A LOOK AT THE ATLAS PRE-CODE CRIME AND
HORROR WORK OF STAN LEE
Dr. Michael J. Vassallo
Happy Birthday Stan! The amount of gratitude fandom assembled owes you is something we cannot ever hope to repay. It is on the legacy of your back, and the backs of your co-titans Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, that the very foundation of our present hobby was laid. We'll take the glorious memories of the four-color fantasies you've spun, and keep them with us as we continue on with our own lives, ever mindful of that special wonder from a more innocent time.
I'm going to celebrate your 3/4 century mark by examining a rather overlooked part of your significant body of work. We're going to go back before the modern birth of Marvel Comics, to that mist-shrouded, mystery inducing period simply known as Atlas Comics.
First, let's take an extended historical look at the company where you would spend the rest of your professional life:
Stanley Martin Lieber broke into his uncle Martin Goodman's publishing empire at the age of 17, in early 1941. Originally an office gopher, he entered a world that had just seen the debut of what would be the jewel of Timely's hero titles, CAPTAIN AMERICA. Preceded onto the news stands only by MARVEL COMICS (Oct,/39), DARING MYSTERY COMICS (Jan/40), MYSTIC (Mar/40), RED RAVEN (Aug/40), and HUMAN TORCH (Fall/40), CAPTAIN AMERICA #1 (Mar/41) burst onto the scene as a runaway sales hit almost a full year before America's entry into WWII and proudly went to the forefront of patriotic comic book heroes. Created by the young team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the duo produced the first 10 issues before moving on to National, leaving the title to other, slightly less capable hands.
Stan soon gravitated towards a typewriter and had his comic book debut as a two-page text piece "The Traitor's Revenge!" in CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #3 (May/41), signing the work "Stan Lee". His first comic book script followed in CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #5 (Aug/41), a back-up story titled "Headline Hunter, Foreign Correspondent". A deluge of scripts would ensue, many using aliases such as "Neel Nats", and "S.T. Anley", in a variety of titles.
When Simon and Kirby, Timely's main creative force as well as their editor and art director, left for National in early 1942, Stan took over the editorial reigns for a very short time until he answered his country's wartime call. Timely meanwhile (after its initial burst of golden-age hero titles) began to expand into other genres and the first area it went into was the Humor genre in Apr/42 with the co-appearance of COMEDY COMICS #9, (continued from DARING MYSTERY COMICS #8) and JOKER COMICS #1, and soon followed by KRAZY KOMICS #1 (July/42). COMEDY COMICS #9 actually is a dual genre book (and a very scarce one) as it contains the second appearance of Bill Everett's "The Fin" (the first appearance was in DARING MYSTERY COMICS #8) as well as Basil Wolverton's hilarious "Splash Morgan". A hoard of funny-animal titles soon followed, all edited, supervised and sometimes drawn by Vince Fago, Timely's third editor following Stan Lee's entry into the service.
From Timely's comic book debut up to this point, Goodman had been adding hero titles at a moderately steady pace. Following CAPTAIN AMERICA (Mar/41) we saw SUB-MARINER COMICS (Spring/41), ALL WINNERS (Summer/41), YOUNG ALLIES (Summer/41), USA COMICS (Aug/41), TOUGH KID SQUAD (Mar/42), MISS FURY (Winter 42-43), KID COMICS (Feb/43) and ALL SELECT (Fall/43). When "funny animals" as a humor sub-genre appeared with TERRY TOONS #1 (Oct/42), it spearheaded a deluge of similar funny animal titles beginning with ALL SURPRISE (Fall/43), FUNNY TUNES (#16, Summer/44, and the first Timely title to debut with a numbering that didn't appear to follow a previous title's numbering. It spun off from KRAZY KOMICS #15, all while KRAZY KOMICS would continue to be published!), and then in Fall/44, COMIC CAPERS, IDEAL, SUPER RABBIT, and ZIGGY PIG-SILLY SEAL. It was torrential! The main hero titles were still being published and now there were all these funny animal titles being juggled.
The humor genre was not through though. Taking a cue from MLJ's BETTY AND VERONICA, Timely by 1944 would now enter the world of a second humor sub-genre, namely "teen humor". These would be released in the following sequence:
JUNIOR MISS #1 (1st series): Winter/44 [one-shot],
GAY COMICS #1 (1st series): approx. May/44 [one-shot],
TESSIE THE TYPIST #1: Summer/44,
MISS AMERICA MAGAZINE #2: Nov/44,
GEORGIE COMICS #1: Spring/45,
DOLLY DILL #1: approx. Summer/45 [one-shot],
PATSY WALKER #1: approx. Summer/45,
NELLIE THE NURSE #1 (1st series): approx. Fall/45,
MILLIE THE MODEL #1: Winter/46,
MILLIE THE MODEL, TESSIE THE TYPIST and NELLIE THE NURSE were, at the very least, co-created by Stan. Their #1 issues featured covers by Mike Sekowsky. MILLIE THE MODEL and PATSY WALKER were inaugurated with artwork by Ruth Atkinson, an artist whose style would be the template for all Millie and Patsy Walker artists to follow.
Many other teen-humor titles would follow in 1946, 1947 and 1948 :
1946 : FRANKIE COMICS (Winter), MARGIE COMICS (Winter), WILLIE COMICS (Fall),
1947 : ALL-TEEN (Jan), TEEN COMICS (Apr), JEANIE COMICS (Apr), RUSTY COMICS (Apr), OSCAR COMICS (Spring), HEDY DEVINE COMICS (Aug), CINDY COMICS (Fall)
1948 : MITZI COMICS (Spring), LANA (Aug)
ALL-TEEN was a title with an incredibly convoluted history. To give an example of how Timely/Atlas comics would change titles in mid-number, spinning off tangent titles on a whim, look at the following :
We start with the classic Timely team superhero title ALL WINNERS #1 (Summer/41) and follow it 19 issues to #19(Fall/46) . From here the title suddenly changes for one issue and we spin off ALL TEEN #20 (Jan/47), a teen humor title. ALL TEEN becomes TEEN #21 (Apr/47) and reaches #35 (May/50) before changing again to JOURNEY INTO UNKNOWN WORLDS #36 (Sept/50) and continuing as 37, 38, and 4 through 59 (Aug/57) where it died along with 95% of Atlas' titles in the infamous "Summer of Death" Atlas Implosion. Back track a bit now. After ALL WINNERS #19 became ALL TEEN #20, we have a simultaneous continuation of a final 21st issue (Winter 46/47) of ALL WINNERS. There is debate whether this #21 is an actual continuation of ALL TEEN #20 or of YOUNG ALLIES #20 (Oct/46), which just pre-dates it. Regardless, Timely heroes are rapidly in decline and we wait almost a year and a half to get a second series beginning with ALL WINNERS #1(Aug/48). This appears to be a one- shot but the numbering continues with ALL WESTERN WINNERS #2 (Winter 48/49) through #4. The title truncates to WESTERN WINNERS #5 (June/49) through #7. Prior to #7, #6 spins off ROMANCE TALES #7 through #9 as a separate title concurrently. WESTERN WINNERS #7 then changes title again to become BLACK RIDER #8 THROUGH #27 (Mar/55), with a hiatus of 22 months between #18 and #19. Another title change gives us WESTERN TALES OF THE BLACK RIDER #28 through #31 (Nov/55), before finally becoming GUNSMOKE WESTERN with #32 (Dec/55) through #77 (July/63). Although it's not a direct line (the second ALL WINNERS begins a new numbering), you can stretch your imagination to see a continuous run proceeding from ALL WINNERS #1 (Summer/41) to GUNSMOKE WESTERN #77 (July/63).
Sorry about being so long winded but it's extremely interesting to see the title chronology, numbering and publishing history of certain Timely/Atlas/Marvel titles. The above example is repeated similarly over and over in many titles.
Early on, Timely tried to introduce a female hero title with MISS AMERICA #1 (Summer/44), with art by animation artist Pauline Loth (hired by Vince Fago, whose pre-Timely credits were also in animation). Seemingly successful, the title strangely ceased after one issue and would return in a few months as the teen-girl title MISS AMERICA MAGAZINE. A second, more successful attempt at a female hero title would occur later with BLONDE PHANTOM #12 (Winter/47), continuing the numbering of ALL SELECT, and lasting up to #23 (May/49) before dying with all the rest of Timely's hero titles. The title would convert to the romance title LOVERS with #23 (May/49, a real nice photo cover!) and continue a very long run to #86 (Aug/57) where it died with everything else in the Atlas Implosion. Stan wrote many of these Blonde Phantom stories, whose title would also house a revived Miss America strip in issues 12 to 14 (1946-47) mostly penned by Stan Lee, as would the title SUN GIRL. An analysis of the job #'s identifies these Miss America stories as new tales contemporary for 1948 era titles and "not" left over 1944 stories prepared for a possibly never released MISS AMERICA #2.
** (The earliest Timely title with a female lead was the aforementioned MISS FURY COMICS, which ran 8 issues between 1942 and 1946. This quarterly title contained nothing more than Sunday strip reprints of Tarpe Mills' spicy adventure strip and was not set in Timely hero continuity. Alex Schomburg, Timely's main super-hero cover artist, did contribute some covers though. Its target audience was definitely adolescent males.)
Since GAY COMICS #1 (featuring Wolverton's "Powerhouse Pepper" and "Tessie The Typist") seemed to initially showcase humor in the COMEDY #9 & JOKER #1 manner (i.e non teen-girl type), teen-girl humor as a genre apparently was actually spear-headed by JUNIOR MISS #1, which blared on its cover "For the Teen-Age Girl". It really showed that there was a market of young female readers.
By the end of World War II, interest in Timely's "golden-age" titles (i.e. superhero titles) was waning, as was interest industry-wide. Last gasp attempts such as AMAZING COMICS #1 (Fall/44), which became COMPLETE COMICS #2 (Winter, 44/45) and a second MYSTIC COMICS (Oct/44), were stillborn, although MYSTIC would last 4 issues. Goodman, Stan and Vince Fago (who would soon leave Timely) had already anticipated this, as already seen, by branching out to other audiences. As the public's tastes changed, sales dropped and one-by one, hero titles were cancelled. Timely's "big four", MARVEL MYSTERY, HUMAN TORCH, SUB-MARINER and CAPTAIN AMERICA persisted. CAPTAIN AMERICA, owing to its incredible popularity, lasted the longest, and managed to reach late 1949, with the final issue (sans Captain America) reaching 1950. The teen-humor titles were flourishing though.
The Fall of 1947 was a critical period in this history. Of all the forerunners to the period soon to be called Atlas, it was the introduction of the genre called "crime comics" that Atlas' origins can be traced . Prior to this, Timely had published only 3 types of comic books: costumed heroes, funny animal comics and teen-humor comics. Crime comics as a genre were now introduced with the publication of JUSTICE COMICS #7 (Fall/47, continued from WACKY DUCK #6, Summer/47) and OFFICIAL TRUE CRIME CASES #24 (Fall/47, spun off from SUB-MARINER #23, Summer/47). SUB-MARINER COMICS actually holds the distinction of having the most spin-off titles in the Timely/Atlas timeline. In addition to OFFICIAL TRUE CRIME CASES #24 (Fall/47, from SUB-MARINER #23), we will also shortly see AMAZING MYSTERIES #32 (May/49, from SUB-MARINER #31) and BEST LOVE #33 (Aug/49, from SUB-MARINER #32, the last golden-age issue).
Soon, a rush of crime titles would follow. OFFICIAL TRUE CRIME CASES would become ALL-TRUE CRIME after ony two issues (Feb/48), and the following crime titles would appear, leading up to May/49, the next historical point in Atlas' history, the introduction of the horror comic:
CRIMEFIGHTERS (Apr/48),
LAWBREAKERS ALWAYS LOSE (Spring/48).
CRIME EXPOSED (one-shot) (June/48),
COMPLETE MYSTERY (Aug/48),
TRUE COMPLETE MYSTERY (Apr/49),
Additional crime titles would be added from 1949 to 1951:
CASEY, CRIME PHOTOGRAPHER (Aug/49),
AMAZING MYSTERIES (Oct/49) (crime issues, #34, 35 only),
SUSPENSE (Dec/49) (crime issues #1, 2 only),
CRIME CASES (Aug/50, previously WILLIE COMICS),
CRIME CAN'T WIN (Sept/50, previously KRAZY KOMICS #1-26, CINDY COMICS #27-40),
SPY CASES (Sept/50, previously Kid Comics #1-10, Kid Movie Comics #11, Rusty Comics #12-22, The Kelly's #23-25),
CRIME MUST LOSE (Oct/50, spun off from SPORTS ACTION #3),
AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES (Nov/50, spun off from SUSPENSE #2),
PRIVATE EYE (Jan/51),
SPY FIGHTERS (Mar/51),
KENT BLAKE (May/51),
The final crime titles would be right before the code and right after.
POLICE ACTION (Jan/54),
CRIMEFIGHTERS (Sept/54 re-launch),
SPY THRILLERS (Nov/54, pre-code: 1-2, post-code: 3-4
POLICE BADGE #479 (Sept/55, post-code one-shot, previously SPY THRILLERS),
TALES OF JUSTICE (Mar/55, post-code, previously JUSTICE COMICS),
CAUGHT (Apr/56, post-code)
It's obvious that the code toned down these titles enough to (coupled with declining crime sales) warrant canceling them altogether.
By 1948 a last ditch effort was made to rejuvenate Hero sales with a flurry of new titles, three of them aimed at female readers : BLACKSTONE THE MAGICIAN #2 (May/48, continued from E.C.'s #1, Fall/47), ALL WINNERS (vol2) #1(AUG/48), THE WITNESS #1 (Aug/48), NAMORA #1 (Aug/48), SUN GIRL #1 (Aug/48), and even VENUS #1 (Aug/48), which began as a pseudo hero-goddess but quickly reverted to teen-humor, romance, sci/fi fantasy and eventually horror, in the course of its run. All of these titles were quickly cancelled (except for VENUS) as sales never caught fire. Predictably instead, two more teen-humor titles were added, the already mentioned MITZI (Spring/48) and LANA (Aug/48). ALL WINNERS quickly changed genres to "western" and (as I've already shown) underwent 5 title changes before ending as GUNSMOKE WESTERN with #77 (July/63). Westerns, as a genre, became incredibly popular with 51 different titles, plus 5 additional western-romance titles:
COWBOY ROMANCES (1949),
LOVE TRAILS (1949),
ROMANCES OF THE WEST (1949),
RANGELAND LOVE (1949),
WESTERN LIFE ROMANCES (1949),
COWGIRL ROMANCES (1950, a one-shot previously JEANIE COMICS)
It took the debut of the "romance" comic to really solidify the female audience (introduced to comics by Simon & Kirby in YOUNG ROMANCE #1, Sept-Oct/47 for Prize/Headline and to Marvel with MY ROMANCE #1, Sept/48). A romance glut of incredible proportions would soon ensue. Although the romance glut was industry-wide, at Timely/Atlas it was monstrous! Following the single title romance debut in 1948, 1949 saw 29 "different" romance titles enter the schedule, with 5 additional titles in 1950. 24 of these titles would last 3 issues or less, with most lasting only 2!
As 1949 dawned, Timely, with humor, crime, romance, western (having debuted with TWO GUN KID #1, Mar/48 more or less simultaneously with ANNIE OAKLEY #1 & WILD WEST #1, both Spring/48) and a few hero titles, launched a new genre, horror comics. As previously seen, AMAZING MYSTERIES #32 (May/49, spun off from SUB-MARINER #31, Apr/49) very quietly introduced this trend. In the meantime, the ax finally began to drop on the main hero titles once and for all. HUMAN TORCH ended with #35 (Mar/49), as did BLONDE PHANTOM with #22 (Mar/49). SUB-MARINER ended with #32 (June/49). MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS also had its last issue with #92 (June/49) but converted its content to horror and changed title to MARVEL TALES with #93 (Aug/49). The very last holdout was CAPTAIN AMERICA, lasting 74 issues before converting to an all-horror format with #75 (Feb/50) and then being cancelled, its last two issues titled CAPTAIN AMERICA'S WEIRD TALES.
In a few years, a second aborted attempt at superheroes would be tried as Atlas revived Timely's 3 main heroes for 23 issues beginning with the Dec/53 issue of YOUNG MEN (5 issues, #24-28), followed by MEN'S ADVENTURES (2 issues, #27-28), CAPTAIN AMERICA (3 issues, #76-78), HUMAN TORCH (3 issues, #36-38), and the longest lasting, SUB-MARINER (10 issues, #33- 42), the latter with some of Bill Everett's finest work of his career. Along with Everett, look for art by Dick Ayers, Bill Benulis, Sol Brodsky, Carl Burgos, Fred Kida, Mort Lawrence, Joe Maneely, Bob Powell, Don Rico, John Romita, and Syd Shores in these issues.
With the debut of Timely/Atlas' horror comic, AMAZING MYSTERIES #32 (May/49), Atlas would begin in earnest. Let's take a moment to reflect on the changing name of Goodman's comic line.
Martin Goodman's company was actually only called Timely Comics (on the cover) for a period between July42 and Sept/42, and not on all issues released during this time. An "Atlas" logo then appeared on several late/43, early/44 issues, and then disappeared. At many times in the later 1940's, the covers sported: "A Marvel Magazine" or "Marvel Group" (Dec/46 to May/47), and a round "Marvel Comic" logo between Feb/49 and June/50 (actually pre-Atlas period). What has come to happen is that now any Golden-Age Marvel comic is incorrectly referred to as a "Timely" comic.
By Dec/51, issues began to sport the "Atlas" globe logo, lasting until a single issue published in Oct/57 (DIPPY DUCK #1), a month after the entire comics line imploded.
***(I've recently begun to re-think DIPPY DUCK #1. I've always assumed that this single, final Oct/57 cover dated "Atlas" issue appeared all by itself on the news stands one month after all the "final" Sept/57 cover dated Atlas issues. While looking through a copy of MARVIN MOUSE #1 (Sept/57) recently (the hilarious Stan Lee/Bill Everett funny animal one-shot), I was surprised to see a Dippy Duck story by creators Stan Lee and Joe Maneely. At the bottom of the strip was a blurb advertising Dippy's own title, "now on sale!". If this can be believed, then although DIPPY DUCK #1 is cover dated Oct/57, in fact it was on the stands at the same time as all the other Sept/57 cover dated issues.***)
The "Atlas Globe" cover symbol may have represented a temporary partnership of Goodman with Kable News Company, Goodman's then distributor, before "Atlas News Company" went completely independent. Hence almost all Goodman published comics during this period are referred to as "Atlas" comics. What's interesting though, is that there are ads found on the inside of some issues from 1951/52 that advertise custom-inscribed cigarette lighters to "the readers of Marvel Comics". This seems to mean that even though the line was "officially" known as Atlas (on the cover) during this time, "un-officially" it was still Marvel Comics on the business end. Goodman's line imploded in Sept/1957 when he dropped "Kable" and took a chance with ANC (American News Company) as a distributor. ANC soon had it's own troubles as Government anti-trust laws led to the dissolving of ANC's distribution arm. Goodman, who had launched scores of new titles had no way to distribute them and the top-heavy company "imploded", leading to mass cancellations of nearly every title and the firing of every employee except Stan Lee. After two months, Goodman was able to secure distribution from DC's subsidiary, Independent News, and Stan got issues out using a backlog of old inventory throughout 1958. The only exception seemed to be the teen and romance titles, three of which had a Nov/57 cover date, and whose bi-monthly schedule did not seem to miss a beat, as opposed to all other titles that exhibited at least a 2-month hiatus.
***(A second anomaly was the one-shot CARTOON KIDS #1 (1957). With no month designation at all, it consisted of left over Lee/Maneely "Melvin The Monster" and other Atlas kiddie strips. This issue also appeared at about the same time.***)
Goodman was allowed only 8 monthly issues, spread among 16 bi-monthly titles. The company appeared to have no name at all at this time. Here's a look at the 16 titles published by Goodman and carried by Independent news. All are bi-monthly, with 8 titles released each month:
Group 1) BATTLE, NAVY COMBAT, PATSY & HEDY, PATSY WALKER, STRANGE TALES, TWO-GUN KID, WORLD OF FANTASY, WYATT EARP
Group 2) GUNSMOKE WESTERN, HOMER THE HAPPY GHOST, KID COLT-OUTLAW, LOVE ROMANCES, MARINES IN BATTLE, MILLIE THE MODEL, MISS AMERICA, MY OWN ROMANCE
As HOMER THE HAPPY GHOST, NAVY COMBAT, MARINES IN BATTLE and MISS AMERICA were cancelled towards the end of 1958, they were replaced on the schedule by a revived JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY, followed by STRANGE WORLDS, TALES OF SUSPENSE, and TALES TO ASTONISH. This was the dawn of what would later be known as Marvel's "Pre-Hero" period.
The Pre-Hero Era is identified by the return of Jack Kirby (and to a lesser degree, Steve Ditko) to Atlas/Marvel (or what remained of it). As to what actually happened that day in the fall of 1958 there is some dispute. According to Jack, Stan was practically crying that the company was closing and Jack promised ideas to inject new life and vitality. I believe Stan has some slightly different memories. Regardless, a change in content from the Post-Code books is starkly obvious. From bland stories previously (although drawn by a stable of many 1950's comic elites), WORLD OF FANTASY changes content to bolder sci/fi tales beginning with #15's Jack Kirby's cover (the actual story contents of WOF #15 consists of old inventory dating back to late 1956 and 1957) and continuing up to #19 (Aug/59). Concurrently, a new title debuts: STRANGE WORLDS #1 (Dec/58), which also continues 5 issues up to Aug/59. STRANGE WORLDS #1 is the true "pre-hero" birth. Job # analysis will show the debut Kirby story "I Discovered The Secret Of The Flying Saucers" (T-76) to be the very first "new" piece of artwork commissioned for the two new fantasy titles. The "T" job number designation is the key in determining these new stories. When last seen, the latest post-implosion issues had inventoried story job #'s reaching "O".
Note that STRANGE TALES #66 (Dec/58) is not a pre-hero book but a bland post- code book consisting of old post-code inventory. The eras overlap here. With the imagination of Jack Kirby fueling them, these books began to depict strange aliens and weird creatures with the help of a small roster of talent from the earlier Atlas period, namely Steve Ditko, Don Heck, Joe Sinnott, Dick Ayers, Paul Reinman, and John Forte. Cameo artwork can also be found by Al Williamson, Jack Davis, Wally Wood, Russ Heath, Sol Brodsky, Vince Colletta, John Buscema, Matt Baker and quite possibly even Stan Goldberg.
STRANGE WORLDS #1 is a gem of a book! With a killer flying saucer Jack Kirby cover, no one could mistake this for the milk-fed post-code fantasy that preceded it. This cover is inked by one of the most enigmatic Pre-Hero Era artists I've ever come across, Christopher Rule. A Timely teen-humor artist whose career dates back to mid 1940's PATSY WALKER comics, his mysterious pairing with Jack Kirby as inker in the period of Dec/58 to July/60 of the Pre-Hero/Sci- Fi Fantasy era is very curious, although the pairing works very well, in my opinion.
One month later, Jan/59 sees the conversion of JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #50 into a Pre-Hero issue after a single Post-Implosion/Post-Code issue (#49 ,Nov/58). More importantly though, Jan/59 sees the debut of two new Pre-Hero titles : TALES TO ASTONISH #1 and TALES OF SUSPENSE #1. By Feb/59 , STRANGE TALES #67 also converts to Pre-Hero content (after 6 Post-Code/Post-Implosion issues) and with the cancellation of WORLD OF FANTASY and STRANGE WORLDS, the "Big Four" Pre-Hero titles were off and running.
These four titles transformed into a showcase for the talents of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Kirby led with monster after monster of every conceivable variety. Sporting names of equal grandeur: "Xom", "Googam", "Dragoom", "Taboo", "Monstrom" , "Vandoom", "Gorgilla", "Trull", "Orrgo", "Blip", "Glob", "Sporr", "Fin Fang Foom" and tons of others! Steve Ditko, contributing avant-garde morality plays with O'Henry shock endings, and Don Heck with solid sci-fi fantasy (some of the best work of his career!) rounded out the "big three" artists. These books had a flavor never seen before (and never seen again, unfortunately). Many concepts and names found in these books would eventually take on the designation of "Prototypes" of characters later found in the Marvel Super-Hero revival. I personally have a hard time swallowing much of this. Stan Lee wrote many of these stories but just as many may have been written by Stan's brother, Larry Lieber. Again, a good rule of thumb is that if Stan wrote it, he signed it. Hopefully this holds in every case.
As these stories begin to grow repetitive and tired into 1961, one final Pre-Hero title debuts : AMAZING ADVENTURES #1 (June/61). Mostly more of the same, it did feature as a back-up a continuing sorcerer character "Dr. Droom" who would later be a legitimate prototype for Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's "Dr. Strange".
By Nov/61, with the publication of FANTASTIC FOUR #1 (with the "Thing" as a final Kirby monster "hanger-on") by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Marvel (not calling itself Marvel again, yet) would join the apparent super-hero re-birth begun over at National. First though, one last Pre- Hero title would make itself known. AMAZING ADVENTURES with #7 (Dec/61) would change to AMAZING ADULT FANTASY and would become a final showcase for Lee and Ditko's bizarre and wonderful fantasy vignettes. As 1962 progressed, all the existing Pre-Hero titles converted to super-hero content : THE INCREDIBLE HULK, debuting as a new title with #1(May/62) is soon followed by the introduction of "The Mighty Thor" in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #83 (Aug/62) and more importantly, AMAZING ADULT FANTASY changes one final time to AMAZING FANTASY WITH #15 (Aug/62), introducing the Lee/Ditko hero "The Amazing Spiderman", before being cancelled. TALES TO ASTONISH with #35 (Sept/62) introduces "Ant-Man" by Lee/Kirby, based on an earlier prototype (a true prototype!) pre-hero story in #27 (Jan/62). STRANGE TALES, with issue #101 (Oct/62) begins to feature solo "Human Torch" stories by Stan and Jack (on loan from the Fantastic Four) next and finally, the last hold-out, TALES OF SUSPENSE converts to super-hero in Mar/63 with the debut of "Iron Man" by Lee/Kirby/Lieber/Heck. The company, now calling itself "The Marvel Comics Group" is bursting with Super-Hero creativity, and Atlas Horror/Fantasy is but a distant memory.
Sci-Fi/Fantasy stories would continue to appear in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY,
TALES OF SUSPENSE and TALES TO ASTONISH as back-up stories well into the spring of 1964, and in STRANGE TALES into the summer of 1964. These stories feature art by Steve Ditko, Paul Reinman and Larry Lieber. Atlas great Matt Fox inks Larry Leiber in many of these stories giving them one last nostalgic, 1950's Atlas feel!
But back to Stan Lee:
In addition to editorial duties and comic scripts, Stan (in the years 1947-49) was also writing many text pieces for all the titles. Stan has always said in interviews that if he wrote something, he signed it. Extrapolating this we can begin to easily accumulate an accurate body of work that can be attributed to him. Around late 1946, all Timely stories began to carry a 3 and then 4-digit job #, usually found at the bottom of the splash panel. This would continue to the spring of 1952 where the job # designation would change to a letter, starting with "A", followed by a 1 to 3 digit # up 999, where it would then change to "B" and continue. This would go on well into the early Marvel Comics, where an "X" designation can still be seen in early 1963 Marvels. By examining these job #'s, you can track the order of stories and art as they came through production, being able to even list the order a particular artist produced his output. I've actually done this for over 1500 issues so far. It should be noted that by no means were these job #'s necessarily followed sequentially. By arranging them in order you can see how many stories remained unpublished and in inventory for months, sometimes even years, before seeing print.
The next paragraph is "very" important! As I already stated, Stan allegedly signed all the stories he wrote, using the byline "By Stan Lee". I'm going to take a big liberty here and make the assumption that this also means that all job #'s prefaced by the initials "SL" were also written by him. If I'm incorrect, I can only surmise that at least he was the editor overseeing them. There is certainly a good chance I'm wrong and I'll update this as I uncover more info.
We will now look at Stan Lee's pre-code Crime and Horror work. These are stories either signed by him "or" have job #'s prefaced by "SL".
STAN LEE'S ATLAS CRIME COMIC STORIES
As already seen, Fall/47 was a very important cover month for post-Timely/pre-Atlas comics. Out of a total of 24 differently titled crime titles released, 22 of them were pre-code titles (241 issues) and only 3 titles (23 issues) were post-code. In actuality, the pre-code total will be lower on closer inspection, as 22 pre-code issues contained a war, or partial war format, specifically, in mid-run issues of KENT BLAKE, SPY CASES, and SPY FIGHTERS. These issues were released just as Atlas began to begin an expansion into the war comic genre in Dec/50 and into early 1951, coinciding with the war in Korea. This was an expansion that would see a total of 33 titles with full or partial war content. Stan was not as involved with the war titles, at least as far as finding stories signed by him. Hank Chapman is the writer most closely associated here, signing as many as 50 war stories between 1951 and 1953.
Note that SPY THRILLERS holds the distinction of being the only crime title to have both "pre" and "post" code issues - #1,2 were "pre" and #3,4 were "post". In spite of it's war-sounding title, it's content fell more in line with the crime comics, as it dealt with the adventures of "Rick Davis of the Secret Service", and featured heavily the art of Joe Sinnott and Joe Maneely in the pre-code issues.
Overwhelmingly, the Atlas crime comic work by Stan Lee is delegated to text stories, of which I'll give a near-complete listing at the end of this part. Comic-script wise, I've indexed 95% of all these crime issues and have found only 12 comic stories either signed by Stan or have the initials "SL" prefacing the story job #. This figure may rise by one or two as I locate the few remaining books I'm missing. Let's look at them now. What is interesting to see is the fact that 11 out of 12 stories appeared in cover-dated books in 1948. A single rogue story later appeared in 1953.
They're listed in the order they were inventoried, that is, by their job #'s.
1) LAWBREAKERS ALWAYS LOSE #1 (Spring/48) # SL-2405 6 pages "Joe Kratz...Killer!" Art by Syd Shores
2) ALL-TRUE CRIME #28 (June/48) # SL-2567 8 pages "The Last Double Cross" Artist unknown.
3) LAWBREAKERS ALWAYS LOSE #2 (June/48) # SL-2577 7 pages "Bah! Kid Stuff!...Said Charley!" Artist unknown.
4) ALL-TRUE CRIME #28 (June/48) # SL-2616 7 pages "I Married Murder!" Art by Gene Colan.
5) CRIMEFIGHTERS #1 (Apr/48) # SL-2632 4 pages "One Was Guilty!" Artist unknown.
6) LAWBREAKERS ALWAYS LOSE #2 (June/48) # SL-2653 6 pages "Too Big For His Boots!" Art by Gene Colan (?)
7) JUSTICE COMICS #9 (#3) (June/48) # SL-2690 4 pages "The Money That Talked!" Artist unknown.
8) ALL-TRUE CRIME #30 (Nov/48) # SL-2727 8 pages "Revenge!" Artist unknown.
9) LAWBREAKERS ALWAYS LOSE #3 (Aug/48) # SL-2934 12 pages "Murder Has A Sweet Tooth!" Artist unknown.
10) COMPLETE MYSTERY #2 (Oct/48) # 3354 25 pages "Fate's Fearful Jigsaw!" Signed: "Story by Stan Lee, Art by Syd Shores"
11) COMPLETE MYSTERY #3 (Dec/48) # 4041 25 pages "Fear In The Night!" Signed: "Story by Stan Lee, Art by Carl Burgos"
12) JUSTICE COMICS #37 (May/53) # C-215 4 pages "The Big Shot" Art by Hy Rosen.
Here are some descriptions:
1) LAWBREAKERS ALWAYS LOSE #1 (Spring/48) # SL-2405 6 pages "Joe Kratz...Killer!" Art by Syd Shores.
Stan Lee's crime comic debut (that is, if "SL" means Stan wrote it). The art is un-signed but a guess would be Syd Shores with a hint of Gene Colan also. At this time, Atlas had a bullpen set-up that cranked out pages at a furious rate. A very young Gene Colan as well as John Buscema broke in and toiled here. Syd Shores supervised the whole thing and pages were passed around in an assembly-line fashion. For this reason, diverse hands likely touched many stories. A spectre-like, skeletal-hooded narrator relates the story of Joe Kratz, a punk kid who grows up to be a cold, heartless murderer, eventually facing the ultimate penalty...death. The issue sports a Syd Shores cover and the books lead story, a 7-pager titled "Adam and Eve - Incorporated", features what looks very strongly like Gene Colan artwork.
2) ALL-TRUE CRIME #28 (June/48) # SL-2567 8 pages "The Last Double Cross" Artist unknown.
An issue with two Stan Lee stories, it features another Syd Shores cover. This story is a predictable tale of mobsters in Chicago. Nothing spectacular here. The art is weak and uninspired.
3) LAWBREAKERS ALWAYS LOSE #2 (June/48) # SL-2577 7 pages "Bah! Kid Stuff!...Said Charley!" Artist unknown.
The first of two Stan Lee stories tells the tale of a young punk, a little guy with big ideas. Thinking he could cheat, lie, steal and kill his way to the top, it didn't take long for him to be proven wrong. Unidentified but capable artwork in the Atlas house style.
4) ALL-TRUE CRIME #28 (June/48) # SL-2616 7 pages "I Married Murder!" Art by Gene Colan.
The better of two Stan Lee stories in this issue. Features unmistakably Gene Colan artwork. A poor laborer is goaded by his greedy wife to a life of crime in order to acquire enough money to keep her in expensive material possessions. After inadvertently killing a teller, he's caught and sent to the gallows, muttering all the way that his no-good wife deserves to be hung more than he does.
5) CRIMEFIGHTERS #1 (Apr/48) # SL-2632 4 pages "One Was Guilty!" Artist unknown.
Stan's fifth logged story but may be the first one to see print as I'm not sure if an April cover- dated issue precedes a Spring cover-dated issue (LAWBREAKERS ALWAYS LOSE #1, Spring/48). A short, unspectacular 4-pager with journeyman, unsigned artwork. Much more interesting is the lead 10-pager by Gene Colan "A Client For The Hangman!". The issue sports a cover that may be Gene Colan. If so, it's one of only a handful of Atlas covers Colan did. For reference, look for Colan covers on CAPTAIN AMERICA'S WEIRD TALES #75 (Feb/50) and MENACE #9 (Jan/54). CRIMEFIGHTERS was a 10-issue crime run from 1948 to 1949 that went on hiatus for 5 years, returning for 3 additional issues from Sept/54 to Jan/55, #11-13, ending right before the code came down.
6) LAWBREAKERS ALWAYS LOSE #2 (June/48) # SL-2653 6 pages "Too Big For His Boots!" Art by Gene Colan (?)
The second Stan Lee story this issue, with artwork that looks like Gene Colan, either pencils or inks. My guess is pencils as the clean lines appear more like someone else inked them rather than Colan. Perhaps Syd Shores. I'm open to suggestions.
7) JUSTICE COMICS #9 (#3) (June/48) # SL-2690 4 pages "The Money That Talked!" Artist unknown.
The longest running Atlas crime title, JUSTICE COMICS codebuted Atlas crime with #7 (Fall/47), lasting 52 issues until the comics code where it changed title to TALES OF JUSTICE, continuing to the Atlas implosion (#67, Sept/57). Stan's story in this issue is a tale of a counterfeiting ring who forces an Italian engraver to work for them (by threatening his beloved daughter, Rose). He turns the tables by engraving the crooks address microscopically on the phoney bill's border, allowing the cops to raid the place and free them. The dialogue is corny and stereotyped. The art is un-identified. The cover art looks like Syd Shores again.
8) ALL-TRUE CRIME #30 (Nov/48) # SL-2727 8 pages "Revenge!" Artist unknown.
ALL-TRUE CRIME was the second longest running Atlas crime title, lasting 29 total issues from #24, Fall/47 to #52, Sept/52 (#24 & 25 titled OFFICIAL TRUE CRIME CASES). An exciting story about a corrupt, miserable farm owner, with bigger ambitions. After making a name for himself in the "rackets", he gets his due. Note that this hoodlum bears an uncanny resemblence to Norman Osborn! (Just a coincidence, it's not a prototype!!).
9) LAWBREAKERS ALWAYS LOSE #3 (Aug/48) # SL-2934 12 pages "Murder Has A Sweet Tooth!" Artist unknown.
A long 12-pager with unidentified artwork. The art is very un-even, really looking like diverse hands drew it. An up-and-coming thug, the "Candy Kid", pulls one job too many, ending up at the gallows. The issue sports a nice Syd Shores cover.
10) COMPLETE MYSTERY #2 (Oct/48) # 3354 25 pages "Fate's Fearful Jigsaw!" Signed: "Story by Stan Lee, Art by Syd Shores"
11) COMPLETE MYSTERY #3 (Dec/48) # 4041 25 pages "Fear In The Night!" Signed: "Story by Stan Lee, Art by Carl Burgos"
The above two 25 page, book-length stories are fabulous! Issue #2 pairs Stan Lee with Syd Shores, both names signed on the full-page splash! #3 teams Stan with Carl Burgos, both again signed on the full-page splash. Burgos art is wonderfully atmospheric and Shores is brilliant, producing some of the finest work of his career. COMPLETE MYSTERY was a 4-issue experiment by Goodman and Lee to produce book-length stories. 1948 saw four other attempts at book-length stories. Issues #1 (July/48) and #2 (Sept/48) of IDEAL - A CLASSICAL COMIC saw 38-page stories also, filling the book cover-to-cover. (Actually, #2 had a 1-page back-up feature, "Oddities in Crime"). Issues #3 (Nov/48) and #4 (Jan/49) had 36-page stories in addition to longer back-up stories). By 1949 this "book-length" experiment was over. COMPLETE MYSTERY, by issue #5, would change title to TRUE COMPLETE MYSTERY, and a 3-story anthology format would ensue.
12) JUSTICE COMICS #37 (May/53) # C-215 4 pages "The Big Shot" Art by Hy Rosen.
Finally, the only Stan Lee Atlas Crime credit after 1948. This last story, illustrated admirably by Hy Rosen and told in partial flashbacks, is the tale of a 2-bit punk who wants nothing more than to become a big-shot. He's ultimately taken down by the cops who, in an ironic twist, don't even know his name. Stan had (as you will soon see) been putting all his energy and writing efforts into the burgeoning horror line. His stories there will be exclusively between 1951 and 1953.
That's it. 12 total stories found in 10 different issues. 3 are actually signed and the other 9 identified by the "SL" prefix before the stories job #. If I have mis-guessed, and the "SL" prefix actually means that Stan only edited these stories, you have my apologies but can still enjoy them anyway!
Since Stan's signed crime stories are so few, I'll finish off the crime credits with a listing of 36 different "SL" designated crime "text" stories. This listing is 98% complete, and all are 2 pages long. Many stories were printed in more than one issue ( *** ).
ALL-TRUE CRIME 27 Apr/48 1357 "Undercover Man"
ALL-TRUE CRIME 28 Sept/48 2906 "Tough Luck"
ALL-TRUE CRIME 30 Nov/48 3067 "The Plainest Clue"
ALL-TRUE CRIME 31 Jan/49 3730 "Time to Kill"
ALL-TRUE CRIME 32 Mar/49 4004 "Night of Terror"
ALL-TRUE CRIME 35 Sept/49 3133 "The Make-Up"
ALL-TRUE CRIME 40 Sept/50 3267 "Murder Is No Joke"
ALL-TRUE CRIME 41 Nov/50 3311 "A Buddy of Mine"
ALL-TRUE CRIME 44 May/51 5317 "The Talking Corpse"
AMAZING MYSTERIES 34 Oct/49 4252 "The Rivals"
Casey - Crime Photographer 1 Aug/49 2976 "Too Many Mistakes" ***
Casey - Crime Photographer 2 Oct/49 3245 "Fatal Alibi" ***
COMPLETE MYSTERY 3 Dec/48 3431 "That Sleepy Man"
COMPLETE MYSTERY 5 Apr/49 3202 "Prison Break" ***
COMPLETE MYSTERY 6 June/49 3267 "Murder Is No Joke"
CRIME CAN'T WIN 41 (#1) Sept/50 3702 "The Weapon" ***
CRIME CAN'T WIN 4 Apr/51 4329 "Perilous Patrol" ***
CRIME CASES COMICS 24 (#1) Aug/50 3730 "Time to Kill"
CRIME CASES COMICS 25 (#2) Nov/50 3915 "To Old to Learn"
CRIME EXPOSED 1 (A) June/48 2655 "The Red Head"
CRIME EXPOSED 1 (B) Dec/50 3702 "The Weapon" ***
CRIME FIGHTERS 1 Apr/48 1798 "Luck on the Reef"
CRIME FIGHTERS 2 June/48 2656 "Hero Worship"
CRIME FIGHTERS 4 Nov/48 3529 "Tracing the Hit & Run Driver"
CRIME FIGHTERS 5 Jan/49 3700 "The Old Switch Game" ***
CRIME FIGHTERS 6 Mar/49 3510 "The Landing"
CRIME FIGHTERS 8 July/49 4264 "Tough Torpedo"
CRIME FIGHTERS 9 Sept/49 2907 "Time On His Hands"
CRIME MUST LOSE 4 Oct/50 3202 "Prison Break" ***
CRIME MUST LOSE 6 Apr/51 3151 "Beware Of Pickpockets" ***
JUSTICE COMICS 8 (#2) Winter/48 2327 "Reverse Justice"
JUSTICE COMICS 9 (#3) June/48 2556 "Twins Of Death"
JUSTICE COMICS 4 Aug/48 2905 "The Robbery"
JUSTICE COMICS 6 Oct/48 3245 "Fatal Alibi" ***
JUSTICE COMICS 7 Dec/48 3151 "Beware of Pickpockets" ***
JUSTICE COMICS 10 May/49 3702 "The Weapon" ***
JUSTICE COMICS 11 June/49 4329 "Perilous Patrol" ***
JUSTICE COMICS 12 July/49 3700 "The Old Switch Game" ***
JUSTICE COMICS 17 Sept/50 3836 "The Tourist"
JUSTICE COMICS 31 Nov/52 3528 (?) "Hit and Run"
Lawbreakers Always Lose 1 Spring/48 677 "Murder-On Stage!"
Lawbreakers Always Lose 3 Aug/48 2976 "Too Many Mistakes!" ***
Lawbreakers Always Lose 6 Feb/49 4503 "Top Of The World"
SUSPENSE 1 Dec/49 6252 "The Curse Of The Coin"
STAN LEE'S ATLAS HORROR COMIC STORIES
The pre-code horror comics were an area that Stan obviously felt the most affinity for. He wrote more pre-code stories here than in any other Atlas genre. After a short Atlas horror overview, I'll review two linked titles in depth, titles where Stan had the closest editorial control, basically making them "his" titles. A listing of Stan Lee authored horror stories will follow, a listing that is 60% complete.
Atlas holds the distinction of publishing more pre-code horror comics than any other company, by far. With 21 different titles and 411 total issues, Atlas was the industry leader, literally flooding the market with product. Historically, only two main writers ever signed their work for Atlas, Stan Lee and Hank Chapman. Although Chapman did sign quite a few horror stories, as mentioned he concentrated more of his efforts to the growing war comic line. A third writer who signed his handful of stories was Daniel Keyes.
Keyes wrote two stories illustrated by Basil Wolverton, both in the classic Atlas Sci-Fi/Horror title JOURNEY INTO UNKNOWN WORLDS. They were: "One Of Our Graveyards Is Missing", #14 (Dec/52) and "They Crawl By Night", #15 (Feb/53). Keyes' name appeared on the splash panel along with Wolverton's. He had been editor of Martin Goodman's MARVEL SCIENCE FICTION pulp who transferred to the position of Stan Lee's associate editor when Goodman closed down the pulp line. He also later wrote prose stories for E.C.'s SHOCK ILLUSTRATED. Keyes became a well-known science fiction author, winning a Hugo for the short story "Flowers For Algernon" in 1959, and a Nebula in 1966 for the novel version. The story was later filmed as "Charly" in 1968 starring Cliff Robertson and Claire Bloome.
As for Basil Wolverton, he had been incredibly prolific at Timely for 10 years prior to the appearance of his first Atlas horror/fantasy story in MARVEL TALES #102 (Aug/51) "The End of the World" (6-pages). All of his previous work for Timely had consisted of wacky humor, where after two single 1941 appearances in the Timely hero title USA #1 (Aug/41) & #2 (Nov/41), would reach full bloom simultaneously in the Apr/42 cover dated issues of COMEDY COMICS #9 and JOKER COMICS #1.
JOKER COMICS #1, (as we have already seen, and contrary to COMEDY COMICS #9) was an all-humor issue, the highlight of which was the debut of Basil Wolverton's "Powerhouse Pepper", and a two-page text piece by Mickey Spillane. Wolverton would appear in this title almost exclusively up to issue #31, also appearing in other humor and teen-humor titles such as GAY COMICS, GEORGIE COMICS, KRAZY KOMICS (2nd series), MILLIE THE MODEL, NELLIE THE NURSE, OSCAR COMICS, POWERHOUSE PEPPER, RUSTY COMICS, and TESSIE THE TYPIST. In addition, Wolverton can be found in Timely hero titles HUMAN TORCH #8 (Summer/42), #10 (Winter/43), SUBMARINER #4 (Winter/42), #9 (Spring/43), the aforementioned USA #1 (Aug/41), #2 (Nov/41), and #7 (Feb/43), containing the one and only appearance of "Disk-Eyes, the Detective". For the benefit of those interested, here is a listing of Basil Wolverton's Atlas Horror/Fantasy stories:
Aug/51 Marvel Tales #102 "The End of the World" (6 Pages)
Sept/51 Mystic #4 "The Devil Birds" (6 Pages)
Oct/51 Journey into Unknown Worlds #7 "Planet of Terror" (6 Pages)
Dec/51 Marvel Tales #104 "Gateway to Horror" (6 Pages)
Dec/51 Adventures into Terror #7 "Where Monsters Dwell" (6 Pages)
Jan/52 Mystic #6 "The Eye of Doom" (7 Pages)
Dec/52 Journey into Unknown Worlds #14 "One of our Graveyards is Missing" (4 Pages)
Feb/53 Journey into Unknown Worlds #15 "They Crawl by Night" (5 Pages)
Atlas horror/fantasy quietly made it's debut in AMAZING MYSTERIES #32 (May/49). This issue # (as already shown) spun off from issue #31 of SUB-MARINER COMICS and is significant to us here because of it's text piece, "The Isle Of No Return", written by Stan Lee. Even more notable about this piece is the fact that the classic, eerie cover art actually depicts Stan's text story and not one of the 3 horror stories found inside. This text story proved so popular (well, it's a good theory, anyway) that it was reprinted as a text story two additional times in VENUS #12 (Feb/51) and ADVENTURES INTO TERROR #3 (Apr/51). Following issue #33 (July/49), it's content switched to crime for its final two issues (sporting photo covers) before the ax fell. In Aug/49, a second horror title appeared, MARVEL TALES #93. This title picked up the numbering of the long-running "name-banner" Timely hero title, MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS. Next came the final two issues of the long-running CAPTAIN AMERICA, changing its title to CAPTAIN AMERICA'S WEIRD TALES. Issue #74 (Oct/49) is a dual-genre book. It features Captain America in an eerie, horror-tinged lead story but has 3 pre-code horror back-up tales. By #75, the issue was all horror. SUSPENSE came next. After 2 crime issues sporting photo covers, the content switched to horror for the remainder of its pre-code run. 17 additional titles would be added, one almost every other month or so, with many debuting simultaneously, right into early 1953.
A full listing of the entire line of Atlas pre-code horror/fantasy and sci-fi titles follows:
1) Amazing Mysteries #32-33 May/49-July/49 2 issues
2) Marvel Tales #93-131 Aug/49-Feb/55 39 issues
3) Capt. America's Weird Tales #74-75 Oct/49-Feb/50 2 issues
4) Suspense #3-29 May/50-Apr-53 27 issues
5) Venus #10-19 July/50-Apr/52 10 issues
6) Journey into Unknown Worlds #36-38,4-33 Sept/50-Feb/55 33 issues
7) Adventures into Terror #43,44,3-31 Nov/50-May/54 31 issues
8) Mystic #1-36 Mar/51-Mar/55 36 issues
9) Astonishing #3-37 Apr/51-Feb/55 35 issues
10) Space Squadron #1-5 June/51-Feb/52 5 issues
11) Strange Tales #1-34 June/51-Feb/55 34 issues
12) Adventures into Weird Worlds #1-30 Jan/52-June/54 30 issues
13) Amazing Detective #11-14 Mar/52-Sept/52 4 issues
14) Mystery Tales #1-26 Mar/52-Feb/55 26 issues
15) Spellbound #1-23 Mar/52-June/54 23 issues
16) Space Worlds #6 Apr/52 1 issue
17) Journey into Mystery #1-22 June/52-Feb/55 22 issues
18) Uncanny Tales #1-28 June/52-Jan/55 28 issues
19) Menace #1-11 Mar/53-May/54 11 issues
20) Men's Adventures #21-26 May/53-Mar/54 6 issues
21) Speed Carter, Spaceman #1-6 Sept/53-July/54 6 issues
As to who was writing all these stories? In addition to signed stories by Stan Lee, Hank Chapman and Dan Keyes, unsigned stories by Paul S. Newman, Otto Binder, Robert Bernstein, Carl Burgos and Carl Wessler also abounded, as well as others. Newman actually may have been the most prolific of all, contributing anonymously to nearly every title.
Hank Chapman's signed horror writing credits appear on stories from 1951 to 1952, while Stan Lee's signature will appear on stories beginning in 1951 to 1953. It really makes one wonder as to why the signed stories stopped. Did Stan stop writing altogether? Did he just stop signing his stories? These are questions I just can't answer but have always puzzled me. After 1953, no writing credits would appear on "any" horror, crime or war titles, and I've indexed almost 1500 Atlas issues. Some Atlas post-code humor titles "would" have a Stan Lee writing credit, for example issues of MELVIN THE MONSTER would have the byline: "By Stan and Joe", meaning Stan Lee and Joe Maneely. MARVIN MOUSE has the credit "By Stan Lee and Bill Everett" on every page. Also, the war/humor title SEARGENT BARNEY BARKER (hilarious John Severin art!) had a single issue (#3, Dec/56) featuring a single page of illustrated gags titled "Barney's Belly-Laffs!!" with a Stan Lee writing credit, as well as the similar "Dugan Does It Again!" (meaning Devil-Dog Dugan) by Stan Lee and Joe Sinnott in TALES OF THE MARINES #4 (Feb/57). Let's not forget BLACK KNIGHT either. Issue #1 (May/55) is the only issue of the run to have a "By Stan Lee & Joe Maneely" credit on each story's splash. By #2, only Joe Maneely would have a signed art credit. By issue #4, even Maneely was gone. Perhaps by the late 1950's, Stan's brother Larry Lieber (who had a handful of Atlas romance art credits, as well as a single crime credit as far back as ALL-TRUE CRIME #44, May/51), began to write. I just don't know.
What follows now are two pre-code Horror titles that Stan had very close control over. They are SUSPENSE and the title that seemed to replace it on the schedule, MENACE. Both are classic Atlas horror titles and have the highest concentration of Stan Lee signed scripts of any other Atlas title.
SUSPENSE
As the dawn of Atlas Pre-Code Horror/Fantasy progresses, the fourth title to feature horror content is SUSPENSE. This is the second American comic book to sport this title, the first being Continental's SUSPENSE COMICS #1-12 (Dec/43-Sept/46). The Atlas SUSPENSE debuted as Atlas' 10th crime title, with two crime issues: #1 (Dec/49) & #2 (Feb/50). These two issues feature photo covers and hit the stands nearly simultaneously with the two crime issues of AMAZING MYSTERIES, #34 (Oct/49) & #35 (Jan/50), also with photo covers.
This title was originally "based on the CBS radio and television series of the same name" and a cover blurb informing the reader of this appeared on issues 1& 2 and would continue on the cover of the horror issues up to issue #11 (Nov/51). The radio series ran from 1942 to 1962 while the television series, just pre-dating the comic book, ran from March 1, 1949 to August 1954, and featured name actors in half hour anthology mysteries, including appearances by Bela Lugosi, Boris Karlof and Basil Rathbone.
The crime issues of SUSPENSE follow first:
Issue #1 (Dec/49) has a great B&W photo cover of Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet taken from THE MALTESE FALCON. Inside five standard crime tales in the Atlas "house style" of 1949/50 are presented along with a 2-page Stan Lee authored text piece. Look for unsigned Gene Colan, Bob Powell and Matt Baker art in this issue.
Issue #2 (Feb/50) sports a color photo of Dennis O'Keefe and Gale Storm in a scene from the Universal film "Abandoned". Similarly, inside are five crime stories in the same Atlas "house style". Both issues have the Marvel Comic circular logo and both are big 52 page comics in the larger, wider Atlas format.
It should be noted that SUSPENSE was an Atlas title that varied in page and story count more so than any other Horror/Fantasy title. Its size would vary from 52 pages to 32 pages four separate times. Story counts began at 5 and would reach a high of 8 (#17) and then drop down to 7, 4 and then back to 5 again. SUSPENSE also holds the distinction of being one of only four Atlas horror/fantasy issues with a quarterly cover date, namely #16 (Spring/52). At this time in Atlas' publishing history, with a huge stable of freelancers contributing, surplus inventory became so great that 4 extra issues appeared on the stands in 4 different titles. The other quarterly issues were ASTONISHING #11 (Spring/52), ADVENTURES INTO WEIRD WORLDS #4 (Spring/52) and ADVENTURES INTO TERROR #14 (Winter 52/53). These issues appeared on the stands alongside earlier and/or later issues. In SUSPENSE's case, #16 (Spring/52) could be found alongside #15 (Mar/52) &/or #17 (Apr/52). CRIME EXPOSED #11 (Spring/52) shows that this surplus wasn't limited to horror comics only.
After the publication of two bi-monthly crime issues, three months pass before issue #3 (May/50) appears. 52-page issues would continue up to issue #8. With #3 the format changes to the recently introduced horror trend and would remain until the title was cancelled. All horror issues up to #29 (the last issue) would be in the smaller, narrower Atlas format, regardless of the page count. The 27 horror issues of this title that followed (#3 to #29) represent some of Atlas' finest pre-code horror, sporting artwork by a stable of comic book greats. The title also holds a special affectionate place in my heart as #16 was the very first Atlas comic I ever owned.
After a crime text story in the first issue (Dec/49), Stan Lee's next appearances in this title would be as text pieces in issues #4 (Aug/50), #5 (Nov/50) and #6 (Jan/51). His first story script will follow in issue #11 (Nov/51). In all, a total of 17 Stan Lee signed horror stories will be found in 10 different issues of this title, all of them between the issues #11 and #29. Joe Maneely will be his most frequent collaborator - illustrating 5 stories, followed by Bill Everett (2 stories), Fred Kida (2 stories), Tony Dipreta (1 story), Jerry Robinson (1 story), George Tuska (1 story) and Ed Win (1 story). 4 additional stories will be drawn by artists I could not identify.
A full listing of Stan Lee's SUSPENSE stories with their artists, follows:
#11 Nov/51 8954 "Haunted!" 3 pages Joe Maneely
#16 Spring/52 9926 "Alone In The Dark"! 7 pages Fred Kida
#20 July/52 A-439 "The Beast-Man" 6 pages ???????
#21 Aug/52 A-770 "The Ghost Of Grimm Towers!" 6 pages Tony DiPreta
#23 Oct/52 B-103 "Vampire, Beware!" 6 pages Bill Everett
#23 Oct/52 B-104 "The Ugly Man" 4 pages Joe Maneely
#23 Oct/52 B-204 "Molu's Secret!" 6 pages ???????
#24 Nov/52 B-233 "Horror Story" 7 pages George Tuska
#24 Nov/52 B-234 "Boiling Point" 7 pages ???????
#24 Nov/52 B-274 "Back From The Dead!" 6 pages Joe Maneely
#26 Jan/53 B-431 "Worse Than Death!" 8 pages ???????
#27 Feb/53 B-329 "Storm Warning!" 4 pages Ed Win
#28 Mar/53 B-695 "With Intent To Kill" 7 pages Joe Maneely
#28 Mar/53 B-963 "The Poor Fish!" 5 pages Bill Everett
#29 Apr/53 B-941 "The Raving Maniac" 4 pages Joe Maneely
#29 Apr/53 C-037 The Man Behind The Blinds! 6 pages Fred Kida
#29 Apr/53 ??? "Strong As An Ox!" 5 pages Jerry Robinson
While Bill Everett's stories stand out as far as sheer beauty is concerned, without a doubt my favorite story in the above list is "The Raving Maniac" from #29, illustrated by the incomparable Joe Maneely. This story is very significant as it's a parody of the oppressive complaints being lodged at the comic industry by pro-Wertham forces. SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT had been released this year and targeted horror and crime comics for their allegedly violent, child- warping content. The story depicts Stan Lee himself as an editor of a comic book company, when a raving maniac storms into the office complaining about the terrible content of the horror comics. The editor then rants back at the man stating that 1) nobody's forcing him to read them, 2) this is not a dictatorship where people tell you what to read or can't read, & 3) these books are merely an escape from a frightening world with real-life perils. At the end, the editor goes home and tells his daughter a scary bedtime story "...about a raving little man with nothing more important on his mind than running into an editor's office to complain about some magazines." Considering what was on the horizon, a very insightful and foreshadowing tale. A Lee/Maneely classic. Stan it seems, worked the closest with Joe Maneely. Besides scores of stories in every genre, they even teamed up on a proposed syndicated newspaper strip "Mrs. Lyon's Cubs", a strip that was then turned over to Al Hartley after Joe's tragic, untimely death at age 32 in June of 1958. Leaving behind a wife and three small daughters, I'm convinced Joe Maneely would have been one of the co-architects of the Marvel Age of the early 1960's had he lived. Following his death, Joe Maneely's artwork would continue to appear during the post-implosion period (from old inventory), appearing as late as the Oct/58 cover dated #14 issue of WORLD OF FANTASY and the Dec/58 cover of STRANGE TALES #66, the final post-implosion issue.
Issue #21 (Aug/52) is very important for the following reason. It features the debut of a "letter to the editor" page titled "Suspense Sanctuary", and edited by Stan Lee. This is the very first letter page seen in an Atlas horror/fantasy title. Timely/Atlas teen-humor/romance titles aimed at young girls occasionally ran them as advise and fashion columns, but in a horror title this was unique. Stan writes witty responses to every letter printed, foreshadowing his later snappy patter seen in early Marvel-age letter pages and Bullpen Bulletin pages. A contest is also begun, asking readers to cast votes on favorite stories from issue to issue with the results posted every month. For the first time we now have a window into that dark, distant Atlas period. In addition to #21, "Suspense Sanctuary" will be found also in #22, 23, 25, 26, 27, & 28.
Following issue #29 (Apr/53), SUSPENSE was cancelled. Not to despair though. Horror fans who saw this title cancelled already had the debut of a new, even more horrifically titled book MENACE appear on the stands the previous month, #1 (Mar/53), with one of the absolutely most gruesome Bill Everett horror covers of all time!! A full-page ad announcing this can be found in the final issue, #29.
As to why SUSPENSE was cancelled? Who knows? Most likely sales were slipping. If that was so, the logical Goodman next step would be to cancel the slipping title and start a new one with a better-sounding title (and exactly the same story content). The call to do this was already set in motion by Mar/53 when MENACE debuted. Atlas got one last issue of SUSPENSE out and dropped the axe. Like always, titles would begin and end at a whim. SUSPENSE would be the 6th horror/fantasy title to be cancelled, and the first ongoing all-horror title to end. The sequence of pre-code horror cancellations leading up to SUSPENSE's demise follows:
AMAZING MYSTERIES #33 (July/49) (horror issues #32-33 only)
CAPT. AMERICA'S WEIRD TALES #75 (Feb/50) (horror issues #74-75 only)
SPACE SQUADRON / SPACE WORLDS #6 (Apr/52)
VENUS #19 (Apr/52) (sci-fi/horror issues #10-19 only)
AMAZING DETECTIVE #14 (Sept/52) (horror issues #11-14 only)
SUSPENSE #29 (Apr/53) (horror issues #3-29)
As you can see, SUSPENSE was the first long-running horror title to go.
MENACE
This brings us to our second Stan Lee edited title, MENACE. Without a doubt, MENACE stands as the prototypical example of classic Atlas. These 11 hard-to-find issues from Mar/53 to May/54 epitomize the glorious gruesomeness of pre-code horror, and are the "issues to get" when trying to build an Atlas horror collection. More so than any other title, Stan Lee dominated this book, writing every story in the first 7 issues, with two more in #8, for a total of 30 stories in this title!
Stan Lee's MENACE stories are the following:
1 Mar/53 C-169 One Head Too Many! 7 pages Bill Everett
1 Mar/53 C-189 The Man Who Couldn't Move 5 pages George Tuska
1 Mar/53 C-188 Poor Mr. Warkins 5 pages ??????????
1 Mar/53 C-190 They Wait In Their ... Dungeon 6 pages Russ Heath
2 Apr/53 C-287 On With The Dance! 5 pages Russ Heath
2 Apr/53 C-288 Burton's Blood! 6 pages Bill Everett
2 Apr/53 C-289 The Man In Black 7 pages George Tuska
2 Apr/53 C-298 Rocket To The Moon 5 pages Joe Sinnott
3 May/53 C-323 You're Gonna Live Forever 7 pages Joe Maneely
3 May/53 C-482 Werewolf! 6 pages Bill Everett
3 May/53 C-607 Rodeo! 5 pages Russ Heath
3 May/53 C-608 Men In Black 7 pages John Romita
4 June/53 C-683 The Madman 7 pages Bill Everett
4 June/53 C-814 A Vampire Is Born 6 pages ??????????
4 June/53 C-753 Escape To The Moon! 5 pages Russ Heath
4 June/53 C-807 Genius! 5 pages Joe Maneely
5 July/53 C-932 Zombie! 7 pages Bill Everett
5 July/53 C-969 Rocket Ship! 6 pages Russ Heath
5 July/53 C-999 Crack - Down! 5 pages Joe Maneely
5 July/53 C-968 Nightmare! 5 pages George Tuska
6 Aug/53 D-046 The Graymoor Ghost 7 pages Bill Everett
6 Aug/53 D-304 The Corpse 4 pages Russ Heath
6 Aug/53 D-114 Flying Saucer! 6 pages John Romita
6 Aug/53 D-166 Checkmate! 6 pages Gene Colan
7 Sept/53 D-225 The Witch In The Woods 5 pages Joe Sinnott
7 Sept/53 D-276 The Planet of Living Death 6 pages Russ Heath
7 Sept/53 D-290 Fresh Out Of Flesh! 7 pages Syd Shores
7 Sept/53 D-309 Your Name is Frankenstein! 5 pages Joe Maneely
8 Oct/53 D-325 The Face Of Horror 5 pages Russ Heath
8 Oct/53 C-332 The Lizard - Man 6 pages Joe Maneely
The last 3 issues of this title (#9-11) and 2 stories in #8 were not written by Stan. Russ Heath leads the pack by drawing 8 of Stan's scripts followed by Bill Everett (6), Joe Maneely (5), George Tuska (3), John Romita (2), Joe Sinnott (2), Gene Colan (1) and Syd Shores (1). Two stories I could not identify the artist.
You can easily see that a good 10 years before the birth of the modern Marvel Universe, Stan had been working on a daily basis with many future Marvel artists, especially Bill Everett, John Romita, Gene Colan, and Joe Sinnott, all Atlas workhorses. Other frequent Atlas collaborators soon to be Marvel artists were Dick Ayers, Paul Reinman and George Roussos.
Coverwise, MENACE was a showcase for the cover wizardry of Bill Everett, who drew the first 6, including the gruesome #1 cover - the two-headed rotting corpse cover, my all-time favorite Everett cover! The image was so startling that Stan offered a print of it to every reader who wrote in, autographed by Bill Everett!! In spite of it's classic status, sales on MENACE may have been sluggish as the title never published a letter-page, even in response to Stan's offer. I wonder, do any of these autographed covers exist to this day? Did they "ever" exist, for that matter?
Although well known and well acknowledged as to his place in comic-book history, Everett is still (in my opinion) terribly under-heralded. His body of 1950's Atlas work is so startlingly beautiful, delicately detailed and prolific, yet he is repeatedly and unfairly overlooked. Add to this the fact that he created Marvel's first and longest-lived hero, Sub-Mariner, illustrating the character in 5 different decades! To all younger readers whose main exposure to Everett is through the handful of 1960's era Marvel Comics (comics that are, except for his Sub-Mariner stories, far from his best work), please look back at Bill's 1950's work. It's phenomenal.
Another Lee/Everett gem is the eerie "Zombie" from issue #5 (July/53). Reprinted by Marvel during the horror craze of the 1970's, it was the influence for Marvel's updated Zombie character, and a slew of imitators.
What follows is a sample listing of 33 additional pre-code horror stories written and signed by Stan Lee, along with the story artists. These stories, and the stories already mentioned in SUSPENSE and MENACE, comprise about 40% of the total number of Stan's "signed" Atlas pre- code horror stories.
Adventures Into Weird Worlds 9 Aug/52 ?????
Adventures Into Weird Worlds 12 Nov/52 George Tuska
MEN'S ADVENTURES 22 June/53 John Romita
MYSTIC * 8 May/52 Paul Reinman
MYSTIC * 9 June/52 Bill Everett
MYSTIC * 10 July/52 Russ Heath
MYSTIC * 11 Aug/52 John Romita
MYSTIC * 16 Jan/53 ?????
MYSTIC * 16 Jan/53 ?????
MYSTIC * 17 Feb/53 Bill Everett
MYSTIC * 17 Feb/53 Ed Win
MYSTIC * 25 Dec/53 John Romita
SPELLBOUND 7 Sept/52 Dick Ayers
SPELLBOUND 7 Sept/52 Joe Maneely
SPELLBOUND 11 Jan/53 Tony Dipreta
SPELLBOUND 11 Jan/53 ?????
SPELLBOUND 11 Jan/53 Art Peddy
SPELLBOUND 15 June/53 ?????
STRANGE TALES 9 Aug/52 ?????
STRANGE TALES 11 Oct/52 Paul Reinman
STRANGE TALES 14 Jan/53 Joe Maneely
STRANGE TALES 19 June/53 ?????
UNCANNY TALES 1 June/52 Russ Heath
UNCANNY TALES 1 June/52 Paul Reinman
UNCANNY TALES 2 Aug/52 ?????
UNCANNY TALES 3 Oct/52 Jerry Robinson
UNCANNY TALES 4 Dec/52 George Roussos
UNCANNY TALES 4 Dec/52 Joe Maneely
UNCANNY TALES 5 Feb/53 ?????
UNCANNY TALES 7 Apr/53 Joe Maneely
UNCANNY TALES 8 May/53 Joe Maneely
UNCANNY TALES 8 May/53 John Forte
UNCANNY TALES 10 July/53 Joe Maneely
And there you have it! An extended look at the history of Timely/Atlas empire and Stan Lee's place in it. Although space constraints didn't allow us to look closely at war, romance, western and humor titles, needless to say Stan had a hand in them also. Following the comics code (beginning on Mar/55 cover dated Atlas issues) Stan probably oversaw the entire line, a line of approximately 75 concurrently published titles at it's peak in the beginning of 1957, showcasing artwork by a total of almost 175 "different" artists in the decade leading up to this year! This all well before the "Marvel Age" even was a glimmer in his eye! Thank you Mr. Lee.
One final note. I wish I could have one hour with you and a tape recorder. There are so many questions that remain about this period and little places to find answers. There is still much "Marvel" history to discover.
(This article appeared in an edited form in THE BUYER'S GUIDE #1258 (26 December 1997.)
