Peerless Power of Comics!

“I had the privilege of doing “The Losers” for DC, a war story, and I put some real elements in there, some elements that I’d experienced, and of course that facilitated the realism for the story, which made it acceptable. It wasn’t a fantasy war story. It was the “Real McCoy.”   But the characters had color, and they had a reason for being there. It was their story but their surroundings were real, and they were accepted by the reader.”      Jack Kirby interview conducted by James Van Hise, The Golden Age of Comics # 6, November 1983. Jack Kirby’s “The Losers”, originally appearing in the title series Our Fighting Forces, rated little attention in their original presentation, but it is one of the artists’ unsung classics. Though war comics were still a part of DC’s lineup in 1974, they were often ignored by the majority of comics’ fans, whose interests fixated primarily on the latest superhero fantasies. Even a monolithic creator like Jack Kirby could not enge...

There are plenty of twists and turns on the road of comic books and their history, many of which are both unusual and fascinating. For instance take Maurice Bramley, a name I suspect few recognize. His involvement drawing Marvel characters is largely unknown because he worked for an Australian company, Horwitz, in the 1950s and 1960s, pencilling many covers based on the originals by artists like John Severin and Jack Kirby. Horvitz reprinted stories of Kid Colt, Rawhide Kid, Two-Gun Kid, Ringo Kid and Apache Kid, as well as war and superhero stories, and reprinted other companies work as well. For a more detailed history of Howvitz, accompanied by examples of many Bramley covers, please go to this wonderful site:           http://www.ausreprints.com/content/?skin=14685 While Bramley was often reworking the original covers, unlike artists that copy the styles ...

While the Marvel westerns became increasingly marginalized as the 1960s wore on, early on they were quite popular and while Lee never featured any cross-overs (there were requests from time to time in the letters page to have a time travel story) they were still strongly linked with the Marvel Superhero line. The Marvel brand name continued to grow in the early to mid-1960s, and the western "Big 3" of Kid Colt Outlaw, Two-Gun Kid and Rawhide Kid  were part of that advertising. Full page ads for Fantastic Four or Amazing Spider-Man were scattered throughout the line, along with ads for the latest westerns. Stan Lee was still writing some of the westerns in 1965, but began relinquishing thes duties to Larry Lieber, Al Hartley, Roy Thomas, Denny O'Neil and Steve Skeates. In late 1964 the western's also received their own letters pages. Kid Colt's first letters page, including a short lived western checklist,...

We continue with an examination of more early Marvel house ads, including some promoting the MMMS    MMMS Ad from Amazing Spider-Man # 25, June 1965. Marie Severin art? The Merry Marvel Marching Society was a fan club that was hinted at for many months throughout the line, in letters pages and the Special Announcements Section . Stan Lee came up with the idea of a fan club to engender brand loyalty and excitement for the entire line. This was not a new idea, as a little more than a decade earlier, in 1953, EC Comics had the EC Fan-Addict Club.       http://www.collectmad.com/collectibles/ecfakit.htm As you can see, it appears that Lee patterened his club very much after Gaines'. Lee also had an employee who worked for Gaines at the time and likely colored the membership certificate: Marie Severin. Severin contributed to this club as well, drawing some of the material in the stationer...

My indexing for the GCD often leads to interesting roads. I've been adding lettering and coloring credits to Marvel’s titles, circa late 1950’s through the 1970’s. While  going over some early Amazing Spider-Man interior credits (adding Stan Goldberg’s coloring credit, since he  colored just about all Marvel’s product from the late 1950's to around 1968)   I included info on the early letters pages and many of Ditko’s outstanding pin-ups. One credit I corrected was a house ad in Amazing Spider-Man # 1: “A Personal Message from Spider-Man”, which is actually a personal message from Stan Lee , explaining that a new letters section would soon be appearing.    "A Personal Message from Spider-Man" from Amazing Spider-Man # 1, Mar 1963, as reprinted in the Marvel Milestone Edition. Kirby and/or Brodsky art. Lee calls for letters and explains why they won't be printed in the 2nd issue .  The GCD had Steve Ditko credited with the art, but that is ...

Indexing comics for the GCD always turns up some interesting discoveries. While I was adding credits to Nick Fury, Agent of Shield I happened to check the interior to # 10, credited on the splash page to Frank Springer as artist. Over the years I've learned that published credits are not always correct. The credits are lettered in before the comic is inked, so there are instances where the inker who was originally intended to do the job had to bow out at the last moment, or was scheduled on another book that had a deadline. Mark Evanier has noted a number of these instances in his columns, but there are times other information is missing. There may be only one letterer credited, with pages completed by someone else. Occasionally another artist fills in on a few pages, or completes the book. And there are odd instances when only a few panels are done by someone else; perhaps changing a scene for story purposes. Often the origin...