IT’S CLOBBERIN’ TIME!
In 1961, the company that would become known as Marvel Comics had a reduced outcome of just eight or so comics per month, due to an onerous distribution deal with their main competitor, National Periodical Publications, better known as DC Comics. Publisher Martin Goodman and editor Stan Lee published a steady diet of giant monster books, westerns, and romance/teen titles. But Goodman got wind of the success of DC’s Justice League of America title and he told Stan Lee to create a new superhero team book. Pencilled by Jack Kirby—at a crossroads in his career, which found himself once again working for Goodman and Lee—the duo co-created the Fantastic Four and by the third issue, the title was off and running, becoming one of the most popular superhero titles of the Silver Age of Comics, and still being published today, more than 60 years later.
Now, with the new Fantastic Four: First Steps movie looming on the horizon, Tales From My Spinner Rack! takes a loving look back at those first 100 or so issues of the FF by Lee and Kirby, featuring one of the greatest creative runs of any comic book title, introducing memorable characters such as Doctor Doom, Galactus, the Silver Surfer, the Black Panther, the Inhumans, and—of course—the Fantastic Four themselves: Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the Human Torch, and the Thing!
You can watch Episode 17 right here, right now, or click on the video below to watch it on the official Tales From My Spinner Rack! YouTube channel. Please like, comment, subscribe, and turn on notifications on YouTube, to see new videos before they’re posted here on my blog.
Tales From My Spinner Rack! Episode 17: The REAL Fantastic Four First Steps by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby … “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!”
Click here for all my past Tales From My Spinner Rack! posts featuring nostalgic essays loaded with art and info about the comics I loved growing up in the 1960s and ‘70s, plus links to all my YouTube videos and special info on my San Diego Comic-Con and WonderCon convention presentations. Scroll down to see my first Spinner Rack posts, which started in January 2023; some of which have been used as the basis for my YouTube videos
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