Marvel Masterworks Marathon Part 15: June 1963 in Collected Editions: Discussion and Review Board Forum

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Marvel Masterworks Marathon Part 15: June 1963

Author	Comment
Storytime Comics	ST #109: Commentary by an actual four-year-old!	#21	[-]
Posts: 1803 Mar 14 07 2:14 PM Registered Member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Son of Storytime, the Younger, says about ST #109: I liked when the monsters came out of his box! Yeah. I liked the green monster. This one cannot fly. [Interviewer: What else did you like?] When he absorbs all that fire in him. And when he made the big water. Thats it.
Storytime Comics	ST #109: Commentary by an actual seven-year-old!	#22	[-]
Posts: 1803 Mar 14 07 2:23 PM Registered Member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Son of Storytime, the Elder, says about ST #109: It was really weird, but when he closed the box, and the Fear Monster feared him, I think there were three reasons: The first reason is that, when he shut the box, he infects the nearest person around him; Two, either he touched him and he affected him; or Three . . . or three . . . he just . . . just . . . . Okay, there isnt actually a three. [Interviewer: Okay. Anything else youd like to talk about from this issue?] My favorite monsters! [Lets go over them one at a time.] [Hatred?] Thats awesome. [Forgetfulness?] Oh, thats cool, too! [Sleepiness?] Thats not cool. [Paralysis?] He looks more like a shocky-guy than paralysis. [How about cold?] Thats cool. Get itcool? Get itcool? Get it? [Yeah. I got it.] [How about disease?] Yuck, looks like the hairdo, with snakes in her head. [How about flood?] Oh, hes a bunch of water! No eyes! Nothing! [Foolishness?] Looks more like a clown to me. [Laziness?] Looks like an evil raven to me. [Flame?] Looks more like the head of a dragon than a fire guy. [The final monster, fear?] I dont know it, I dont know. [So you dont know the meaning of the word fear? Get it? Get it?] I know fear, Dad. But I never got to see his whole body!
Storytime Comics	ST #109	#23	[-]
Posts: 1803 Mar 14 07 2:28 PM Registered Member Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	ST #109 Yeah, this is what Bernstein does wellsilly, whimsical stuff far removed from the perils of the Cold War or the realm of the Gods. Lee should have kept him on this series and not Iron Man and Thor. The storys pacing is pretty good, tooat least compared to Bernsteins recent outingsand I rather like his characterizations of the FF crew. Personally, I always viewed Johnny as, well, kind of an annoying brat, and he certainly comes off that way early in the story as he bemoans the hardship of being a high school student (yeah, lifes tough!) and later when he rubs the Sorcerers nose in it. Heck, if I were the Sorcerer, Id be scheming revenge after that encounter, too. But the real stars of this story are the impsKirby is partying like its 1959. Once again, he just seems to be having fun here. My personal favorite monster from this issue isnt one of the imps, thoughits the sorcerer himself. What a fun character design. I especially love his Kirbyized hands: Again, Ayers stays true to Kirbys style heretheyre supposed to look like villainous claws, so why pretty them up, right? A close runner-up for my favorite Kirby monster: the pack of dogs that the Sorcerer sicced on those meddling kids. Classic Kirby canines. (Jack was very realistic in his drawings of horsesfrom all those years doing Westerns, no doubtbut his Dobermans always came out looking a bit . . . demonic.)
Adamantno1	ST #109	#24	[-]
Posts: 2346 Mar 18 07 8:44 AM Bronze Age Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Ah, yes, now we're back on track. Bernstein's work on Strange Tales was actually fairly decent, and he has a nice story going here. And with Kirby art as well - this story, with all it's monsters, was practically made for him. It all starts out great, with a well-written scene starring the entire FF that could've been lifted straight from their own books. Bernstein does humor well, and these two pages are some of his best work. And hey, look, the FF join Iron Man in commie fighting. Marvel certainly wasn't afraid of making it's position clear. Bernstein pacing does rear it's ugly head a bit here, though - while I liked scene with the FF, it doesn't change the fact that we're not even introduced to the plot before the story is halfway finished, and we go into top gear for the remainder of the story, with the defeat of the villain often occurring on one of the very last panels, leaving little room for wrapping the story up. I remember the German TV show Rex often jumping to the credits the moment the policeman laid his arm on the criminal, and how it always annoyed me that they never wrote any proper endings. Bernstein stories are the same. I agree with Storytime that the Torch is raher annoying in his first encounter with the Sorcerer. Sure, the guy isn't a very pleasant fellow, but this is his property, and wanting to be left alone isn't a terrible offense that justifies the sort of bullying the Torch resorts to. The plot has a couple of problems relating to Pandora's Box. The box contained all the evils in the world, and when it was opened, these evils were set free and infected the world. Now, if these evils were then sent back to the box, as this story claims.. why is there still evil in the world today? Uh. On the subject of these evils, flame, cold, flood, paralysis and to a lesser extent disease aren't really "evils", are they? The Sorcerer promises to get even with the Torch, though he never does anything until the Torch discovers him counting his loot near the end of the story. Bernstein plotting at it's finest Why does the Torch accompany the police officer to the bank? He's not a member of the police, and you'd think he'd have better things to do than follow the police around listening to them asking out witnesses. According to the Torch, the Sorcerer is the only local character capable of pulling crimes like this. ...okay. Why? What is it about an old kook living alone in his mansion that makes him capable of stunts like this? What about the Wizard? Granted, he's in jail, but he could be running some sort of sceme from there, he's supposed to be the smartest guy on Earth. The Torch, wet from the flood and unable to flame on, requests to be killed by flame, and the Sorcerer grants his wish. Kinda nave, this Sorcerer. I guess this is a result of Bernstein discovering he had one page left to conclude the story. What's up with the time these imps affect people, really? The imp of Hatred affected people until the Sorcerer called it back in the box. Flood and Flame did a single attack and then disappeared from view. Foolishness apparantly lasted for a certain amount of time, Forgetfulness caused one to forget a certain event forever, and Fear apparantly affects you for life. But yeah, this wasn't too bad a story, really. The Sorcerer comes off as a fairly threatening villain, no matter how inconsistant his powers are, there's a lot of great humor, and the art is excellent. But Bernstein is Bernstein, and he still has those flaws of his. Someone ought to give him a full story instead of these 13-pagers, he's really not capable of handling them very well. This is also the first time magic appears outside of the Thor comics - it has already been established that there are gods who can travel to Earth and use their powers, both for good and evil, but in this case it's more "godly power" than anything else, and they are exclusive to the gods. In this story, we have mysterious artifact created by the gods, which then ended up on Earth and is used by a mortal. It adds a whole new dimension to things, and we will see it explored to a much greater extent in the next issues of Strange Tales. -- "Name of a thousand dragons, this is too much! I shall commit Hari-kari at once!" "So shall we - praised be our ancestors!" -All-Winners Comics #5
gardibolt	FF 15/TOS 42/ST109/JIM 93	#25	[-]
Posts: 561 Mar 21 07 12:43 AM Silver Age Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I don't have a lot to say about this set...kind of a lackluster grouping. FF 15 is probably the best of the lot, with the Mad Thinker being an interesting concept. The Android is certainly an unexpected visual. I love these summoning sequences such as on p. 2. The Thinker kind of reminds me of Jack Kirby in some panels. The business about the exact timing is a cute gimmick but it wears thin pretty quickly. I had totally forgotten that the Thinker had built the android out of Reed's work. Tut, tut. That's a nice touch. We get a taste of the late 1960s with the hallucinogenic panels on page 17. TOS 42 is odd and hard to classify. On the one hand there is the standard commie villain, but he doesn't really do anything. The Actor is the real threat, and the finale is kind of weird. Nothing really adds up and the whole thing seems tossed off. Kind of like this comment. Bleah. ST 109 has a good rendition of the frustrations of adolescence, as Johnny finds himself not quite a man but no longer a child. At the same time, the story is more than bizarre. The sorcerer sets up as a decent threat but Johnny defeats him far too easily---almost any other imps from the box would have worked, but he just too conveniently picks one that Johnny can work with. Forgettable, I'm afraid. JIM 93 gives Thor his first major non-Asgardian villain in the Radio-Active Man. I liked the sequences of Thor taking on the Chinese army single-handedly; it kind of smacks of the Golden Age adventures of heroes taking on the Germans and Japanese. On page 9 of the Masterwork, the lettering looks totally different--was it reconstructed? I have to wonder at some of the view screens that crop up over and over in these stories--why exactly would Dr. Blake have an X-ray device that could see the bottom of the Hudson River? The ending feels awfully abrupt. There don't seem to be many people at Marvel who understand exactly how radioactivity works--or they turned a deaf ear to such matters for the convenience of the stories. Oh well, maybe things will pick up next time.
Comicsdad	Re: FF #15	#26	[-]
Posts: 3812 Mar 21 07 10:03 AM Bronze Age Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Pretty great issue. The four heroes find themselves bored with each other, and take on other duties for a while. Then they find out they miss each other! Even Torch and Thing. Reed realizes that corporate life is not for him and so on. Seriously, I think Stan & Jack handled this one very well. Again, the issue is full of little humorous touches. Yancy Street gang throws vegetables at Thing. Thing flings his wrestling opponent in the air while he screams "Hey -- STOP! Cut it out! This ain't in the script! HALLLP!" Sue's reaction when they first see Thinker: "Good grief!" ANOTHER power-mad genius for us to contend with!" It is entertaining to dwell a bit more on Mad Thinker's world view. The world is a clockwork machine, and he has enough computing power to predict everything that happens. Basically, this is Newtonian determinism taken to its logical conclusion. But, if you predict everything, why would you need to steal any of Reed's plans and weapons? Surely your computers had already predicted what they would be like... As a bonus, here's the original art for bottom third of page 3. As you can see, Stan didn't like the second panel showing the angry Ben, and a paste-up of the whole FF in Baxter building was used instead. But look how Jack drew the Thing! He looks more like the later "plate-skin" version than the one we see in this issue. I guess the inkers had a lot of liberty to decide how the Thing actually looks. Also, in the first panel you can (barely) see a number of civilians fleeing the enraged Thing. They didn't make it to the final version either. Comicsdad
Adamantno1	FF #15	#27	[-]
Posts: 2346 Mar 24 07 10:37 AM Bronze Age Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Ah yes, now this is a good book. Stan and Jack introduce another villain destined to become classic in the Thinker, who has also proven to be one of the hardest Marvel characters to write, and thus has the misfortune of appearing in a number of bad stories. He's handled right in this first one, though. Using his powers of deduction, he is able to predict the outcome of situations before they happen, and thus shape fate in his own ways. As an example, he knows the Torch's personality good enough to correctly predict that he would join a circus if asked, and since he also knows the Torch's cousin owns a circus, and that said cousin also knows the Torch well enough to know he'd join the circus if asked, it is a simple matter of some subtle sabotage to get said circus into economic trouble so they'd be on the lookout for a new star to get the Torch away from New York. And by executing said sabotage at carefully timed intervals as decided by cousin Bones' personality, as well as checking his walking pace, the time tables for Bones' trasportation of choice as decided from his personality, as well as taking any eventual distractions along the route he predicted Bones would take, he can deduce the time Bones will contact Torch, and the time Torch will take to make his desicion, and thus make it possible to have the Torch leave at whatever time he so wishes. It all make sense, it's all things that theoretically could be predicted, and that is the basis of the character. Likewise, the Thinker's shortcomings are clearly established, there are a lot of things he cannot predict. Case in point, Reed Richards does his work in his laboratory, which the Thinker has no way of peering into. Thus, there is no way he'd be able to know the exact devices Reed would've come up with, which also makes it impossible to plan a reception for the FF until after he's broken into the Baxter Building. The elaborate plans he comes up with take time to create, which is why he had to improvise a lot as he discovered Reed's devices - he simply didn't have time to come up with an exact deduction of how the FF would react when faced with their most potent weapons, so he simply rigged four different traps he hoped would diminish their number, if not defeat them completely, before making the most foolproof trap possible in his new sanctum sanctorum. And at the end, he ultimately failed because of these shortcomings - his inability to deduce that Reed had made a complete system override button and told the mailman to press it if they hadn't contacted him after a certain time. It would've been a simple matter of setting up an alternate power source for all the equipment, but the Thinker.. simply didn't think of it. The Thinker's powers are mostly personality-based, and Reed's planning got the best of him. This time. We all know he'll be back with a new plan, as he threatens - a plan that fully protects him against devices like this. We also get the debut of the Awesome Android, but despite his threatening appearance on the cover and splash page, he's simply used as another of the Thinker's traps, and is defeated rather fast for being built so perfectly up over the issue. He does serve as another demonstration of the Thinker's shortcomings, though - aided by Reed's notes, he is able to construct the ultimate warrior, a monster that cannot possibly be bested by the FF in battle - but he's sending it against it's creator, the very creator who knows it's construct, and the one weakness it has, so he simply had to hope said creator wouldn't be able to take advantage of it, not having time to make a proper battle prediction in time. It's also why he didn't gamble everything on the Android, as one would've assumed up to that point. A fine break from Bernstein, and while it's not comparable to classics like FF#6, #8 and #13, it's still one of the better books we've seen to date. And FF will eventually get much much better, something we should all look forward to. See, I can write positive reviews -- "Name of a thousand dragons, this is too much! I shall commit Hari-kari at once!" "So shall we - praised be our ancestors!" -All-Winners Comics #5
Comicsdad	Re: Journey into Mystery #93	#28	[-]
Posts: 3812 Apr 4 07 5:07 AM Bronze Age Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	*Quote:* Kirby may be back, but even he can't save this story - this is just dull. I'm not sure exactly how much Stan was involved in these tales, but the pacing is all Bernstein, and it's incredibly off. Not as bad as last issue, but still... I was wondering if Jack Kirby had much to do with plotting here. Many of his stories go full blast until the last page when they notice that "uh, we need to wrap this up really quick!" You're right, this is pretty dull issue. One historical note: JiM had cover date of June 1963, while the war between China and India took place between October 20 and November 20, 1962. So Stan & Co were a bit behind their times, but not much... Comicsdad
VisualFiction		#29	[-]
Posts: 13610 Aug 3 08 10:06 AM Golden Age Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	ToS 42 was a more interesting story than the cover gave me reason to believe. Heck didn't provide anything really memorable, but the story had Tony's secret discovered by a "Red", who would have revealed it if the Red Barbarian hadn't shot him first in anger. Actually there is that penultimate panel by Heck where the muzzle of the gun fires without a sound effect. Fairly dramatic illo. I like the panel where Tony is ambushed and shot, and only his metal chest plate saves his life. If the Actor wanted to save his knowledge of IM's secret identity for a rainy day, it kind of made no sense for him to tell his underlings to kill Stark. "Now we're getting off focus." - the Elder Son of Storytime
VisualFiction		#30	[-]
Posts: 13610 Aug 3 08 1:33 PM Golden Age Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	"These are my thoughts" about FF 15. I love the name and concept of the Mad Thinker. The way he knows down to the half-second what's going to happen. A great idea by Lee or Kirby or whoever. Even the way he talks: "these are my thoughts". It's hysterical when one mobster says, "I'm cuttin' out!" and the Thinker replies, "Naturally! I knew you would!" He knows about the Yancy Street Gang, he knows the janitor will leave a copy of an FF comic on a GE board meeting table, he knows a monkey will start a fire and destroy evidence. This is great stuff. I hope the Thinker makes many more appearances in the FF and the Marvel Universe. The story is also nice in that it makes the FF seem more human and real because they have their own individual personal desires. The floating-heads panel on pg10 is nice where they each reveal what they'll be doing from now on. I was expecting that the Thinker would be defeated because he viewed the members of the FF as "separate and distinct problems", and they would defeat himself because they are actually a team, a whole greater than its parts. It didn't turn out that way. The plot resolution was actually less than I'd hoped, but hopefully later battles with the Thinker will prove more complex and satisfying. A meteor crashes outside NY and not only does it not burn up in the atmosphere but the scientists and government don't know about it? The opening sequence, where the rest of the FF come running in response to Reed's flare, is reminiscent of the first-ever appearance of the FF. But why doesn't Sue's hair turn invisible, especially since that's the reason she gives for turning invisible in the first place? And how can the woman sitting next to her not recognize her when Sue is wearing her FF costume? Reed's posture in the center of the cover is dramatic. The Thing looks funny in a tutu. Reed's "one-celled" creature is anything but! And the Android being created from Reed's research, I'd forgotten that part. On pg19, the Thing drives home to the reader the fact that only Sue could have saved them from the Android. Maybe Sue was still getting hate mail. The first instance of the term "X-factor" in Marvel? Interesting that this issue was only 20 pages long, that seems like a first for the FF. I like the colorful red cover of JiM 93. But I really do prefer Sinnott's much larger faces and forms, compared to Kirby's. Kirby seems to use such small panels and small bodies. Maybe that'll change as time goes by. I did like how he illustrated the Radio-Active Man. (Why the hyphen?) Thor is hypnotized in this story. There has been no hypnostism in a Spidey story yet, probably the only one to not feature hynotism on a bi-monthly basis. I'm waiting. A couple nice features of the story: Blake is in surgery and can't come to the rescue as Thor. I like that. It reminds me of Spidey stories where Peter had to take care of Aunt May and couldn't fight the Goblin. Nice use of Blake's career interfering with his Thor persona. Also, it's a dramatic ending with Blake diving to the seabed to get his hammer and change to Thor. But how does a lame man swim down to the bottom? Nice 2nd panel on pg10 where Thor throws his big hammer at the reader. Thor can shoot lightning from his hands?? I don't really have anything to say about this month's Strange Tales. "Now we're getting off focus." - the Elder Son of Storytime
VisualFiction		#31	[-]
Posts: 13610 Aug 3 08 2:07 PM Golden Age Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Son of Storytime, the Elder, says about TOS #42: It was funny when he throwed his ham...I liked the throwing the ham! I liked that part too! And I even liked the way the ham was drawn, unlike Storytime the Father. So how come this weapon is never brought up again? Why doesn't the commies try to steal them a second time? How come the US government didn't end the cold war right away by threatening with this weapon? How come Iron Man never used it in his suit? It was in the briefcase. [The final monster, fear?] I dont know it, I dont know. [So you dont know the meaning of the word fear? Get it? Get it?] I know fear, Dad. Apparently Son of Storytime, the Elder, would burn at the touch of the Man-Thing! This is also the first time magic appears outside of the Thor comics...It adds a whole new dimension to things, and we will see it explored to a much greater extent in the next issues of Strange Tales. Nice point, Adam. I have to wonder at some of the view screens that crop up over and over in these stories--why exactly would Dr. Blake have an X-ray device that could see the bottom of the Hudson River? Sue's reaction when they first see Thinker: "Good grief!" ANOTHER power-mad genius for us to contend with!" It is entertaining to dwell a bit more on Mad Thinker's world view. The world is a clockwork machine, and he has enough computing power to predict everything that happens. Basically, this is Newtonian determinism taken to its logical conclusion. Whew! Thank goodness I wasn't the only one. When I started thinking about "closed universe" and "quantum indeterminacy", I couldn't believe I was inspired to such musings by FF 15. "Now we're getting off focus." - the Elder Son of Storytime
Comicsdad	Rawhide Kid #34 (cover date June 1963)	#32	[-]
Posts: 3812 Feb 7 12 7:13 AM Bronze Age Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	More Jack Davis stories, plotted (I guess) by Stan Lee plus one drawn by Kirby and Ayers. The first story "Deadly Draw of Mister Lightning" is a bit silly, in the end Kid is able to hit his opponent's bullet with his own. Hmm, shooting guns out of other people's hands might be possible, but this? Still, Mister Lighting is depicted quite well as he descends from being a circus performer to a crook. And then in the end he is revealed to be a COWARD. (Like they all are.) Shades of Travis Bickle? The second story ("Prisoner of the Apaches") is much more interesting. The "wagon boss" Ebenezer comes across as a completely unreasonable blowhard, barking orders at his wife and shooting at the Apache scout unprovoked. Kid takes the blame for that one (because there are women and children in the wagons), and the Apaches wait to see if the scout (son of the chief, see) survives. If he doesn't, well too bad for the Kid! In the end a) the scout gets better and b) Ebenezer realizes that he might need to adjust his attitude slightly. He even invites the Kid to ride with them, but of course he declines the invitation. Couple observations regarding Jack Davis's art. First, he has made a man out of the Kid! He's really beefed up now. Also, IMO the emotional range is wider now, look at the world-weary look on his face in this panel. Second, there are no backgrounds! Well, practically no backgrounds. This applies to interior shots, outdoors, everything. Perhaps Davis was just busy, and didn't want to spend too much time on details, but I must say the lack of backgrounds does distract from my enjoyment. I mean, look at this page. Most other people would have used the opportunity to set the scene with some plants, mountains, whatever, but... The third story is illustrated by Kirby and Ayers. Mark Morgan is a pioneer = When he has his farm, family etc., he has to pack up and conquer some more unclaimed land, to "civilize" it. Not very PC attitude nowadays, but the story is oddly touching, as one of the children dies, the family is threatened by "rustlers" etc. Here we have backgrounds, i.e. wild nature, in spades! Well done. ============= Comicsdad
Comicsdad	ToS #42 (Iron Man)	#33	[-]
Posts: 3812 Feb 8 12 6:01 AM Bronze Age Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Adamantno1 wrote: The Actor... is there any reason at all why a new characer had to be invented when they already have an established communist impersonator in the Chameleon? Sure, the Actor dies at the end, but it's not like the Chameleon was a fan favorite who couldn't be given a death like this. Bernstein probably didn't read Amazing Spider-Man... Heh, the almost universal consensus seems to be that this issue sucks. For sure, the plot doesn't make any sense, for the reasons many people have discussed. Let me also add that when Tony Stark impersonates the Actor impersonating the Iron Man visiting the Red Barbarian, how come Tony says he'll drop by "home"? The Actor had flown thousand miles to visit the "satellite" country. Ah well. Still, the issue is not without its humour. I actually thought the floating ham was hilarious. And early Marvels were full of Khrushchevs (or Comrade Ks), I really liked the way he (I know, it is really the Actor) looks here. And this panel just cracks me up. Iron Man walks in, very business-like, through the door. About the briefcase... Tony had clearly set it to self-destruct mode, and it just imploded due a special chemical treatment. Do I get a No-Prize? ============= Comicsdad
Comicsdad	ST #109 (Human Torch)	#34	[-]
Posts: 3812 Feb 11 12 5:10 PM Bronze Age Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Heh, charming throwback to the simpler days of the Atlas monsters. (Like the last issue!) Lots of humour in this issue, and I guess you could call even the Sorcerer's physical appearance comic relief... I guess Adam A Numero Uno mentioned that the pacing of the story was a bit off, meaning somewhat rushed ending. I must also mention that Bernstein missed a potentially crucial story element re: Pandora's Box. I mean, anyone who has actually read the story knows that there is also Hope inside as well, even if it is at the bottom. So maybe the ending could have utilized that nugget of information? Ah well. There is a certain free-wheeling quality to the art, sometimes more Kirby, sometimes more Ayers. Heh, is this really a human hand? ============= Comicsdad
Joseph William Marek	The Fantastic Four #15	#35	[-]
Posts: 4260 Jun 10 12 9:15 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Fantastic Four #15, June 1963 [published 12 March 63] Script: Stan Lee; Art: Jack Kirby; Inking Dick Ayers; Lettering: Art Simek I think this is the first issue that actually shows Johnny on a date; though he was trying to impress some starlet wannabes in issue no. 9. I would say Sue’s hair did turn invisible, but the curlers did not. “I’ve already managed to create a primitive form of one-celled life which lived for a few seconds!” – stop and think about what would happen this year if a scientist said something like that: protests, angry screams from the pulpit, congressional investigations, debates on its voting rights. “I have summoned you to help me form a gigantic kingdom of crime” – it’s my understanding such a thing did take place, in Philadelphia, many years before this issue appeared. The angle of the window and it occupants at the top of p7, was pretty cool. As an artist I can appreciate the design of this panel. How did Sue go from starring in a Broadway Show to appearing in a Hollywood movie? Did we miss something? And she says “At last I can dress the way I’ve always wanted to.” but she’s the one who designed the costumes, couldn’t she just have redesigned them if she didn’t like them? If a meteor the size on the one in the story hit New York’s “lower bay”, shouldn’t it cause a tsunami like the one that hit Japan last year? The Thinker is using an Electronic Hypno-Ray to camouflage his building. You know, if not for you guys complaining about such things, I wouldn’t even notice the over-abundance of hypnotism and related occurrences. The un-awesome android’s motor nerve terminal is on his right side, and so Sue immobilizes it by pushing on the left side! SIGH! Sue is the star of the moment to prove she’s a worthwhile member of the team. She will star again in FF17 and become a super-weapon in FF22. I was sort of under-whelmed by the FF Pin-Up. The lettercol was a mixture of fans who understood how groundbreaking the FF and the Marvel line were, and those with more conventional tastes. Source: Fantastic Four \| Silver Surfer: The Complete Collection, DVDrom -- Joe Anarchy and Chaos are the natural state of the human race. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And Chaos must always ultimately triumph. Last Edited By: Joseph William Marek Jun 11 12 3:54 AM. Edited 3 times.
Joseph William Marek	Tales of Suspense #42	#36	[-]
Posts: 4260 Jun 11 12 2:38 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tales of Suspense #42, June 1963 [published 12 March 63] Plot: Stan Lee, Script: R. Berns (Robert Bernstein), Art: Don Heck; Lettering: E. Thomas Robert Bernstein’s (1919-1988) career reached all the way back to the Golden Age. The Grand Comic Book Database lists his first work as being in Fox’s Fantastic Comics #9, August 1940. Familiar titles he appeared in were Captain Marvel Jr., Master Comics, Green Lantern, Marvel’s Wild Westen, Black Rider and Two-Gun Western. He wrote war comics for DC and went on to work for EC comics. He did a lot of super-hero work for DC in the mid- and late-’50s. Beginning in 1960 he wrote Congorilla, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Blackhawk, Superman and Superboy stories. During this time he also wrote for Archie’s The Fly and The Jaguar. His first Marvel Age story was “Iron Man versus Gargantus” and after leaving Marvel he continued to work for Dell, Archie and DC. His last known comics work are the two stories in The Shadow #3 (Nov. 1964). He was also a playwright and concert impresario, notable as the founder of the Island Concert Hall. Bernstein's one-act plays received a posthumous performance in 1993 at the Arena Players Repertory Theater in East Farmingdale, Long Island. Well, the Red Barbarian is aptly named; quite the bully, isn’t he? I really do feel the opening parts of a Bernstein story are necessary to establish the elements of that story, especially if the hero is going to resolve the conflict with his wits rather than just with pure strength. Any holes in the story probably come from Stan’s plot. Source: The Invincible Iron Man: The Complete Collection, DVDrom -- Joe Anarchy and Chaos are the natural state of the human race. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And Chaos must always ultimately triumph.
Joseph William Marek	Strange Tales #109	#37	[-]
Posts: 4260 Jun 11 12 3:10 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Strange Tales #109, June 1963 [published 12 March 63] Plot: Stan Lee, Script: R. Berns (Robert Bernstein); Art: Jack Kirby; Inking: Dick Ayers; Lettering: Marty Epp The Fantastic Four part is well-written! Johnny appears to be a basketball star too (which explains a lot of his demeanor). I too disagree with the Torch on property rights. Add theft to the Torch’s sins too; Pandora’s Box wasn’t his to weld shut and drop in the deepest part of the ocean. I really like Bernstein’s two tales of the Human Torch. Like I said, they have a mythic feel to them, a classic feel. To me, they are ideal Human Torch stories. I’m quite pleased with them. Source: Essential Human Torch Also on sale during March, 1963: Gunsmoke Western #76, Rawhide Kid #34, Patsy and Hedy #88 and Love Romances #105 . -- Joe Anarchy and Chaos are the natural state of the human race. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And Chaos must always ultimately triumph.
Joseph William Marek	Journey into Mystery #93	#38	[-]
Posts: 4260 Jun 11 12 3:52 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Journey into Mystery #93, June 1963 [published 2 Apr 63] Plot: Stan Lee; Script: R. Berns (Robert Bernstein); Art: Jack Kirby; Inking: Dick Ayers; Lettering: Ray Holloway This is the second time Dr. Blake has volunteered to assist a military mission (see JiM84). One can then presume that this is part of his nature, and not a one time thing. At the bottom of page three, what those tanks need are NOT minor repairs. I’m glad as time goes by there were fewer Communist stories. Stan and his writers could certainly ladle it on pretty think. The Radio-Active man is an interesting villain, I think he ranks up there on the unique scale – but maybe the construction of the story could have been a little different. I am okay with Thor shooting lightning from his hands. In fact, I think it looks pretty cool. I really don’t think Dr. Blake would proclaim “Holy Hypos!” Bernstein has obviously written too many DC comics at this point! I hate when they do this. For Dr. Blake to be able to whip up a device to track his hammer just strains credibility (or is it credulity?). The ending did seem a little abrupt. I’ll agree to that one. Source: Essential Thor Vol. 1 -- Joe Anarchy and Chaos are the natural state of the human race. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And Chaos must always ultimately triumph. Last Edited By: Joseph William Marek Jun 11 12 3:58 AM. Edited 1 times.
VisualFiction		#39	[-]
Posts: 13610 Jun 11 12 8:37 PM Golden Age Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	“I’ve already managed to create a primitive form of one-celled life which lived for a few seconds!” – stop and think about what would happen this year if a scientist said something like that: protests, angry screams from the pulpit, congressional investigations, debates on its voting rights. Very nice comment. And she says “At last I can dress the way I’ve always wanted to.” but she’s the one who designed the costumes, couldn’t she just have redesigned them if she didn’t like them? I hope you'll enjoy Sue's changing hairstyles from issue to issue. The Thinker is using an Electronic Hypno-Ray to camouflage his building. You know, if not for you guys complaining about such things, I wouldn’t even notice the over-abundance of hypnotism and related occurrences. You were...lulled...by their very regularity. Sue is the star of the moment to prove she’s a worthwhile member of the team. She will star again in FF17 and become a super-weapon in FF22. Weapon F. I am okay with Thor shooting lightning from his hands. In fact, I think it looks pretty cool. I didn't say I don't like it...it would've been interesting to see it used again (assuming it wasn't...). Guest Villian: Electro. There's one thing that you'll never understand - and that's a woman constructed from corpses or electronics.

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Marvel Masterworks Marathon Part 15: June 1963