FANTASTIC FOUR 15
cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers
TALES TO ASTONISH 44
cover by Jack Kirby & Don Heck
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY 93
cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers
from the GCD: "Synopsis: While on a medical mission to India, Dr. Blake becomes Thor to repel a Chinese attack. In order to fight Thor, a Chinese scientist irradiates himself to gain great power. He fights Thor in New York, and nearly defeats him, but Thor blows him back to China, creating a nuclear explosion."
After 3 issues, JACK KIRBY returns to doing pencils in addition to writing the story, and predictably, the quality jumps UP substantially. This time we have a mix of "cold war" AND "sci-fi", with a new and dangerous super-villain being created who will, sometime later, be THOR's contribution to "THE MASTERS OF EVIL". Once more, Robert Bernstein does dialogue (hard to picture him doing more with Kirby on both story AND art) while Dick Ayers remains the perrennial inker.
Jack Kirby also returned to pencil this month's ANT-MAN story in TALES TO ASTONISH #44, "The Creature From Kosmos", the one that not only fleshed out Hank Pym's background more but also introduced Janet Van Dyne-- THE WASP! On the other hand, Don Heck had his 2nd episode of pencilling IRON MAN published this month, in TALES OF SUSPENSE #42.
After my still-recent experience of re-reading ALL my 60's Marvels in chronological sequence, I find that works best, as it gives one a more complete sense of how all these various books were slowly coming together and evolving, between Kirby, Ayers, Heck & Ditko (and sometimes others) all getting involved.
(WHAT the heck is it with all these titles with the word "Mysterious!!!" in them? I'd bet that's the "editor"'s hand at work, it seems like his kind of "excess".)
(1-29-2014)
STRANGE TALES 109
cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers
Synopsis:
Johnny feels bored living in Glenville. After putting out a burning building and preventing a train from being derailed due to a flood, he runs across "The Sorcerer", an eccentric hermit who seems to value his privacy too much. He has in his possession "Pandora's Box", and only needs the magic words to unlock it. Some time later, he robs a bank, using "imps" from the box to cause everyone there to go mad temporarily, and have no memory of it afterwards. After several robberies, Johnny has another run-in with The Sorcerer, who tries to use a flame imp to consume Johnny. But it backfires, allowing Johnny to get the box away from The Sorcerer, who's now so affected by the last evil from the box, fear, that it looks like he's too afraid to ever menace anyone again.
The Sorcerer and his mansion in the country appears to be a tribute to Dr. Julian Karswell (Niall MacGinnis) from the film NIGHT OF THE DEMON (1957). A woman who used "Pandora's Box" to commit crimes turned up in the 1967 SPIDER-MAN cartoon, "Here Comes Trubble".
TALES OF SUSPENSE 42
cover by Jack Kirby & Don Heck
(Continued in July 1963)
All Text (C) Henry R. Kujawa
Artwork (C) Marvel Comics
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa
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