It's relatively commonly known that rock newspaper Rolling Stone did a big cover story on the Marvel Comics phenomenon in 1972, emblazoning a Herb Trimpe Hulk on the cover of the magazine. What is less known (and I didn't realize this myself until just recently) is that the United Kingdom version of Rolling Stone ran … Continue reading Marvel Comix: Rolling Stone (UK edition) October 18, 1969
Here's another interesting novelty sent my way by Mark Waid. It's got a bit of an interesting history to it, which is why I'm featuring it. We're going to look at a 1940s Captain Marvel story the way it saw print in Canada back in 1942. As you'll see, this wasn't a straight reprint of … Continue reading The Canadian Captain Marvel Comics #10
Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies was a documentary comic strip that ran in the pages of the Village Voice for just over twenty years starting in 1974. Its creator and author, Stan Mack, created the strip by overhearing and transcribing conversations between real people and then dramatizing them on the page. And in this particular … Continue reading Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies: Inside Marvel Comics
As many know, and as we've talked about here in the past, the Marvel characters first came to television in 1966, in the form of a syndicated animated series produced by Grantray-Lawrence. The series ran five days a week and featured five Marvel characters: Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America and the Sub-Mariner. But … Continue reading The Imaginary Spider-Man Episodes of the Grantray-Lawrence Marvel Super Heroes 1966 Cartoon
The wrap-up to our sequence on this self-published book Stan Lee put out in 1947 giving detailed information about the comic book business (albeit detailed information aimed at a relatively young readership.) Al Jaffee just celebrated his 100th birthday last month, and was a regular and celebrated contributor to MAD Magazine for many decades, responsible … Continue reading Secrets Behind the Comics 6
More from the pages of this how-to pamphlet that Stan Lee self-published in 1947 Morris Weiss was a writer and artist for Timely in 1947, and here his working day is fictionalized by Stan. Apparently Morris and his wife Blanche would routinely talk about Stan Lee day to day. This definition of a synopsis is … Continue reading Secrets Behind the Comics 5
Continuing on in our review of this 1947 behind-the-scenes pamphlet published by Timely editor Stan Lee Here, Stan brings back Mario Acquaviva to talk about the skills involved in lettering comics, and he shows off some pages from a recent Sub-Mariner story. I have no idea where this story actually ran, so I can't pull … Continue reading Secrets Behind The Comics 4
More secrets revealed by Stan Lee in 1947! Alan Sulman isn't terribly well remembered these days. So it's nice to have these names and caricatures. It's also nice to see what a script looked like at Timely in 1947. Stan helpfully provides empty panel layouts for the readers of this book. Syd Shores was a … Continue reading Secrets Behind The Comics 3
Here's the second portion of SECRETS BEHIND THE COMICS, editor Stan Lee's self-published pamphlet which purported to give the inside story on how comic books were made. Even in 1947--and this applied to virtually all of the publishing house of the period, not just Timely--the Editor was the Key Man. This section does give us … Continue reading Secrets Behind the Comics 2
In 1947, still more than a decade before the Marvel revolution that would forever change the comic book industry and make his name a household word, Stan Lee toiled in obscurity at the editor of Martin Goodman's Timely Comics. It was a safe postwar job to go back to, but not one with a lot … Continue reading Secrets Behind the Comics 1
The Tom Brevoort Experience 