIANT SUPERBOY ANNUAL #1 (Summer/1964) on Apr. 23rd. In many respects it is much like the 20 DC Annuals which preceded it. However, it is actually the start of a different kind of streak.

And for anybody who thinks that they can help find a source for that Daredevil image, here it is isolated, if that makes it any easier for you:

0038: Lancer Corporeal Part 3

As I was organizing the scans for today's post I realized that I never credited the image for the cover scan of the Hulk paperback profiled yesterday. The art came from TALES TO ASTONISH #67 (05/65) with new background art. And for the record, the missing Thor volume (72-125) contained the Thor stories from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #'s 97 (10/63), #104 (05/64) and #114 (03/65)-115 (04/65) plus the first Tales of Asgard back-up from #97. I would have to assume that panels from other issues were spliced into those based on what I've seen of the other books in the series.

The third and final pair of Lancer Books mass market paperbacks have only minor distinctions from the first four books. They are still B&W, still made by reprinting disjointed panels from several comics, mostly displayed sideways. They're also still 50¢, but are now only 160 pages, down from 176. The phrase "Mighty Marvel..." was added to "...Collector's Album" on the cover and spine, but otherwise they're all very similar.

The art on the cover here (left) is a detail from FANTASTIC FOUR #41 (08/65), p.1 and the art on the first interior page (below) is a detail from FF#37 (04/65), p.7 panel 3. As in the first paperback, [L2] here uses the art from the T-shirt introduced in 1965 (in an ad in #41, to be exact) facing the title page and credits on [L3]. The indicia is on [L4].

The first reprinted story is the second story from FFAnnual #2 ([9]/64), "The Final Victory of Dr. Doom!"
[L5] reprints p.5, a portion of panel 1
[L6] reprints p.7 panel 7
[L7-9] reprints p.8
[L10] reprints p.9 panel 5 and p.10 panel 1
[L11] reprints p.10, a portion of panel 4
[L12-22] reprints pp.11 through 14, panel 4
[L23-25] reprints p.15 panels 4-5,7 and p.16 panels 1-2.7-8
[L26-28] reprints p.17
[L29] reprints p.18 panels 5-7
[L30-50] reprints pp.19-25

The second story is entirely from FF#33 (12/64)
[L51-52] reprints p.1
[L53-84] reprints pp.2-7 and 9-13
[L85-87] reprints p.14 panels 1-5 and p.15 panel 6
[L88-102] reprints pp. 16-20

The third reprinted story comes from FF#35(02/65).
[L103-104] reprints p.1
[L105-108] reprints p.2 panels 1-2 and p.3 panels 2-6
[L109-114] reprints pp.4-5
[L115-116] reprints p.6 panels 1,4-5
[L117-157] reprints pp.7-20

[L158] reprints a pin-up of the Sub-Mariner from FF#33 (12/64)

[L159] uses the same ad that appeared on [L175] of the first four books

[L160] is the page on the left.

Between the Fantastic Four paperback in 1966 and this one, MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS continued to reprint FF stories chronologically and nearly consecutively, but with a bi-monthly schedule the gap between a given story's original publication and its eventual reprint was widening every year. That might be discouraging for someone coming in late, but there were a few good things about it: readers would be less concerned about missing upcoming issues if they had a reason to believe that it would be available again less than two years later. It keeps them buying the current issues. Also, between 1962 and 1965, Marvel's sales really mushroomed; as long as their committed reprint titles kept reprinting stories in order, then with every issue they would be presenting stories with larger and larger original audiences. The target audience for the reprints would gradually, incrementally change from people who missed out the first time around due to spotty distribution to people who simply started reading later.

Of course, the reprint titles didn't reproduce the letters. Initially, of the super-hero titles only FANTASTIC FOUR ran a letters' page, even stating explicitly in an early issue that FF outsold all their other titles by such a margin that they assumed that anyone buying any of their super-hero comics must have bought FF first anyway. (From #9: "...you [fans] seem to feel that the FF mag is sort of the headquarters, or clearing house for the others.") In 1963, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN got a letter's page and in the first week of March, AVENGERS #5(05/64) and X-MEN #5(05/64) got their first letters' pages. They'd be followed by SGT. FURY in May. Of course, the idea of measuring the popularity of an entertainment franchise by audience participation sounds a little silly when placed against the yardstick of the Beatles' first U.S. tour and TV appearances in early 1964, which is what I've been injecting into these posts. If this is your first experience with an electronic device and you've never seen the footage then trust me, teenage girls in their audience had NO problem 'participating' at their shows. And it translated to sales. That same week that AVENGERS ans X-MEN got letters, Thor's name became larger on the cover of JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #104(05/64) than the series' title, and the Beatles had their second B-side to join its A-side on the Billboard charts. "From Me To You", which didn't chart when it was released as an A-side in 1963 (although a cover did), entered at 86 as the B-side to "Please Please Me". In fact, this was only mid-way through a period of 14 consecutive weeks in which some Beatles-related single was introduced.

In the second week of March, TALES OF SUSPENSE #54 (06/64) ran its last suspense story, "Skrang Strikes Tonight!", which makes it the last such generic anthology story Marvel produces until they bring back the format with TOWER OF SHADOWS and CHAMBER OF DARKNESS in 1969, since JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY ran its last one the week before. The Wasp and Watcher back-up features had not been terribly different up to that point. In fact, at first they had been made by having each character narrate an old suspense story script, but TALES TO ASTONISH #56 (06/64) in the first week of March was the last time that method was used for the Wasp; she would star in short stories in the next three issues in stead of narrating them. The Watcher had already made the same change in TS#53. Newly drawn versions of the narration style would be used for the Watcher back-ups in SILVER SURFER beginning in 1968.

This meant that all the comics that still had science fiction/fantasy titles were now super-hero series with a lead of 13-18 pages and a back-up of 5-9 pages. Thus, STRANGE TALES #121 (06/64) began the perhaps overdue practice of giving Dr. Strange a portion of the cover. He had only been mentioned in blurbs since #117 and only ever appeared before on #118. It was just in time for him to guest star in FF#27 that week.

While all that was on the stands, any kid picking them up over the next few weeks probably heard the following pouring out of the transistor radios of teenagers congregating in front of the drugstore:
Mar. 14th-- "Twist and Shout" enters the charts at 55
Mar. 16th-- Capitol releases their second Beatles single, "Can't Buy Me Love" b/w "You Can't Do That"
Mar. 21st-- "She Loves You" finally replaces "I Want To Hold Your Hand" at #1
Mar. 21st-- The Carefrees enter the chart at 73 with "We Love You Beatles"
Mar. 21st-- Copies of the Beatles' cover of "Roll Over Beethoven" imported from Canada enter the U.S. chart at 79
Mar. 21st-- The Four Preps enter the chart (for the last time after eight years of placing singes) at 87 with "A Letter To The Beatles"
Mar. 23rd-- Vee Jay Records releases "Do You Want To Know A Secret" b/w "Thank You Girl"
Mar. 23rd-- Vee Jay also releases a four-song EP with "Misery", "A Taste Of Honey", "Ask Me Why" and "Anna"
Mar. 27th-- MGM Records releases "Why" b/w "Cry For A Shadows", another Sheridan recording.
Mar. 28th-- "Can't Buy Me Love" enters the charts at 27
Mar. 28th-- Copies of "All My Loving" imported from Canada enter the U.S. chart at 71
Mar, 28th-- "Do You Want To Know A Secret" enters the chart at 78
Mar. 28th-- The first Beatles related songs to drop from the charts in 1964 are "My Bonnie" (a Sheridan recording) and tribute songs from Donna Lynn and The Swans; despite this there are still ten Beatles recordings and two other tributes simultaneously in the chart this week, largely owing to the number of labels making records available but obviously also the public demand for them.

There's one paperback left and the Beatles continue to occupy America long after they've left.

0037: Lancer Corporeal Part 2

The second pair of Lancer Books mass market paperbacks appeared in the fall of 1966. They kept the format of the first two, 176 pages of black and white reprints for 50¢. The panels were broken up with one to four per page and mostly horizontal.

I have this one, "The Incredible Hulk".
While the Fantastic Four would get a proper cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera and Spider-man would be produced by Grantray-Lawrence, both in 1967 for ABC-TV, the Hulk was one of several heroes arriving on TV in severely limited animation (also by Grantray-Lawrence, but with a fraction of the budget) in 1966 for syndication. Under the umbrella title "The Marvel Superheroes", it was actually five half hour shows with each episode broken into three 7 to 8 minute segments. Since each chapter had a title card, once the episodes completed their initial run the chapters could be mixed and matched in future broadcasts. Say, two Hulk chapters with a Captain America chapter between them, or one Thor, one Hulk and one Iron Man with the stories continued the next day. It sounds interesting, but the animation was done by literally making Xerox copies of published comic book art and... actually, it would be easier to demonstrate it. You know how people signify "OK" by forming a ring with their thumb and index finger? Using one eye, look through that ring at the cover on the left. Then, pick up whatever device you're using to view this blog and slightly jiggle it back and forth, saying, "Raargh, raargh!" Got it? Well, that's EXACTLY what it was like to watch the 1966 Hulk cartoon. Don't believe me? They show up on YouTube all the time. I was also able to find an example of a live host dressed in a Captain America costume introducing the show on WNAC-TV in Boston, thanks to a tip on Wikipedia.

Here's the first page, using a panel from INCREDIBLE HULK #6 (03/63), p.1.
I think the lettering is original, maybe by Joe Rosen or Artie Simek.

The second page [L2] also lifts from IH#6, p.3 panels 7-8. The third page [L3] is a title page with credits for Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby; the fourth page [L4] is indicia. The stories begin with [L5] which takes art from TALES TO ASTONISH #60 (10/64), p.1 and adds new lettering.

[L6-31] reprint the first story from IH #3 (09/62), "Banished To Outer Space" p.1 through p.9 panels 1-6 and p.11 panels 5-7. It was previously reprinted without editing in MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS #3 (06/66). In the original comic the next three pages were a recap of Hulk's origin which would eventually be reprinted several times but is omitted here.
[L32-59] reprint the third story from IH #3, "The Ringmaster" pp15-24, except for the last panel. That story had been previously reprinted in MARVEL TALES ANNUAL #2 ([9]/65).
These are followed by an intermezzo on [L60-62] created using excerpts from IH#6, p.11 panels 5,7-8 and p.12 panels 1-6 plus new lettering.

The remainder of the stories are the first four chapters of the Hulk's feature in TALES TO ASTONISH.

[L63-90] reprint TA#60 (10/64),  pp1-10 except for the last panel, and with new lettering on [L63] and [L90].
[L91-117] reprint TA#61 (11/64), pp1-9 and p.10 panels 1, 3 and 2.
[L118] new lettering only
[L119-145] reprint TA#62 (12/64), pp1-9 and p.10 panels 1-2,5.
[L146-173] reprint TA#63 (01/65), pp1-9 and p.10 panels 1-4,6 plus new lettering.
[L174] Pin-up from TA#62 (12/64)

[L175] The same ad that appeared on this page in the previous two volumes (a scan appears in the previous post).

[L176] The final page (see the scan on the left) not only plugs the other volumes but offers them by mail if they can't be found "at your local newsstand". Bookstores aren't mentioned. It should be pointed out that Lancer and Marvel both felt that it would be best to emphasize distributing the paperbacks to college campuses and that many small suburban and community colleges were serviced by bookstores run by the colleges themselves and/or by student cooperatives. That doesn't necessarily mean that they would be strictly adhering to an academic guideline when ordering stock, but it raises the possibility.

The idea that mass produced popular culture could also simultaneously be or not be art, or that the thing that would determine whether or not something was legitimate art had nothing to do with how expensive or accessible it is, were both extremely controversial propositions in the early 60's, which is why the emergence of concepts about 'pop art' from critical circles and out into conversations in the general public was considered a 'movement' at all. That's where it was moving. That conversation was going to be engaged in most frequently and passionately on college campuses in the latter half of the decade. And the students engaged in that conversation had been in high school when the Beatles hit the U.S. The week ending February 1st, 1964 gave them their first #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. On the following Monday, MGM records shipped out an album that combined four songs that the Beatles recorded as Tony Sheridan's backing band with two other Sheridan recordings and six recordings by a group called the Titans, but packaged as though it were a Beatles album. Funny story? They were in such a rush to rip off the public that they didn't realize that they already had four other Sheridan recordings that actually had the Beatles playing on them.

As the MGM LP hit the shops, The Enchantress and Executioner were making their first appearance in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #103 (04/64). Also out that week was DAREDEVIL #1(04/64). It would be the last time in a long, long while that Marvel debuted a character in their own title. Since the restructuring in 1957 this had only happened 7 times: Kathy, Linda Carter, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Sgt. Fury, X-Men and Daredevil. All but Kathy were within a three year period. The next three new titles would be the reprint titles I've been posting about. The western Ghost Rider (1967) was transparently a character done for Magazine Enterprises (since defunct) in the 1950's by the same artist but given a different secret identity for legal reasons. Peter the Pest stories were actually recycled Melvin the Monster stories. The Li'l Kids comics reprinted Li'l Willie, Awful Oscar, etc. from the 1950's. Conan wasn't an original Marvel character. As far as I can tell, the winner is... Archie knock-off HARVEY #1(10/70)? Looks like it. And the next candidate is Luke Cage in HERO FOR HIRE #1 (06//72), a full eight years after Daredevil.

Of course, plenty of new characters were introduced and new titles launched in that time, just not simultaneously. In fact, of all the characters granted their own features during that time it wasn't until Captain Marvel was introduced in MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #12 (12/67) that a character was even introduced in their own feature. And yet, this was not a creatively or commercially sluggish time for Marvel; they were thriving. By the end of the decade they would be on the verge of overtaking DC in sales. The idea of giving new features and new titles to characters who were introduced in existing features starring other characters was just contributing to their strengthening sense of continuity. This was being done at a time when there were no trade paperbacks in the sense we know them today. If you wanted to know where the character you've just started reading came from, you'd have to keep an eye on the reprint titles until they got around to reprinting it.

By the end of the week, the Beatles arrived in the U.S. (Feb.7) to rehearse for the Ed Sullivan Show. On Sunday the 9th they recorded an afternoon performance to be broadcast on the 23rd, but played live for the broadcast that night. They toured playing live shows all during the week and met up with Sullivan in Miami to do another live broadcast on the 16th. During that week Marvel released the conclusions of two-parters in FANTASTIC FOUR #26 (05/64) and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #12 (05/64) (which ran a fan letter from Dave Cockrum). More notably, in TALES OF SUSPENSE #53 (05/64) the watcher was given an origin an on the cover, Iron Man's name was printed larger than the actual name of the comic. This was a trend that was going to be repeated.

While the Beatles toured, the B-side of their only U.S. Capitol single entered the charts at 68 while the A-side was #1. During the next moth they would both be in the top 20 for three weeks. By the end of the week, MGM's "My Bonnie" single entered at #67.
Feb. 20th-- Vee Jay Records invents a subsidiary called Tollie, which releases the single "Twist and Shout" b/w "There's A Place"
Feb. 22th-- Donna Lynn enters the singles chart at 97 with "My Boyfriend Got A Beatle Haircut"
Feb 26th-- Vee Jay Records releases an album called "Jolly What! The Beatles And Frank Ifield On Stage", which compiled the four songs from two singles the label released in 1963 with eight songs by an unrelated artist. Despite the title, none of these recordings are live.
Feb. 29th-- The Swans enter the singles chart at 99 with "The Boy With The Beatle Hair". And really, it's already desperate enough to release a single predicated on the success of another band to the extent of putting their name in the title. Did they really have to go the extra mile and name their own band after one of the five different labels hawking the other band's records?

0036: Lancer Corporeal, Part 1

As promised (or warned?) the posts on Silver Age Marvel reprints are going to take an odd turn. Until this point I've been scanning original material that appeared in Marvel's reprint titles from 1964 and 1965, leaving off in early 1966 just as they were being converted from annual or quarterly specials to ongoing bi-monthly titles. It was also a year when Marvel began multiple licensing ventures that mined what had then become a substantive backlog of super-hero images and stories. Accompanying each post was a chapter attempting to put the development of extra-length formats (DC's 80-page Giants and Marvel's 72-page Annuals and 64-page 'King-Size') into chronological context of events in Marvel's history, from 1957 to 1963. When the history chapters reached 1964, the age of mass media pop culture explosions made the leap from Andy Warhol's philosophies to bourgeoisie suburban homes with the introduction of the Beatles. Prior to them, most teen idols were nobodies crafted into trinkets by ambitious managers who tossed them and started over when the novelty wore off. Real artists carry on or move on. Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley all went into movies while their contemporaries struggled for relevance. The Beatles were introduced to most Americans on film and almost immediately became the subject of merchandise in every conceivable form, much of it pirated. Marvel was just on the verge of consolidating a roster that would carry it through the 'pop art' age of the mid-60's. Every title introduced since FANTASTIC FOUR until the end of 1964 (except HULK) would still be published fifteen years later. After SGT. FURY was cancelled in 1981 every single surviving title pre-dating 1965 would still be published 30 years later. Despite, or perhaps because, they were far newer than the commonly licensed adventure heroes of DC or King Features Syndicate, Marvel characters were suddenly everywhere in 1966.

This is the cover of one of the first two Lancer Books mass market paperbacks featuring stories licensed from Marvel and published in 1966. A close examination of it would confirm that it was not meant as a counterpart or supplement to the ongoing reprint titles Marvel had that year. First of all, it's in black and white and, in an attempt to keep the panels as close to their originally published size, they are broken up with one to four panels per page. The first page of each chapter as well as various pin-ups are upright and all others are sideways. The cover itself is a composite of images. The Reed and Sue image, as well as the buildings in the background, were taken from the cover of FF#29 (08/64). The image of Johnny comes from the cover of FF#4 (05/62) and the image of Ben comes from page 17, panel 5 of FF#48 (03/66). The interiors are just as jumbled. Although each panel is kept intact (other than relettering made necessary by the reordering), the first story is created by splicing panels from issues #1 (11/61), #6 (09/62) and #11 (02/63).
The first page uses FF#5 (07/62), p.22, panel 1 plus typeset blurbs to introduce the book.

Above, Lancer page 2 [L2] uses art from a T-shirt and [L3] looks like it might have been lettered by Artie Simek, but it's not credited. [L4] is indicia. [L5] has cameos of Sub-Mariner (excerpted from [L40]) and Dr. Doom (whose source I haven't confirmed yet). If anyone can nail down where that portrait of Doom comes from, it would be appreciated. Both appeared in the story from #6.

[L6] FF#6, p.1 panel 1
[L7] FF#1, p.6 panel 5
[L8] FF#6, p.2 panels 1-3
[L9] FF#1, p.3 panel 4
[L10-23] FF#6, p.2 panel 4 through p.6
[L24-28] new lettering and FF#11(a), p.6 panels 2-4,6-9 and p.7 panels 4-8
[L29-39] FF#1, pp.10-13 and new lettering in the last panel
[L40] FF#6, p.7 panel 1
[L41-86] the rest of FF#6, pp.8-24, except for p.10 panels 5-6 and p.20 panels 6-7

That's all the first story. The curious thing is that all three sources, plus the second story from #11, were already reprinted in the first and third FF Annuals. The pin-ups that are placed between the stories all come from Annual #2.

[L87-90] Pin-ups of Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny
[L91-120] FF#11(b), except p.8 panels 3-4
[L121-122] Pin-ups of Super Skrull and Molecule Man

The third story hadn't been previously reprinted, but it would eventually be reprinted twice, in MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS #23 (10/69) and #29 (12/70).

[L123-124] #31(10/64), p.1
[L125] #31, p.2 panel 1
[L126-140] #31, p.3 through p.8 panel 4
[L141-147] #31, p.8 panel 5, p.9 panels 1-4, p.10 panels 4-7, and p.11 panels 1-3 and 5-6
[L148-152] #31, p.12 and p.13 panels 1-4 plus new lettering
[L153-172] #31, p.15 panel 4 through p.21 (the end)

[L173-174] Pin-ups of The Hate Monger and Diablo

The Impossible Man was the 'villain' in #11(b). The portions from #11(a) that were spliced into the first story add details to the origin bits from issue #1.
The Mole Man was the villain in #31, meaning that none of the villains in the pin-ups appear in any of the stories. Why they didn't simply use the pin-ups from the first annual, I have no idea.

[L175] This ad (left) lists every title Marvel published during 1966, including the three double-length reprints but excluding the three westerns and three humor titles.

The other Lancer Books mass market paperback published at about the same time (Spring 1966) was advertised on the last page, [L176] (right). I don't own it but I've seen it online. The cover uses art from the cover of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #8 (01/64). It's also 176 pages for 50¢ and splices different versions of his origin into a composite story, plus stories from #13 and #16, punctuated by features from his first annual. The last two pages are the ad above and a page similar to this one plugging the Fantastic Four book.

This copy is clearly pretty acidified. I bought is used and cheap, so I'm not terribly concerned about resale value. I bought it (and three others) largely out of curiosity about what was licensed out during this time period. Most of it, either scripts or art, was used to produce animation and novelties like trading cards. The print materials include these Lancers, a set of six mini-books (5/8" X 7/8") I would love to get a hold of and the four facsimile comics produced for Golden Records (one of which was in this blog's very first post). There was much more print material licensed out to Canada and England.

In the previous blog installment I went into detail about how the Beatles managed to get to the top of the American charts after three singles failed to get in the top 100 at all. A clip played on television intending to mock them got them national exposure that fueled unprecedented sales. That's not exaggeration; estimates were that on one day in New York their first U.S. Capitol single was selling 10,000 copies an hour. That kind of volume means that they are not just impacting the lives of people who enjoy music but making a significant impact on manufacturing, shipping, advertising, fashion, media, etc. If you had a job in America in January 1964, by March 1964 the Beatles had touched in some manner without either of you being aware of it. The comics on the racks at that time had been created in the months previous, but much of what was going on in Marvel (and with DC's Annuals) was already in the process of change. Starting below is a chronology of that year:

In the last week of December, Capitol releases their first U.S. Beatles single, "I Want To Hold Your Hand" b/w "I Saw Her Standing There".
Jan. 3rd, 1964-- Captain America returns in AVENGERS #4 (03/64) and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (including Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver) debut in X-MEN #4 (03/64). Later that month, DC's Doom Patrol would introduce the Brotherhood of Evil in #86 (03/63) of their own comic. TALES TO ASTONISH #54 (04/64) runs its last suspense back-up story. It will run Giant-Man lead stories and Wasp back-up stories that will each vary in length. That night, the BBC clip appeared on the Tonight Show.

The following week The Black Widow made her first appearance in TALES OF SUSPENSE #52 (04/64). Two part stories begin in both AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #11(04/64) and FANTASTIC FOUR #25 (04/64) and both advertised the upcoming DAREDEVIL title. The FF story involves the Avengers, now with Cap, searching for the Hulk.

VeeJay Records, who were licensed the Beatles first LP and three singles in 1963 and couldn't get any of them to chart, combine the two A-sides that they released into a new single, "Please Please Me" b/w "From Me To You". Swan, the label EMI turned to when VeeJay failed to perform, made a second pressing of "She Loves You" b/w "I'll Get You".
Jan. 18th-- "I Want To Hold Your Hand" enters the chart at 45. Next week it will be #3, then #1.
Jan. 20th-- Capitol releases their first U.S. Beatles album, "Meet The Beatles" (mostly taken from their second U.K. LP).
Jan. 23rd-- DC releases SGT. ROCK'S PRIZE BATTLE TALES (Win/64) under the banner "Giant 80 Page War Annual", which serves as an annual for all DC's war comics despite Sgt. Rock's name and picture on the cover. That makes it the only anthology annual besides SECRET ORIGINS in 1961.
Jan.25th-- "She Loves You" enters the charts at 69. Next week it'll be #21.
Jan. 27th-- MGM Records releases a Tony Sheridan single recorded in Germany in 1961 with the Beatles as his backing band. "My Bonnie" b/w "The Saints" had actually been released in the U.S. in 1962 by Decca, who had since lost (or given) the rights to MGM.
Also on the 27th, Vee Jay re-issues the LP "Introducing the Beatles", slightly changing the song selection from the version they had released in 1963. They remove the two songs that were also on the first British single (the only one not yet released in the U.S.) and replaced them with songs from the second single.
In England, The Beatles record two of their hits in German for the European market before heading to America.
Feb. 1st-- "Please Please Me" enters the charts at 68 and IWTHYH hits #1.

More Lancer in the next post.

0035: Paar For The Course

In the early 1960's, comics got to the public almost entirely by newsstand distribution. That phrase encompassed every venue where newspapers and magazines might be sold, such as drug stores, grocers, tobacconists, etc., not just newsstands. Even second-string titles typically sold 150,000 copies this way, making mail-order subscriptions and other forms of circulation, however profitable, barely significant in comparison. But opportunistic congressional action in the 1950's had left comics with a social stigma apart from their commercial value to distributors. For instance, daily newspapers would always take precedence over comics. When there's a holiday during the week, comic deliveries get bumped. Not eliminated, since they're still profitable for both the vendors and suppliers, but delayed. If you pay some kind of premium or overtime for working on a holiday, then you make sure you have only enough men and trucks out to get the papers delivered on time. Screw the comics. Independent News, Marvel's distributor at that time, typically delivered comics on Tuesdays and Thursdays. When New Year's Day 1964 fell on a Wednesday, that shouldn't have made any difference, but according to a few sources I've found online the return of the real Captain America in the Silver Age, in AVENGERS #4 (03/64), came out on Friday, January 3rd, 1964. For Stan Lee, and especially for Jack Kirby, this was a really big deal.

(We'll get to this below, I promise)

Stan had been building up a roster of heroes who had to look as though they had walked out of Marvel's science fiction and fantasy titles (where, indeed, many of them debuted, including all of the Avengers except the Hulk). Now, with Captain America, he had an actual genuine established star, not a reinvention (Human Torch) or supporting antagonist (Sub-Mariner). Kirby, of course, co-created Cap in the 40's and left Marvel shortly afterwards in a dispute over royalties involving the character. Having more recently left DC over what amounted to extortion, the chance to outsell them with his old character at Marvel must have been intoxicating. Success is the best revenge. But there was a parallel to another pop culture phenomenon made even more coincidental by the rescheduling.

The story involves the Avengers returning from Gibraltor (where they had fought the Hulk and Sub-Mariner in #3) to New York in a submarine. En route they discover the thawing body of Captain America, who had been frozen nearly 20 years in an iceberg that had drifted south and melted. When they reach the docks in New York a large group of reporters are waiting and the Avengers emerge first to announce their discovery but are turned to stone before they can. It's left to Rick Jones and the revived Cap to find out why and restore them (spoiler: they do). What makes the shipping date curious is the scene in which they greet the reporters (scanned here from the nearest trade on hand):

In late 1963, Jack Paar (host of NBC-TV's "The Tonight Show") was in England waiting to get on a plane when he saw crowds of teenagers waiting for a different flight to arrive from Sweden. When a few young men disembarked the crowd cheered hysterically. Whatever that was, Paar wanted to show it on TV. The easiest, cheapest way would be to license footage from the BBC. The young men were a band and had performed on British television several times but had never been seen in America. Getting footage was simple enough, but a little research revealed that their label, Parlophone/EMI, had offered their records to the American label, Capitol Records, with whom they had a reciprocal "right-of-first-refusal". Capital turned them down, explaining that rock and roll was just a fad that had already come and gone and we wouldn't be seeing it again. Instead, Vee-Jay (home of The Four Seasons) released their records in the U.S. The band's manager contacted Paar, furious that the footage was sold without the band's knowledge or permission, threatening to sue because they were scheduled to appear on another American network a month later, and Paar's broadcast could cause the band legal problems over exclusivity. Instead, on January 3rd, 1964, Paar introduced the clip of the band performing on his show and afterwards sniffed sarcastically, "It's nice to know that England has finally risen to our cultural level". The irony is that, before Paar put them on television just to ridicule them, few people had heard of the band in the U.S. In fact, Vee Jay had only put out their second and third British singles and an edited version of their first album when their cash flow problems forced EMI to find a different US label (Swan) to handle the fourth single, which happened to be the song in the clip Paar aired. The two labels scrambled to manufacture more pressings, but Capitol had already (albeit reluctantly) manufactured U.S. copies of the fifth British A-side with a different flip. They had released it the day after Christmas, as if the intention was to guarantee that it wouldn't be bought as a gift. Then people watching television heard them, many for the first time. And the band whose first three American singles couldn't get into the top 100 had their first charting single go to #1 and stay there for seven weeks, followed by the reissued Swan single for two weeks and a second Capitol single for five.They held the number one spot for 14 weeks in a row, all the while competing with the Vee Jay singles and their own B-sides which charted in various positions as well. Even Canadian pressings showed up on the U.S. charts. If you haven't guessed by now, Jack Paar had been making fun of the Beatles. And the other American show they were scheduled to appear on? The Ed Sullivan Show, with live broadcasts from New York on Feb. 9th and Florida on Feb. 16th. When their plane touched down at the recently renamed JFK Airport in Queens on the 7th, they emerged much like the four Avengers to a crowd of reporters as flash bulbs went off and they were preserved like stone statues in images that are perpetually recycled even to this day. In fact, just to test a theory, I've just done a Google Image search for "Kruschev arriving at Idlewild" (an event from 1960), and the results included pictures of the Beatles at JFK. [The JFK airport was originally built on the Idlewild golf course and named after an officer who died in WWII, but residents still called it Idlewild until it was renamed after Kennedy. Hence the line, "Kruschev's due at Idlewild" in the theme song to the TV show "Car 54, Where Are You?"] The bi-monthly Avengers comic with a March cover date would have still been on the stands when the Beatles arrived, already at #1 before playing a note in the country thanks to an inadvertent boost from Paar. Within a month, six different labels would field singles of their recordings on the charts simultaneously, not including four songs by other artists which also charted that month. By the first week of April, they would have all top five spots on the singles chart (the only time that has ever happened for any artist). By the second week of April they had 14 different songs in the top 100. You can bet that Stan Lee was wracking his brain trying to figure out a way for Jack Paar to make fun of the Hulk.

Because the history of 1964 will bring this set of articles full circle to where it began with MARVEL TALES #1, I'm going to close that phase of it with a bang: a week of shorter daily posts involving other Silver Age reprints coupled with major events at Marvel, the Beatles' progress and DC's evolving 80-page format.

In the meantime, here's the inside front cover to MARVEL COLLECTORS' ITEM CLASSICS #2 (04/66), to go with the front cover scan above. As with the first issue, the IFC has production credits and a sort-of table of contents. The publisher is once again listed as "Animated Timely Features" (and will be until 1968). It still features reprints of Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and Ant-Man stories. In fact, these are the stories immediately following the ones reprinted in issue #1. And it's also still 64 pages for 25¢. What's different is that where the first issue filled the page count with a "Tales Of Asgard" reprint and an in-house ad, the second issue replaces those with paid ads. It also changes the publishing frequency from 'quarterly' to 'bi-monthly'. in the two months following this issue, MCIC will join MARVEL TALES and FANTASY MASTERPIECES as Marvel's only new titles between DAREDEVIL in 1964 and GHOST RIDER (the western) in 1967. And they were all reprints.


The contents of this issue are:

• Reprint FANTASTIC FOUR #3 (03/62) "The Menace Of The Miracle Man", 23pp
• Reprint TALES TO ASTONISH #37 (11/62) [Ant-Man] "Trapped By The Protector!", 13pp
• Reprint AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #4 (09/63) "Nothing Can Stop...The Sandman!", 21pp
• (seven pages of paid ads)

One last bit of Beatles trivia before I go? When the Spider-man story reprinted here was originally published, in June of 1963, American singer Del Shannon released a cover version of the Beatles song "From Me To You". By July it made it to #77 in the singles chart, making it the only Beatles' song to chart during that whole year.