Peerless Power of Comics!

It's no secret that Bill Everett had trouble meeting deadlines. While the credits to the Sub-Mariner story in Tales to Astonish # 87 read "Illustration:Wild Bill Everett" clearly other artists are involved. Comic book credits of earlier decades can often be deceiving due to the production method. The story would first be penciled, then lettered and sent off to the inker - or the presumed inker. The letterer would add the name that Stan Lee provided, but sometimes another inker would be substituted at the last minute after the credits were lettered. The new inker would occasionally add his own name, or someone in production might correct the credits, but there are numerous instances when the printed comic book had erroneous credits. These mistakes were sometimes acknowledged in future letter columns; other times they were forgotten and have remained in print for decades.  Over the years I've noticed the Sub-Mariner lead story in Astonish # 87 ("Moment of Truth!

The cover to Tales of Suspense # 45 has puzzled me for some time. This time out I'll share my step by step process of investigation, deduction and conclusions. Tales of Suspense # 45, Sept 1963, lettering by Artie Simek, colors by Stan Goldberg, art by?? This cover is often cited as pencils by Jack Kirby and inks by Don Heck, and the error is understandable because it's partially correct (stay with me, they'll be a quiz at the end..) When examining this cover something bugged me. Iron Man looked like a Kirby/Heck drawing, but the figures and poses of Jack Frost, Happy and Pepper didn't.                                                       Close-up of Kirby/Heck's Iron Man. The Iron Man pose also looked awfully familiar, so I decided to go through Tales of Suspense #'s 39-44 which included all of Iron Man's stories up to that date, and I soon found what I was looking for.             The splash page to Tales of Suspense # 43, July 1963. Jack Kirby pencils;