1960's Marvel/ Stan Lee

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Peter Gray
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1960's Marvel/ Stan Lee

Post by Peter Gray »

Just been reading essentials Fantastic four book 3.lovely art by Jack..But the writing is what is so great..especially breaking the forth wall as Stan adds his comments to the action..just love this..
What were the letter pages like by Stan? I don't have any actual Marvel comics other than reprint books..

It just amazes me how Stan came up with so many characters...and clever how he co-created them with the artist...a real collaboration..
His writing was fun!
60's Marvel is just so much fun to read and at such an epic scale..

Silver age is my favourite..
real life is used too much in todays Marvel..

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tony ingram
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Re: 1960's Marvel/ Stan Lee

Post by tony ingram »

Most of the actual storytelling is down to the artists, though. Stan basically gave them an outline, let them tell the story, and then provided the dialogue and captions. He was a master of dynamic dialogue, but pair him with a lacklustre artist and you'd generally get a plodding story. I think a lot of the credit for FF's brilliance has to go to Jack Kirby. Unfortunately, while Kirby was one of the greatest storytellers the industry ever had, when he wrote his own stuff it was invariably let down by the dialogue since he just couldn't write it. Those two needed each other to produce their best work.

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stevezodiac
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Re: 1960's Marvel/ Stan Lee

Post by stevezodiac »

Yes there is something very comforting in 60s Marvel comics. Just thinking about some of the characters and stories can lift me out of a bad mood. I just wish my collection was more accesible so i could lift a volume of Doc Strange off the shelf and become lost in Lee and Ditkos's wonderful world of Mystic Arts. And who else but Stan could come up with a villain called Paste Pot Pete?

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Peter Gray
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Re: 1960's Marvel/ Stan Lee

Post by Peter Gray »

Just been reading the Avengers vol 1..just great how these zany characters mix in our world..very funny and absurd..

Also its funny when a character like the sandman has no costume But feels he needs one to fit in better with the other costumed characters.. :lol: :)

Sometimes I wish I was around in the 60's like Lew and others on here..
Marvel must have been exciting to a kid of that era..

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tony ingram
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Re: 1960's Marvel/ Stan Lee

Post by tony ingram »

Peter Gray wrote:Just been reading the Avengers vol 1..just great how these zany characters mix in our world..very funny and absurd..

Also its funny when a character like the sandman has no costume But feels he needs one to fit in better with the other costumed characters.. :lol: :)
The Sandman may not have a costume as such (not since dropping that peculiar gree and black thing he wore in the seventies) but he has been wearing exactly the same green and black striped jumper since 1962. The man must stink!

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Digifiend
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Re: 1960's Marvel/ Stan Lee

Post by Digifiend »

Costumes aren't mandatory by any means. Even the Fantastic Four didn't have them in the first two issues.

And why are we talking about comics, in the non-comics forum? lol, Peter, this could've gone in the original general comics discussion forum. :wink:

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Peter Gray
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Re: 1960's Marvel/ Stan Lee

Post by Peter Gray »

http://aquamanrules.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... uggle.html

this shows the writing in the Marvel way..

I put it here because it is American comics....as you say it could have gone in artists and writer part..oh well..

Lew Stringer
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Re: 1960's Marvel/ Stan Lee

Post by Lew Stringer »

Peter Gray wrote: What were the letter pages like by Stan?
Absolutely fantastic. A real "pally" tone to them that made the reader feel he was welcome. It may have been part of an act but at least it treated readers with more intelligence than the letters pages of most British comics did.

If you have any copies of Odhams' Power Comics (NOT the IPC version of Smash) they imitated Stan's style somewhat.

But for a taste of real Marvel flavour of the Sixties you're going to love this link. It's all the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins that appeared in all their comics every month. Basically a news page, but written in that Mighty Marvel Manner. Click on each month to see the scans:

http://costa.lunarpages.com/bp/bullpen.html

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Peter Gray
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Re: 1960's Marvel/ Stan Lee

Post by Peter Gray »

Thanks Lew after reading lots of 60's DC comics it is soo different Marvel..I sure like the excitement of Marvel..
Alos those bullpens are very interesting ahowing which artist is working on which.t shirts..posters..behind the scenes..and thatsafter reading two from the website..

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Peter Gray
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Re: 1960's Marvel/ Stan Lee

Post by Peter Gray »

I'm very gripped by Dr Strange at the moment.can't stop reading to find out what happens next...
the dimensional worlds are nicely drawn and strange..

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Niblet
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Re: 1960's Marvel/ Stan Lee

Post by Niblet »

Wouldn't it be great if British publishers did an equivalent of Marvel's Essentials reprints? I'd love them to start with a 500-page 'Essential Buster', starting at issue 1 and eventually reprinting them all.

Not sure where I'd keep them all, though. It'll never happen of course, but I can dream...

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Re: 1960's Marvel/ Stan Lee

Post by alanultron5 »

I still feel the "Strange Tales" Issues 150 to 168 carried in the `Dr Strange` strip the finest ongoing storyline in 1960s Marvel. The unleashing of `Uma` after the `Eternity/Dormammu` clash this led to the demon `Zom` bieng unleashed by Strange and the Ancient one -who after Uma fled, battled and seemingly killed the Ancient one at Stonehenge.

Alone, Dr Strange battled the demon to a stand-still. By breaking Zom's `Top-knot` of hair Strange brought forth the `Living Tribunal` (Who banished `Zom`) The Tribunal gave Strange only so much time to deal with the growing threat of Earths mystics -empowered after Zom's `top-knot`` was severed! Or else it would destroy the planet to save the `World's without Worlds` from the evil influence! It left a giant hourglass at Stonehenge-the `Sands of Doom` when they ran out-Earth would end!

The next section of the story was a `race against time` as Strange sought out the collected mystics! They had released old foe `Baron Mordo` from his improsonment and hoped Mordo would lead them! Strange persuaded Mordo of the danger to Earth and got him to agree to syphon the mystics powers into himself so Strange could finally exorcise it!

But on gaining such a force, Mordo became power mad and banished Strange to a far distant dimension. It was there that Strange came across Victoria Bently who had seemingly been banished by Mordo-but no! She had been drawn there by a strange bieng called "Nebulos" who used her as a hostage while Strange-who Nebulos gifted his staff of "Polar Power" to was sent back to Earth to meet with Mordo!

Mordo with the full power of the mystics in him, pummelled Strange with forces beyond description. However-the staff of Nebulos which Strange grasped absorbed all that was hurled at it and Mordo was depleted allowing Strange to banish him!

Strange tried to use the staffs power to affect the `Sands od Doom` but his spell rebounded and he found himself back on Nebulos world. The staff shot out of Strange's grasp back to its master and Nebulos told Strange it was too late for the Earth girl and he! Strange pointed to a growing light as the Living Tribunal approached!

The Tribunal was puzzled-why did the evil still remain? It surmised that Nebulos staff collected all evil force directed at it and Nebulos admitted he had been gathering power this way for eons!

A battle ensued between Nebulos and the Tribunal in which Nebulos world began to crumble into ruins at the forces unleashed in the battle! Before Nebulos can cast a final spell unleashing his staff's power across the universe Dr Strange snatches it away leaving Nebulos crushed by a collapsing mountain. Strange passes the staff to a grateful Tribunal.

Strange is sad because Victoria Bentley is seemingly gone with the death of Nebulos-but the Tribunal knows where she is held captive and sends Strange to where she is! The final part of this tale see's strange find that the Ancient One is still alive and both rescue Victoria Bentley from an alien scientist called `Yandroth` who held Miss Bentley in the `Dimension of Dreams`.

This storyline was Marvel's finest in my opinion in the 1960s!
A Face unclouded by thought.

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stevezodiac
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Re: 1960's Marvel/ Stan Lee

Post by stevezodiac »

I've always been more into the artwork than the writing. And as brilliant as Ditko was on Doc Strange I prefer the Colan/Palmer work that followed when he got his own title.

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Re: 1960's Marvel/ Stan Lee

Post by STARBOY »

I've always felt that Doctor Strange was Marvels best (unrealised) character with some amazing co stars/villains -I always enjoyed this strip and it's one of the few characters I follow in US comics - some excellent stuff from the very beginning of the strip from Ditko's classic work, Colan /Palmer (I agree amazing stuff), Barry Smith, Frank Brunner (wow his best work IMHO also) etc - I noticed that Marvel have produced a Spidey/Doc Strange comic (Fever) by the amazing Brendan McCarthy which looks interesting (not read it yet). Still love the Ditko stuff best and think its his best work.

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Digifiend
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Re: 1960's Marvel/ Stan Lee

Post by Digifiend »

Dr Strange might not be unrealised much longer - they're planning a movie.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/news ... films.html
Marvel is planning to produce a series of low-cost movies based on some of its lesser-known characters, reports CHUD.

The studio is eyeing movie adaptations of the Dr. Strange, Ka-Zur, Luke Cage, Dazzler and Power Pack properties and is meeting with writers and directors to develop them for the big screen.

Budgets of $20-40 million (£13-26 million) are being touted for each movie, a sharp contrast to the nine-figure tags of the Spider-Man and Iron Man movies.

Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright is currently working on a film version of one of Marvel's second-tier characters, Ant-Man.

The next Marvel film, Iron Man 2, opens later this month. Thor, The First Avenger: Captain America and The Avengers are also due out in the next two years.

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