CONTENTS

How to use this eBook

Foreword

Stan Lee

Introduction

Tom DeFalco

1939

Peter Sanderson

1940s

Peter Sanderson

1950s

Tom Brevoort

1960s

Tom DeFalco

1970s

Peter Sanderson

1980s

Tom DeFalco

1990s

Matthew K. Manning

2000s

Matthew K. Manning

2010s

Matthew K. Manning, Stephen (Win) Wiacek

2020s

Stephen (Win) Wiacek

Acknowledgments

Copyright

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FOREWORD

Hi, Heroes!

Believe it or not, there was once a world without Marvel Comics!

Mighty Marvel was originally known as Timely Comics. Timely published all sorts of titles: westerns, comedy, romance, animation, monsters—you name it, we did it.

Then came that fateful day in 1962 when we gave a grateful human race the first issue of The Fantastic Four. It was so successful that we immediately followed with The Uncanny X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, and The Amazing Spider-Man. (You can see, I’m particularly partial to adjectives.)

As our sales went through the roof, our success proved to be the death knell of Timely Comics. I decided then and there that we needed a new name to reflect the growing popularity of our expanding Super Hero line.

And so—I dreamed up Marvel Comics. I loved that name because it lent itself to slogans and catch-phrases like: Make Mine Marvel!, Marvel Marches On!, and Welcome to the Marvel Age of Comics!

It seemed that nothing could stop us. Before long we had added such titles as Iron Man, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, Sgt. Fury And His Howling Commandos, later followed by Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD.

We also introduced such off-beat characters as The Silver Surfer, Ant Man, The Inhumans, The Watcher, Galactus, The Punisher—gosh, I could go on and on.

But I must confess that I have a particularly warm spot in my heart for our villains. Charismatic as the heroes may be, their victories over the super-powered bad guys give them their greatest glory. After all, who has not thrilled to the titanic threats of such evil-mongers as Dr. Doom, The Green Goblin, The Abomination, Magneto, The Vulture, Bullseye, The Dread Dormammu, The Super Skrulls, The Mole Man, The Kingpin, The Scorpion, Dragon Man, Kraven the Hunter—and those are just the tip of the Marvel mountain of menace.

Still, even though I dreamt up all the quaintly capricious characters I’ve been telling you about, chances are they’d never have become so successful if not for the incredible contributions of the superbly talented artists with whom I worked.

You see, I merely gave a brief outline of each story to artists like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, to mention just two of our major stars. With outline in hand, they would then draw the actual strip without any further instructions from me. When finished, the illustrated pages would be returned to me and I would add all the dialogue, captions, and occasional sound effects. It was truly a collaborative effort consisting of three elements: 1) My original story. 2) The artist’s illustrated interpretation of that story. 3) The dialogue which fleshed out the story and gave the characters their personality.

Everything we’ve done has been for just one purpose—to guarantee you hours of reading enjoyment. I fervently hope we’ve succeeded.

Excelsior!

Stan Lee

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INTRODUCTION

Hoo-Ha!

That was my first reaction when I heard that my fabulous friends at dashing DK were planning to assemble a history of Marvel Comics—a veritable month by month, year by year chronology that would list the major events (and lots of the minor ones) of the most captivating comic book company of all time!

The titanic tome would start at the very beginning of the company we now know as Marvel Comics, and take us on a wondrous ride back through time to when it was called Timely Comics (1939–1950) and then Atlas Comics (1951–1961). We would journey through the Golden Age of Comics (1938–1955), the Silver Age (1956–1969), the Bronze Age (1970–1979), and through to the Modern Age of Comics (1980–the present).

Of course, my enthusiasm came to an abrupt halt once I realized that those cunning con artists at dastardly DK wanted me to work on the blasted thing. That would require hours of digging through old comics (hey, could be fun), researching old newspaper and magazine articles (sounds interesting), and rummaging through my own rather malfunctioning memory (a total waste of time!). A project as prodigious as this would require more than mere facts! It would demand personal observations, anecdotes, and educated insights into what may have inspired certain creations. (What the heck did Stan Lee have for dinner the night before he wrote The Threat of Tim Boo Ba for Journey Into Mystery?!?)

But wait! Already I could foresee a problem. We would have to base the entire chronology on the cover dates that appeared on the actual comic books—and that would be CRAZY! Here’s a secret: a cover date on a comic book bears no relationship to reality. Let’s say Banana Man first debuted in a September-dated comic. The truth is, he had really been created months earlier. As one who has produced a fair number of these four-color fantasies (well, they only had four colors when I started, as opposed to the thousands available now) I know that for a September-dated comic, the writer submits his part in January. The penciller illustrates the job in February. It is scripted, inked, lettered, colored, and edited in March. In the old days, it then took three months for a comic to be printed and distributed. (It takes only one now.)

However, here’s the really wacky part—a book with a cover date of September would usually go on sale in June. (In the 1940s and 1950s, that cover date might have even been October or November.) Comic book dates weren’t supposed to tell you when they went on sale. Their job was to tell the person who ran the newsstand when to take them off sale, when they could safely be removed from the old spinner racks (remember them?) and returned to the company.

Bah! As long as we keep this secret between you and me, no one else will ever realize how ridiculous it is to base this chronology on cover dates!

I’m through rambling. It’s time to turn the page and enjoy the wonderment that awaits!

Face front, True Believer!

Tom DeFalco

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1939

IN THE

BEGINNING

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The modern American comic book, as we know it today, began to take form in 1929 and gathered momentum in the mid-1930s. However, it was in 1938 that the comic book became truly popular. That was the year in which Detective Comics’ Action Comics #1 was published, featuring the first appearance of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s creation Superman, the first of the Super Heroes.

Action Comics was so successful that other publishers wanted to produce comic books and Super Heroes of their own. One of these men was Martin Goodman, a publisher of pulp magazines. In 1936, he released Ka-Zar, the first of his pulp magazines based on a continuing character. A white man turned lord of an African jungle, Ka-Zar was in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Tarzan. In 1938, Goodman started a science fiction magazine with a title that would serve him well in the future: Marvel Science Stories, which later became Marvel Tales.

In 1939, Frank Torpey, the sales manager of a company called Funnies, Inc., persuaded Goodman to start publishing comics. Goodman called his comic book line Timely Publications, and his first comic book, which had a cover date of October, 1939, had a familiar name: Marvel Comics #1.

1939 In The Beginning | Contents

OCTOBER

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OCTOBER

A SUPER HERO START

Something went wrong with my figurings somewhere. Everytime this robot the Human Torch contacts oxygen in the air he bursts into flame!

• Marvel Comics #1

The first issue of Marvel Comics introduced a pair of characters who would become two of Timely’s greatest stars of the Golden Age of Comics, the period from 1938 through the 1940s. The original Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner were both Super Heroes, but they were far from being imitations of Siegel and Shuster’s Superman. They were like modern elementals: the Torch, who literally burst into flame, embodied fire, and the Sub-Mariner, the prince of an underwater kingdom, represented water.

More importantly, neither the Torch nor the Sub-Mariner were conventional heroic figures. The misnamed Human Torch was not truly human, but an android—a robot in human form—who initially ran amok after escaping his creator in his first story. Magazine illustrator Frank R. Paul made the Torch look like a truly frightening menace on the cover of Marvel Comics #1. The Sub-Mariner was not only half-human, he was also an active enemy of the human race. The Torch and Sub-Mariner foreshadowed the path that Marvel would take in the 1960s, presenting Super Heroes who were outsiders in normal society.

Among the many other characters introduced in Marvel Comics #1 was the company’s first Western hero, the Masked Raider, who was created by writer/artist Al Anders. Meanwhile, the original Ka-Zar, who had featured in Martin Goodman’s pulp magazine, made his comics debut. This jungle hero, whose real name was David Rand, would go on to inspire the creation of Kevin Plunder, Marvel’s present day Ka-Zar.

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NAMOR THE SUB-MARINER

Here is the Sub-Mariner! An ultra man of the deep... lives on land and in the sea... flies in the air... has the strength of a thousand men.

• Marvel Comics #1

Writer/artist Bill Everett originally created Namor the Sub-Mariner in 1939 for an eight page title called Motion Picture Funnies Weekly. Produced by Funnies, Inc., this black-and-white magazine was intended to be handed out in movie theaters, but this idea fell through. So when Funnies, Inc. packaged Marvel Comics #1 for Martin Goodman, Everett added four pages to his story, which finally saw print in color.

Namor (Roman spelled backwards) was the grandson of Thakorr, the ruler of a vast undersea empire in the Antarctic. Everett referred to Namor’s water-breathing race as sub-mariners. Later, they would be called Atlanteans, a blue-skinned offshoot of humanity who originally founded their nation on the ruins of sunken Atlantis.

Namor, however, was different from other sub-mariners, being half human. His father was Captain Leonard McKenzie, an Antarctic explorer, who encountered Princess Fen, Thakorr’s daughter. They fell in love, but McKenzie’s expedition was wiped out by Atlanteans who came after Fen. (McKenzie would turn up alive decades later.) Fen bore McKenzie’s son, Namor, who had the same skin color as his father, could breathe in and out of water, and possessed vast superhuman strength. He could even fly using small wings on his ankles.

When humans in diving suits appeared near his kingdom, Thakorr assumed that they were advance scouts for an invasion and ordered Namor to attack New York City. Amazingly, in the year that World War II began, Bill Everett created a series that enabled readers to understand the point of view of a character with his own moral code who regarded America as the enemy.

THE ORIGINAL HUMAN TORCH

• Marvel Comics #1

Conceived by writer/artist Carl Burgos, the original Torch inspired the creation of Johnny Storm, the Human Torch of the Fantastic Four. When Professor Phineas T. Horton displayed his most important creation, the Human Torch, the android burst into flame. Surprisingly, he was unharmed. In a bid to control the Torch, Horton entrapped him, but he escaped, wreaking havoc. The Torch later learned to control his flame power and became a crime-fighting Super Hero.

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THE FIRST ANGEL

• Marvel Comics #1

One of Timely’s leading stars was the crime-fighter known as the Angel, who made his debut in November and would appear in over one hundred stories during the comics’ Golden Age. He was created by writer/artist Paul Gustavson, who took inspiration from author Leslie Charteris’s fictional adventurer called the Saint. The Angel, whose real name was Tom Hallaway, wore a superheroic costume, although he had no superhuman abilities. He later received the mystic cape of Mercury, which allowed him to fly. Over twenty years later, editor Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby would reuse the name Angel for the winged member of their original X-Men.

DK Martin Goodman hired writer/artist Joe Simon to be Timely’s first Editor-in-Chief in late 1939.

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Ka-Zar first appeared in the self-titled pulp magazine in October, 1936.

MEANWHILE IN 1939...

VICTORY FOR GENERAL FRANCO

The Spanish Civil War comes to an end when the last Republican forces surrender to General Francisco Franco’s Nationalist forces.

MOLOTOV-RIBBENTROP PACT

Amidst a sense of coming war in Europe, Germany and the USSR sign a non-aggression pact. The agreement also states how the two nations would divide other European countries between themselves.

WORLD WAR II BEGINS

Hitler’s invasion of Poland on September 1 is quickly followed by a declaration of war from Britain and France.

THE MANHATTAN PROJECT

Albert Einstein writes to President Roosevelt about the possibility of developing an atomic bomb. His letter leads to the Manhattan Project, an initiative between the US, Canada, and Britain to develop the first nuclear bomb.

SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION

The First World Science Fiction Convention is held over three days in New York.

THE FIRST FROZEN PRECOOKED MEALS ON SALE

Birds Eye creates the first precooked meals to be sold frozen.

AND AT THE MOVIES...

Gone with the Wind, epic, fiery, melodrama set in the Civil War South, with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh; Stagecoach, this western dIspatches a disparate group of frontier archetypes into dangerous territory; The Wizard of Oz, technicolor musical fantasy in which Judy Garland’s Dorothy seeks her safe return from Oz by following the Yellow Brick Road.

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NAMOR SURFACES

In these ominous opening pages to the Sub-Mariner’s debut in Marvel Comics #1 (Oct., 1939), divers descended beneath the ocean depths, never to return. Thinking them to be robots, the Sub-Mariner killed the divers and then wrecked their ship. Upon discovering that the divers were humans, the undersea emperor Thakorr sent the Sub-Mariner to attack the surface world to deter further invaders of his realm. This first Sub-Mariner story was given a special flavor of mystery and excitement by the stylized draughtsmanship of the character’s creator, Bill Everett.

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1940s

The story of Marvel Comics began with an amazing burst of creativity. When Timely published its first comic, Marvel Comics #1, in 1939, America was still suffering from the Great Depression and Europe was engulfed by World War II. American pop culture responded with a new sort of hero: the Super Hero, an individual who could take on the great threats that menaced the world. In the three years from 1939 to 1941, the first great Marvel Super Heroes appeared: the Sub-Mariner, the original Human Torch, and Captain America. Once America entered World War II, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s Captain America Comics sold nearly one million copies per issue. Yet, once the war was over, tastes radically changed. Timely pursued one new trend after another: funny animals, teen comedy, crime, westerns, and romance. Within a decade, Super Heroes had fallen into oblivion, and the comic book industry was on the brink of disaster. Meanwhile, a teenage office assistant named Stanley Lieber had become Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief. This was Stan Lee, the man who would one day revolutionize and reenergize Super Hero comics...

1940s | Contents

1940 Simon, Lee, And Kirby

1941 Heroes Versus Hitler

1942 Timely Goes To War

1943 Diverse Directions

1944 The First Marvel Movie

1945 Changing Audiences

1946 A New Team Spirit

1947 A Timely Identity Crisis

1948 Timely’s Bullpen

1949 The Gathering Storm

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1940

SIMON, LEE,

AND KIRBY

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Initially relying on Funnies, Inc. to produce comics for him, Timely publisher Martin Goodman gradually formed his own staff. By the end of 1940 Timely had employed three of the most important figures in Marvel’s—and comics’—history.

First, in the fall of 1939, Goodman hired writer/artist Joe Simon away from Funnies, Inc. to work as Timely’s Editor-in-Chief. In 1940, Simon was joined on staff by his collaborator, artist Jack Kirby. Working closely together on both writing and art, Simon and Kirby devised a new, dynamic style of visual storytelling for the comic book medium. Toward the end of 1940, Simon and Kirby got an assistant, the teenage cousin of Goodman’s wife. Who could have imagined that young Stanley Lieber would become world-famous as Marvel writer, Editor-in-Chief, and publisher Stan Lee?

1940s | 1940 SIMON, LEE, AND KIRBY

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

JUNE

AUGUST

FALL

SEPTEMBER

NOVEMBER

ALSO...

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JANUARY

MASTER OF COVER ART

• Marvel Mystery Comics #3

With its second issue Marvel Comics was renamed Marvel Mystery Comics. Issue #3, along with the new Timely comic Daring Mystery Comics #1 (Feb.), bore the company’s first covers by artist Alex Schomburg. Born in Puerto Rico in 1905, Schomburg became the principal Timely cover artist of the 1940s. Stan Lee later said that, Alex Schomburg was to comic books what Norman Rockwell was to The Saturday Evening Post.

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BETTY DEAN DEBUTs

• Marvel Mystery Comics #3

When the Sub-Mariner attacked New York City, policewoman Betty Dean undertook a courageous scheme to capture him. Betty pretended to be drowning and, when Namor investigated, she pointed a gun at him, intending to take him to the authorities. Despite this initial clash, Betty later became Namor’s friend and ally.

DK Joe Simon created, wrote, and drew the adventure strip The Fiery Mask in Daring Mystery Comics #1.

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FEBRUARY

NAMOR VS. NAZIS

• Marvel Mystery Comics #4

Although the US would not enter World War II until 1941, Timely began its own war on Nazi Germany. Policewoman Betty Dean managed to persuade Namor that the Nazis were his enemies and so the Sub-Mariner battled a German U-boat in this issue.

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JUNE

THE START OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE

• Marvel Mystery Comics #8

By revealing that Namor and the Torch existed in the same fictional world, the crossover story in this issue began to establish the concept of the Marvel Universe. Waging a one-man war on the United States, the Sub-Mariner destroyed the top of the Empire State Building, the Bronx Zoo, and the George Washington Bridge. At the end of this issue, the Human Torch confronted Namor, and their first great battle continued into the following comic.

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AUGUST

THIN MAN AND BLACK WIDOW

• Mystic Comics #4

This issue introduced Bruce Dickson, alias the Thin Man, a Super Hero who was endowed by a lost civilization with the power to flatten and stretch his body. Black Widow also debuted, slaying evildoers to send their souls to her master, Satan.

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FIRST EPONYMOUS HERO

• Red Raven Comics #1

The first Timely hero to become the title hero of his own comic book was the Red Raven, created by Joe Simon and artist Louis Cazeneuve. Unfortunately, Red Raven Comics was not successful and did not see a second issue.

DK Red Raven Comics #1 also featured Mercury In The 20th Century, a story drawn by Jack Kirby about the Roman God.

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FALL

TORCH MEETS TORO

Toro—henceforth you shall be known as... Toro, the flame kid—there’ll be a fortune in it for all of us.

• The Human Torch #2

When Red Raven Comics proved unsuccessful, Timely changed the title and the lead character but continued the numbering. Thus, the first issue of The Human Torch was numbered as issue two.

In the 1940s, it became a popular trend to give a Super Hero a teenage sidekick. It was presumed that comics’ young readers would identify with the boy sidekick. Thus, they could imagine themselves vicariously going on adventures with the lead hero, who became a father figure to his young sidekick. Since the original Human Torch was actually an artificially constructed android, giving him a son would further humanize him.

Hence, in The Human Torch #2, the Torch found Toro, a boy performing in a circus as a fire-eater, who was somehow immune to flames. When the Torch came near the boy, Toro burst into flame, while remaining unharmed. The Torch realized that Toro had the same super-powers as himself and he mentored Toro in the use of his powers. Together they became a crime-fighting team.

Toro’s real name was Thomas Raymond. In later decades Marvel would solve the mystery of how Toro acquired his super-powers by establishing that he was a mutant, making him one of the first mutants to appear in a Marvel (then Timely) comic.

Toro remained the Torch’s sidekick until 1948, when he was supplanted by Sun Girl. Toro teamed with the Torch when the latter’s series was briefly revived in April, 1954. The adult Toro perished heroically in battling his mentor’s enemy, the Mad Thinker, in Sub-Mariner #14 (June, 1969).

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1940s | 1940 SIMON, LEE, AND KIRBY

STAN THE BOY

Starting in late 1940, editor Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby had their own kid sidekick: seventeen-year-old Stanley Martin Lieber. At first Stan was merely a gofer, performing mundane chores and errands.

Stan dreamed of becoming a writer, and Simon gave him the opportunity. In this era, society looked down on comic books, and, Stan later said, I felt someday I’d be writing The Great American Novel and I didn’t want to use my real name on these silly little comics. So he tried various pseudonyms, settling on Stan Lee. Ironically, it was comics that made him famous, and Stanley Lieber eventually legally changed his name to Stan Lee.

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SEPTEMBER

THE FIRST MARVEL BOY

• Daring Mystery Comics #6

Editor Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby only did one story about Martin Burns, alias the Super Hero Marvel Boy, but it was memorable. Marvel Boy battled spies serving a foreign dictator named Hiller, but it was clear that the villains were really the Nazis.

Simon and Kirby created the original Marvel Boy (shown here), whose name was reused in 1950 by a Super Hero created by writer Stan Lee and artist Russ Heath.

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NOVEMBER

BEHOLD THE VISION

• Marvel Mystery Comics #13

Another creation by the team of editor Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby was the original Vision. Also known as Aarkus, Vision was an eerie, green-skinned being from another dimension, who could appear out of smoke to battle criminals on Earth. Aarkus inspired writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema to create the modern android Vision, who first appeared in The Avengers #57 (Oct., 1968).

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ALSO...

THE KING OF COMICS

The most important and influential artist in the history of Marvel Comics, Jack Kirby was born as Jacob Kurtzberg in 1917 and grew up on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. As a boy he belonged to the Suffolk Street Gang, the inspiration for the Yancy Street Gang in Fantastic Four. A self-taught artist, Kirby became an assistant animator on Popeye cartoons at the Max Fleischer Studio. Later Kirby worked on comics for the great cartoonist Will Eisner at the legendary Eisner-Iger studio. Kirby first met Joe Simon when they both worked for Fox Comics and Kirby followed Simon to Timely; they would remain a creative team for nearly two decades.

MEANWHILE IN 1940...

FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN ON A POSTAGE STAMP

The educator and leader of the African-American community, Booker T. Washington, is the first Black man to be honored on a US postage stamp.

NEW PRIME MINISTER IN BRITAIN

In Britain, Winston Churchill faces the challenges of leading a country at war when he becomes Prime Minister after Neville Chamberlain resigns.

NYLON STOCKINGS ON SALE

The first nylon stockings go on sale in New York. They are so popular that more than 780,000 pairs are sold on the first day.

OPERATION DYNAMO AT DUNKIRK

350,000 British, French, and Belgian troops are evacuated from Dunkirk by boat when they become encircled by German forces.

THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN

The Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe battle in the skies over Britain. In mid-September, Hitler postpones his invasion due to heavy losses.

A SECOND FILM FROM DISNEY

RKO distributes Pinocchio, Walt Disney’s second full-length animated film, which follows the success of Disney’s first movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released in 1937.

AND AT THE MOVIES...

The Grapes Of Wrath, America’s Depression-era, dustbowl tragedy is vividly recreated in John Ford’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel of dispossessed farmers trekking to California; His Girl Friday, Howard Hawks’s frantic, theatrical comedy features the fastest dialogue ever filmed in this newsroom-centred battle of the sexes; Rebecca, Hitchcock’s tense, atmospheric adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s tale of a woman haunted by the spirit of her new husband’s dead wife.

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1941

HEROES

VERSUS HITLER

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In 1941, isolationists in the United States put up considerable resistance to becoming involved in what they saw as Europe’s war. However, Timely publisher Martin Goodman and the team of editor Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby believed that the Nazis were a worldwide threat. Timely characters such as the Sub-Mariner were already combatting the Nazis. Simon and Kirby decided to create another hero who was their response to totalitarian tyranny abroad. On the cover of Captain America Comics #1, they portrayed their new creation, Captain America, dressed in a uniform bearing the colors, stars, and stripes of the American flag, and punching Adolf Hitler in the jaw.

Cap was not the first patriotically themed Super Hero, but he would become the most enduring. He was also Timely’s most popular hero, with nearly a million copies of his comic sold per month.

1941 Heroes Versus Hitler | CONTENTS

SPRING

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

SUMMER

AUGUST

FALL

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

ALSO...

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SPRING

NAMOR VS. NAZIS

• The Sub-Mariner #1

One of Timely’s stars, Namor the Sub-Mariner, became the title character of his own comic book in the spring. Alex Schomburg’s powerful cover significantly showed Namor employing his incredible strength to overturn a German submarine full of Nazi soldiers.

DK Jeff Mace, the costumed hero called the Patriot, was created by writer Ray Gill and artist Bill Everett in The Human Torch #4.

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MARCH

STARS AND STRIPES

We shall call you Captain America, son! Because, like you—America shall gain the strength and the will to safeguard our shores!

• Captain America Comics #1

In March, Captain America made his patriotic debut. A frail youth named Steve Rogers was determined to join the army and serve his country in these perilous times. Rogers was declared unfit for service and rejected, but his fervor impressed an army officer and Rogers was offered the opportunity to become part of a secret experiment. Professor Reinstein administered his super-soldier serum to the youth, which transformed Rogers into a physically perfect human being. Realizing that Reinstein’s plan to create an army of American super-soldiers could work, a Nazi secret agent shot the professor dead. Rogers quickly overpowered the assassin. But the secret of the serum died with Reinstein, and Steve Rogers would be the only one of his kind.

The government turned Rogers into their special costumed agent, Captain America, who represented traditional American ideals and the will to fight for them. Originally he carried a triangular shield, which was soon replaced by a round shield that proved to be indestructible. Steve Rogers was now in the army. When army mascot Bucky Barnes discovered that Private Rogers was secretly Captain America, the Captain made Bucky his costumed sidekick.

Writer Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby established virtually all of this in their origin story in the first issue of Captain America Comics. They would produce the first ten issues of the comic before leaving the company after a falling out with publisher Martin Goodman. In March, 1964, artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee would revive Captain America for a new generation of readers in The Avengers #4.

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THE RED SKULL

• Captain America Comics #1

Since Captain America represented the spirit of American liberty and democracy, then inevitably his archenemy would be the embodiment of oppression and totalitarianism. In Captain America Comics #1 editor Joe Simon, artist Jack Kirby, and scripter Ed Herron introduced that enemy: the Red Skull, a Nazi mastermind who wore a blood-red death’s-head mask. (Actually, the Red Skull in issue #1 was unmasked as an impostor; the real Red Skull turned up in issue #7 in October.) The first great Marvel Super Villain, the Red Skull continued to menace humanity decades after the fall of Nazi Germany. Not even apparent—or actual—death stopped the Red Skull for long.

DK Mystic Comics #5 introduced two new Super Heroes, the Black Marvel and also the Blazing Skull, who foreshadowed Ghost Rider.

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APRIL

DARING NEW HEROES

• Daring Mystery Comics #7

This issue introduced Elton Morrow, who became the superheroic Blue Diamond with diamond-hard skin. Bill Everett, creator of the Sub-Mariner, came up with another seagoing Super Hero, Lt. Peter Noble, alias the Fin.

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MAY

STAN LEE’S FIRST STORY

• Captain America Comics #3

Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s assistant Stanley Lieber wrote his first story for Timely, a text story called Captain America Foils the Traitor’s Revenge. It was also his first Super Hero story, and the first work he signed using his new pen name of Stan Lee.

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SUMMER

THE TEAMS OF SUMMER

• Young Allies Comics #1

Super Hero sidekicks Bucky and Toro teamed up with kids named Jeff, Knuckles, Tubby, and Whitewash as the Young Allies in this issue. Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in a text story in Captain America Comics #4, they were originally called the Sentinels of Liberty.

DK In All Winners Comics #1 Captain America, the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, the Angel, and the Black Marvel teamed up.

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AUGUST

THE WHIZZER

• U.S.A. Comics #1

In the unlikeliest of origin stories, the blood of a mongoose endowed Bob Frank with the ability to move at superhuman speed. He became the costumed Super Hero called the Whizzer, who later joined the All Winners Squad and married his superheroic colleague Miss America. First drawn by Al Avison, the Golden Age Whizzer would go on to inspire the names of super-speedsters in both the Squadron Supreme and Squadron Sinister.

DK Captain America Comics #5 included Stan Lee’s first actual comics story entitled ‘Headline’ Hunter, Foreign Correspondent.

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JACK FROST

• U.S.A. Comics #1

Jack Frost, who debuted in this issue, was one of the first heroes co-created by writer Stan Lee. Frost could generate intense cold, and freeze water vapor in the air into solid ice. Both his powers and his appearance resembled those of a later Stan Lee co-creation, Iceman of the X-Men.

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FALL

THE GREAT FLOOD

• The Human Torch #5

As many as a dozen comics writers and artists congregated in artist Bill Everett’s apartment for a weekend to create this classic sixty-page story featuring the greatest battle between the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner. It also represented the pinnacle of the Sub-Mariner’s war against the human race. Aptly titled The World Faces Destruction, it climaxed when Namor unleashed the great anti-American blitz: a mammoth tidal wave that flooded and devastated Manhattan!

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SEPTEMBER

FATHER TIME

• Captain America Comics #6

Another of Stan Lee’s early co-creations was Larry Scott, alias Father Time, a Super Hero who wore a hood and carried a scythe. In March, 1991, Marvel writer Mark Gruenwald reused the name Father Time for a member of the Elders of the Universe.

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OCTOBER

THE DESTROYER’S WRATH

• Mystic Comics #6

The most significant and successful of Stan Lee’s early co-creations was the Destroyer. First drawn by Jack Binder, the Destroyer was reporter Kevin Marlow, who was accused of spying in Nazi Germany and imprisoned in a concentration camp. There, a scientist gave Marlow a serum that enhanced his physical abilities. Escaping, Marlow assumed the costumed identity of the Destroyer, wearing an inhuman mask and a death’s-head insignia, to combat the Nazis.

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ALSO...

STAN THE MAN

When Editor-in-Chief Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby left Timely in late 1941, the only person left on staff to step up to the job of Editor-in-Chief was Stan Lee, who was still only eighteen years old! But, except for his wartime stint in the army, Stan Lee would remain Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief until 1972.

MEANWHILE IN 1941...

US PROGRAM TO AID THE ALLIES

President Roosevelt signs into law the Lend-Lease Act, under which the US will lend war material to countries fighting against Nazi Germany.

PEARL HARBOR

The US enters the war after the its fleet is attacked at Pearl Harbor by Japanese warplanes.

ENIGMA MACHINE IN ALLIED HANDS

HMS Bulldog captures the Enigma cryptography machine aboard the German submarine U-110, which leads to the decryption of German communications.

OPERATION BARBAROSSA

Germany invades Russia, obliterating the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of August, 1939.

PLUTONIUM DISCOVERED

Scientists at the University of Berkeley discover the radioactive element Plutonium.

GARBO RETIRES

Actress Greta Garbo, star of Anna Karenina and Grand Hotel, retires at age thirty-six.

FIRST AMERICAN FM RADIO STATION

W47NV goes on the airways in Nashville, Tennessee. It becomes WSM-FM, the first commercial FM radio station to be granted license in the US.

AND AT THE MOVIES...

Citizen Kane, Orson Welles’s biopic of a vainglorious newspaper magnate uses innovative narrative and cinematography; The Maltese Falcon, dialogue-driven film noir features Humphrey Bogart as a cynical PI drawn into a hunt for a priceless statuette; Dumbo, Disney tale of the reunion of a clumsy, readily ridiculed baby circus elephant with his imprisoned mother.

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1942

TIMELY GOES

TO WAR

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Japan attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. Various key people in Timely’s comics would soon enter the armed services, including Editor-in-Chief Stan Lee, the Human Torch’s creator Carl Burgos, and the Sub-Mariner’s creator Bill Everett. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby had already left Timely, and they would end up in the military as well. The day after the Pearl Harbor attack, another Timely contributor enlisted, joining the Army Air Corps. This was Mickey Spillane, who had been doing two-page text stories for Timely, and would become world famous for his novels featuring detective Mike Hammer. Despite these changes to the staff, Timely still managed to produce some significant titles in 1942.

1942 Timely Goes To War | CONTENTS

JANUARY

APRIL

JULY

WINTER

ALSO...

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JANUARY

CITIZEN V

• Daring Mystery Comics #8

A lieutenant in the British army, John Watkins was seemingly killed by machine gun fire from a German warplane. After miraculously surviving, Watkins agreed to go behind enemy lines to fight the Germans and thus to inspire the conquered people of Europe to rise against them. Watkins adopted the masked identity of Citizen V after the V for Victory sign. The 1990s’ comic Thunderbolts would establish that Watkins had a number of successors as Citizen V.

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APRIL

COMEDY IN COMICS

• Joker Comics #1

Recognizing the potential market for humor comics, Timely publisher Martin Goodman launched Joker Comics, which, as its name suggested, featured only comedy. The first issue marked the debut of the popular series Powerhouse Pepper by legendary cartoonist Basil Wolverton. Powerhouse Pepper was a competent boxer, if slightly dimwitted. This issue also featured Marmaduke Snood Jr., alias Stuporman, whom writer/artist Harry Douglas had created in Daring Mystery Comics #6 (Sept., 1940). Stuporman was one of the first Super Hero parody series, preceding Marvel’s Not Brand Echh by over two decades.

DK Daring Mystery Comics became the humor series Comedy Comics with issue #9.

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JULY

ZIGGY PIG AND SILLY SEAL

Meet me ‘n’ all my pals in Krazy Komics every month! Be seein’ ya!

• Krazy Komics #1

In the 1940s, animated cartoons featuring comical animals were shown in movie theaters before the main feature films. Timely publisher Martin Goodman decided to capitalize on the popularity of these cartoons by moving his comics company into the genre of funny animals.

Two of Timely’s biggest funny animal stars were Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal, who made their debuts as a team in this issue. Artist Al Jaffee created Ziggy first, though it was editor Stan Lee who came up with his name. Later, Lee asked Jaffee to devise another funny animal character. Realizing that he hadn’t seen a talking seal in animated cartoons yet, Jaffee invented Silly Seal. Lee suggested giving Silly a friend, and so Jaffee paired him with Ziggy Pig. As in such classic comedy duos as Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello, one member of the team—Ziggy Pig—was the leader or straight man, and the other—Silly Seal—was the lovable but dumber stooge. Ziggy Pig was frequently seen wearing a black and yellow sweater with a large Z on the front |while Silly Seal was seen with a striped toboggan cap and scarf. The anthropomorphic pair regularly found themselves contending against another character, Toughy Cat, who became their primary antagonist.

The funny duo were cover stars of all eight issues of Animated Funny Comic-Tunes (1944–1946) and in January, 1944, they got their own comic, Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal Comics, which lasted until September, 1949.

After his time at Timely ended, Ziggy and Silly artist Al Jaffee worked with editor Harvey Kurtzman on the early MAD magazine.

The cover for the first issue of Krazy Komics spotlighted Toughy Cat, but Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal would become Timely’s best-known funny animals.

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WINTER

MISS FURY DEBUTS

• Miss Fury #1

It was quite rare for a woman to draw an adventure series, either in comic strips or in comic books. But in 1941, cartoonist Tarpé Mills created a newspaper strip about socialite Marla Drake. Drake was the crime-fighter originally called the Black Fury but soon renamed Miss Fury. Mills’s heroine had no super-powers and wore a daringly skintight costume in her adventures. During the war, Miss Fury often battled Axis agents. Timely reprinted the Miss Fury Sunday newspaper strips in comic book format, beginning with this issue in Winter, 1942, and ending with issue #8 in the winter of 1945–46.

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ALSO...

SUper heroes and sillies

In 1942, Timely’s Super Hero comics were still going strong with comedy titles also coming into their own.

Timely’s first comic, Marvel Comics, had changed its name in December, 1939, becoming Marvel Mystery Comics. This series would continue through the 1940s, ending with issue #92 in June, 1949.

Captain America Comics, which had only begun the previous year, would also run through the 1940s, coming to an end with issue #75 in February, 1950. Other Timely heroes would often appear in this comic, including the Sub-Mariner in issue #20 (Nov., 1942).

War was still a common focus, as depicted in December’s U.S.A. Comics #7, whose cover featured Captan America and Bucky parachuting into the middle of a blazing naval battle.

On the comedy front, Daring Mystery Comics had been renamed Comedy Comics in April, 1942, while Martin Goodman licensed the rights to do comics based on the Terrytoons animations, beginning with Terry-Toons Comics #1 in October.

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1940s | 1942 Timely goes to war

VINCE FAGO BECOMES EDITOR

The only interruption in Stan Lee’s long, three decade service as Editor-in-Chief came when he volunteered to enter the army in 1942, now that the United States had entered World War II. Since funny animals were the new trend in comics, artist Vince Fago, who had worked with Lee on Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal, took over from Lee as Editor-in-Chief.

MEANWHILE IN 1942...

THE FINAL SOLUTION PLOTTED

At the Wannsee conference in Berlin, senior Nazis plan the final solution—the deportation and extermination of the European Jews.

FIRST US TROOPS ARRIVE IN EUROPE

Several thousand infantry troops of the US Army land in Northern Ireland to face the war in Europe.

THE VOICE OF AMERICA SPEAKS

The first radio piece on The Voice of America broadcasts. Its aim is to send propaganda to the areas of the world under German occupation.

PENICILLIN: A NEW WONDER DRUG

The first patient is successfully treated for streptococcal septicemia with penicillin. The new drug proves invaluable in the war effort for treating soldiers with bacterial infections.

BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN

After weeks of battle, Allied forces break the Axis line at El Alamein, forcing the German and Italian troops into retreat. In response, Prime Minister Churchill says, This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps, the end of the beginning.

T-SHIRT IS BORN

The US Navy designs a new short-sleeved garment to be worn under shirts. After the war it takes off among civilians as the T-shirt.

FIRST GOLD RECORD

Record label RCA Victor sprays a record of the hit song Chattanooga Choo-choo gold after it has sold a million copies.

DREAMS OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS

Bing Crosby has a musical hit with White Christmas, when it appears in the movie Holiday Inn.

WAR IN THE PACIFIC

In early 1942 the war in the Pacific was not going well with America losing Guam, Hong Kong, Wake, Singapore, and the Philippines, but in late 1942 the US started to turn around the war with major offences at Midway and The Coral Sea.

MALTA GETS GEORGE CROSS FOR BRAVERY

The island of Malta in the Mediterranean gets awarded the George Cross medal for bravery, which is usually reserved for individuals. It was getting, on average, seven bombing raids a day.

AND AT THE MOVIES...

Casablanca, Michael Curtiz’s perfectly cast, bittersweet, romantic masterpiece, set around Rick’s Café Américain, packs a mighty punch; Bambi, Disney’s animal animation about an orphaned deer who learns to survive hostile hunters and a forest fire.

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Comedy Comics #9 (April, 1942)

Timely’s Daring Mystery Comics turned into Comedy Comics with issue #9. Comedy Comics #9 and Joker Comics #1, which had the same cover date, were Timely’s first humor comics and both used caricatured human characters. This issue of Comedy Comics featured Basil Wolverton’s science fiction comedy strip Splash Morgan, and backup stories starring Super Heroes, including Ben Thompson’s Citizen V, Bill Everett’s The Fin, and the Silver Scorpion.

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1943

DIVERSE

DIRECTIONS

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Even though their creators were in the armed forces, Timely’s leading Super Heroes—Captain America, the original Human Torch, and the Sub-Mariner—were still going strong. Not only did they star in their own comic books, but all three also appeared in the first five issues of the new All Select Comics series that Timely launched in the Fall. Somewhat lesser lights, the Destroyer and the Whizzer, also turned up in this comic and it marked the final appearance of the original Black Widow.

From 1939 through 1941, there had been an explosion of creativity in the new Super Hero genre at Timely. But in 1943 the principal creators responsible for that explosion were in the armed services. While Stan Lee was gone, Vince Fago was Timely’s Editor-in-Chief. No new significant Super Hero characters were being created. Kid Komics, starring writer Otto Binder’s hero Captain Wonder, for example, lasted merely two issues.

Instead, Timely was diversifying its line, attempting to attract other audiences. Super Rabbit was a super-powered funny animal, and Miss America was a Super Hero designed for young female readers.

1943 Diverse Directions | CONTENTS

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

FALL

NOVEMBER

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JANUARY

BASIL WOLVERTON’S BOXER

• Powerhouse Pepper Comics #1

Having debuted the year before in Joker Comics #1, cartoonist Basil Wolverton’s Powerhouse Pepper won his own comic book, although it was suspended after one issue. Powerhouse would continue to appear in other comics until his own series was revived in Spring, 1948. A boxer with superhuman strength, Powerhouse was not particularly smart but had a heart of gold. His stories were comedies notable for their combination of slapstick with rhyming and alliterative dialogue. Powerhouse’s writer/artist, Basil Wolverton, was best remembered for his comically grotesque characters, and most notoriously designed Lena the Hyena for cartoonist Al Capp’s Li’l Abner strip.

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FEBRUARY

CAPTAIN WONDER

• Kid Komics #1

In Captain Wonder’s origin story by writer Otto Binder and artist Frank Giacoia, Professor Jordan had the strength of a grasshopper and the spine of a jellyfish until he was exposed to the fumes of his own experimental Wonder Fluid. This endowed him with the strength of twelve men, and, as Captain Wonder, he soon saved his town from the Super Villain called Mister Death. But the Captain’s series ended with the next issue of Kid Komics.

Captain Wonder and his young partner Tim were cast in the image of Timely’s top team—Captain America and Bucky—and even battled similar villains.

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MARCH

SUPER RABBIT

Have no fear! Super Rabbit’s here!

• Comedy Comics #14

It was inevitable that the success of comic book Super Heroes would lead to Super Hero parodies. It also made sense that, if Super Heroes and funny animals were both successful, some creators would try to fuse them together.

But why were there so many super-powered rabbits? In late 1942, Fawcett’s comics line introduced Hoppy the Marvel Bunny. Then Super Rabbit, created by cartoonist Ernie Hart, made his first appearance in issue #14 of the Timely series Comedy Comics. A month later, Bugs Bunny appeared in theaters in animation director Chuck Jones’s cartoon Super-Rabbit. Nobody knew why but rabbits sure were popular!

Timely’s Super Rabbit was really a meek little rabbit named Waffles, who was sometimes portrayed as a reporter (as if parodying Detective Comics’ Clark Kent) and other times as a shoeshine boy (anticipating the later animated animal Super Hero Underdog). However, by rubbing his magic ring, Waffles could transform into the larger, more robust Super Rabbit. Living in a world of funny animals, Super Rabbit fought animals who were crooks, and even animals who were Nazis!

Not only did Super Rabbit remain the hero featured on the covers of Comedy Comics, he was one of Timely’s leading characters in the 1940s. He appeared in many other Timely humor comics as well, including Krazy Comics, Comic Capers, Illustrated Funny Comic-Tunes, and All Surprise Comics. Super Rabbit even outlasted other Timely Golden Age stars, since his last story appeared as late as February, 1952, in It’s A Duck’s Life.

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Six months after his debut in Comedy Comics #14, Super Rabbit hopped into a tale in the premiere issue of All Surprise Comics.

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FALL

THE BIG THREE

• All Select Comics #1

Despite all featuring on this characteristically dynamic cover by artist Alex Schomburg, Captain America, the Human Torch, and the Sub-Mariner did not appear in the same story in this first issue of All Select Comics. Instead, as in All Winners Comics, which premiered in Summer, 1941, each of Timely’s top three Super Heroes appeared in separate stories. Not until after the war would editor Stan Lee team them up in a comics adventure.

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NOVEMBER

MISS AMERICA

• Marvel Mystery Comics #49

The famed Miss America beauty pageant began in 1921. Twenty-two years later and Timely created their own Miss America. The similarity between this new hero and the beauty pageants was in name only: Miss America’s creators, writer Otto Binder and artist Al Gabriele, actually intended their new character to be a female counterpart to Captain America. Born in Washington, D.C., teenage heiress Madeline Joyce was struck by lightning while tinkering with an experimental device. As a result, she gained the ability to fly (as well as super-strength in her first stories), and became the costumed crime-fighter Miss America. Since the original Black Widow, who had debuted in July, 1940, worked for the devil, Miss America was Timely’s first true super-powered heroine.

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MEANWHILE IN 1943...

THE PENTAGON OPENS

The new headquarters of the US Department of Defense opens in Arlington, Virginia. The five-sided building becomes such a symbol of the US military that its name becomes synonymous with the Department itself.

GERMAN SURRENDER AT STALINGRAD

After nearly six months battling door-to-door for control of Stalingrad and more than 1.5 million dead, Nazi soldiers surrender to Soviet troops, in a significant turning point of World War II.

EISENHOWER APPOINTED

General Dwight Eisenhower is selected to command the allied armies in Europe. This role includes responsibility for the future successful invasion of France and Germany.

AND AT THE MOVIES...

I Walked with a Zombie, Jacques Tourneur’s Caribbean-set horror film about a nurse discovering that her catatonic patient is really a zombie; The Ox-bow Incident, William A. Wellman’s western makes an impassioned plea for rule of law in this true tale of a mob lynching of three innocents; For Whom The Bell Tolls, romantic drama based on Ernest Hemingway’s novel set against the Spanish Civil War.

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1944

THE FIRST

MARVEL MOVIE

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Maybe surprisingly, the first Marvel-based movie was made as early as 1944. Republic Pictures’ Captain America movie serial was released in fifteen installments, beginning in February, 1944, and was the last Super Hero serial that the company would release. For Republic Pictures at that time it was a major undertaking, being the most expensive movie serial that the studio had ever produced. It would be twenty-two years until Marvel heroes were adapted to the screen once more, in the Marvel Super Heroes television series of 1966. Coincidentally, this series also adapted comic stories into multi-part serials, featuring Cap, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and the Sub-Mariner.

In the comics’ world, Timely took further strides toward winning girl readers as well as boys. The company quickly changed course with its experiment to create a female Super Hero. Timely began to introduce new humorous but more realistic series about girls who were thought to be more like the readers they hoped to attract. They changed Miss America Comics to feature a new teen heroine, Patsy Walker, and Miss America was eventually dropped entirely from her own magazine. Patsy Walker would go on to star in a range of comics over the next 20 years.

1944 The First Marvel Movie | CONTENTS

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

FALL

NOVEMBER

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JANUARY

THE OTHER BIG THREE

• Ziggy Pig And Silly Seal Comics #1

Timely’s three leading funny animal stars became title characters of their own comic books in 1944, beginning with Ziggy Pig And Silly Seal Comics in January. It lasted six issues, concluding in September, 1946. The Super Rabbit comic outlasted Ziggy Pig And Silly Seal Comics, running fourteen issues from February, 1944, until November, 1948.

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MISS AMERICA

• Miss America Comics #1

With her debut in November, 1943, Miss America swiftly became the title character of her own comic book. By the second issue, however, the comic had been retitled Miss America Magazine, and the comic art of a blonde woman had been replaced with a photograph of a brunette model wearing Miss America’s costume. After that issue, the magazine changed direction and started to focus instead on subjects aimed at girls like fashion and cooking.

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FEBRUARY

THE POPULARITY OF MOVIE SERIALS

From the silent movie era into the 1950s, many theaters showed weekly movie serials. These were lengthy adventure stories that were divided into weekly installments. Each installment, except for the concluding chapter, ended with a cliffhanger on which the hero or another character was seen in perilous danger. These movie serials would go on to inspire such movie hits as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones. Both Lucas and Spielberg have said that they were influenced by the movie serials they watched as children.

Hollywood’s Republic Pictures was the leading producer of Saturday afternoon movie serials in the 1940s. In 1944, Republic brought the first Marvel character to the screen with its fifteen-part Captain America serial. Captain America was played by the obscure actor Dick Purcell, but the villain, Dr. Cyrus Maldor, alias the Scarab, was portrayed by Lionel Atwill, a celebrated character actor of the period. John English, who often worked on movie serials, and Elmer Clifton, famous for his westerns, were the directors.

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MARCH

HAPPY DAYS

• Gay Comics #1

The first issue of this happy comic cheered readers with work by acclaimed cartoonists Harvey Kurtzman and Basil Wolverton. As well as Gay Comics, Wolverton also worked on the character Tessie The Typist, who received her own comic in the summer of 1944.

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FALL

NAME CHANGES

The latter half of the year saw many Super Hero comics renamed. Timely revived Daring Mystery Comics as Daring Comics with issue #9 (Fall) and Mystic Comics with issue #1 of the second volume (Oct.). Amazing Comics became Complete Comics with issue #2 (Winter) and starred the Destroyer, Whizzer, and Young Allies.

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FUNNIES FEATURE

• Comic Capers #1

Responding to the popularity of the funny animal genre, Timely launched two titles. Super Rabbit starred in the first issues of Comic Capers and Ideal Comics. Also in June, Krazy Komics became Animated Funny Tunes.