Sunday, March 30, 2014

October 1963

(Continued from September 1963)

FANTASTIC FOUR  19
cover by Jack Kirby & Paul Reinman
Review  (coming soon)


TALES TO ASTONISH  48
cover by Jack Kirby & Sol Brodsky
Review  (coming soon)


AMAZING SPIDER-MAN  5
cover by STEVE DITKO
Review  (coming soon)


JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY  97
cover by Jack Kirby & ??
"THE LAVA MAN"

from the GCD: "Synopsis: Thor battles the Lava Man, a monster brought to the surface by Loki, who claims all the dry surface of Earth for his people. Odin forbids Thor to love Jane Foster, leading to her leaving her job as Dr. Blake's nurse."
"Indexer Notes: Dr. Andrews is first called Basil by Jane Foster on page 6 but then is called Bruce by Dr. Blake on the last page. Apparently in the Marvel Universe nurses can't work for doctors that they're not pursuing a romantic relationship with.
"

SGT. FURY, X-MEN and AVENGERS were bi-monthly when they started.  That means, this month JACK KIRBY actually had time to get back on THOR!  Which is to say, he's been doing ALL the stories from the beginning, with help, but this time the middle-men are cut out, and JACK KIRBY does story AND pencils!  The "editor" also cuts out the middle-men this month, kicking Robert Bernstein out of a job and taking over writing the dialogue himself (while CONTINUING to steal credit AND PAY for the stories as well).

In addition to the 13 page lead story, JACK KIRBY also begins a long-running 5-page back-up series... "TALES OF ASGARD!"

from the GCD: "Synopsis: Beneath Asgard lies the Well of Life. From it came Ymir, greatest of the Frost Giants and Buri, the first Norse God who gave life to Borr. Borr had three sons. Odin was one of them."

JACK KIRBY supplies series concept, story & art.  Dialogue by "ye editor", inks by "George Bell" (the MOON-LIGHTING George Roussos, who, according to his interview in ALTER EGO, was doing "ye editor" a favor by inking pages at HALF-RATES over the weekend... no wonder so many of them looked so awful).
    (2-2-2014)


STRANGE TALES  113
cover by Jack Kirby & Don Heck
"THE COMING OF THE PLANTMAN!"

Synopsis:
Johnny has a date with Doris Evans, who drives him crazy as she's the only girl he's gone out with who's not impressed with his being The Torch, and prefers him as "Johnny".  He sees her father fire his gardener, Sam Smithers, for "fooling around" with an invention designed to increase the intelligence of plant life.  Shortly, in a "million-to-one freak accident", lightning strikes and alters Sam's device so "it works!"  Not only does it increase plants' intelligence, they also follow his mental commands.  Donning a costume, he robs the store where Doris' father works and plants evidence to frame him for the crime.  Johnny swears to clear Evans' name.  Soon Johnny & The Plantman are engaged in battle, and The Plantman demands the city be turned over to him!  (Talk about rising megalomania.)  Johnny manages to break the plant-device, but The Plantman gets away, promising himself, "Next time my plan will be foolproof!!"

Indexer notes:
1st appearance of The Plantman, whose costume resembles that worn by The Shadow; he would redesign his costume & return in STRANGE TALES #121 (June 1964).  1st appearance of Doris Evans, who would continue as Johnny's semi-reluctant girlfriend until the end of his solo series.
     (2007)

Crazy enough, Superman creator Jerry Seigel worked on this issue, possibly contributing to the story, but just as possibly ONLY doing dialogue over a story idea from Jack Kirby and written by Dick Ayers.  I pont this out because of the peculiarity of the introduction of Johnny's new girlfriend, trouble-and-a-half Doris Evans, who in all of 60s Marvel, is the closest thing ever seen to the kind of BAD girlfriends usually associated with DC heroes!!  And check out that cover-- and the narrative text.  Is it any wonder some Marvel fans like to compare Johnny's solo series to DC's SUPERBOY comics?
     (8-19-2018)


TALES OF SUSPENSE  46
cover by Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers
Review  (coming soon)

(Continued in November 1963)

All Text (C) Henry R. Kujawa
Artwork (C) Marvel Comics
Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa

No comments:

Post a Comment