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    New Man 1 Cover

    •Project: New Man #1 – Dave Davison is the subject of Project: New Man, a partly secret joint venture of the U.S. Government and the Fortress Foundation, a private sector non-profit philanthropic organization dedicated to public defense and scientific research. Dave has the dual role of being part of the research project and at the same time being groomed by the Government as a public protector in the Five Lakes Megalopolis area. Dave has a dark past which he hoped was dead and buried but in his first public adventure he confronts his past and an old partner head on in “The Mall Massacres”. Legacy Comics 1991 Black and White 32 page Independent Comic: Project: New Man #1is FREE to read in this very Web Browser!



    New Man 2 Cover

    •Project: New Man #2 – His actual identity is as much a mystery as what drives him. He calls himself Ebenezer Baal, and he is The Haunted Man but he intends for misery to have company as he in turn haunts Dave Davison a.k.a New Man. We find out in this origin tale Dave was not always a hero, and it seems his past is easily as shady as the criminals he now pursues! Co-Starring The Thunder Hawks! The backup story from Legacy Comics 1991 Black and White 64 page Independent Comic: Humants #1! FREE to read in this very Web Browser!



    New Man 3 Cover

    •Project: New Man #3– Dave Davison A.K.A New Man goes out for a morning jog only to return to the Moriah Building under a full scale attack from Cyber-Tech! Also featuring Bearcat, and the Thunder Hawks! Featuring lots of never before published material! 32 action packed pages FREE to read in this very Web Browser!



    New Man 4 Cover

    •Project: New Man #4– We tie up a lot of loose ends in this issue as The Haunted Man concludes. We find out the true identity of Ebeneezer Baal, see Bearcat in action again, see the abduction of Fawn and Nick, Cyber-Tech escapes plus a special secret surprise guest-star! Yeah! This one has it all! Featuring lots of never before published and some ALL-NEW material! 32 action packed pages FREE to read in this very Web Browser!



    Humants 1 Cover

    •Humants #1 – High crime rates, higher gas prices, inflation and garbage strikes, are one thing but the recent unnatural storms have the residents Five Lakes Megalopolis rattled. Then the appearance of unusual individuals wielding supernatural powers precede the coming of a walking, flying nightmare! His name is Megeddon, Dark Lord of the Hecati and his chief servant, the powerhouse called Devastax! Krystal McKliston is an investigative reporter looking into these mysteries as she learns there are “Humants Among Us!”The lead story from Legacy Comics 1991 Black and White 64 page Independent Comic: Humants #1! FREE to read in this very Web Browser!



    Humants 2 Cover

    •Humants #2– The Herald, Magistar, and Man Ark must enter into deadly battle with Megeddon, the Dark Lord of the Hecati and his chief servant, the powerhouse called Devastax! Their goal: no less than total world destruction! Krystal McCliston, investigative reporter, tries to capture the action on video while dodging falling debris. She later comfronts a new villain: The Tower! Janeta Rosebud meets Omni Spawn and things will never again be the same! The lead story from Legacy Comics 1992 Black and White 48 page Independent Comic: Humants #2! FREE to read in this very Web Browser!



    Humants 3 Cover

    •Humants #3– Omnispawn ushers in yet another Humant: The Savage Chaosta! Also having survived their first encounter with the evil Dark Lord Mageddon, the Khosmotic Warriors have banded together and rented an old warehouse to use as a headquarters and training facility. Featuring lots of never before published material! 32 action packed pages FREE to read in this very Web Browser!



    Humants 4 Cover

    •Humants #4– This issue features the all out war between the Humants and the Renegade Humants! It's action from cover to cover as Freazie White, Jr. writes and does finished pencils over Mark Poe's layouts and we introduce a new inker, Paul Schulze! Featuring lots of never before published material! 32 action packed pages FREE to read in this very Web Browser!



    Humants 5 Cover

    •Humants #5– What happens when you try to administer first aid to an unconscious Humant? Well, in the case of Chaosta things could get pretty scary when she wakes up and thinks she is still battling the Renegade Humants! Man Ark and Sojourner find a lot of trouble for their efforts! Plus: Much More by Freazie White, Jr. new inker, Anthony Grayand Billy Leavell with Letters and Edits! PLUS: An offbeat Bearcat backup tale! By Mark Poe, Freazie White, Jr., Mark Alan Lester and Billy Leavell! Featuring lots of never before published material! 32 action packed pages FREE to read in this very Web Browser!



    Mega Tales 1 Cover

    •Mega Tales #1– Tess is a young lady who is a living tesseract. She comes from another dimension and in our dimension she can teleport herself or just about anything else just about any where. She manifests the power in a number of ways other than teleportation and she has a cute little 4th dimensional dog with a very high I.Q. named Nostradamus. In short: we are 3D beings, Tess and Nostradamus are 4D beings.Plus: Much More by Greg Legat writer/creator, Mark Poe with pencils, letters and colors! and J. Adam Walters handling inking embellishment. Featuring never before published material! 32 action packed pages FREE to read in this very Web Browser!



    Watch for more coming soon!
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Happy New Year 2019 • Argon Zark • Football Bowls

December 28th, 2018

Happy New Year

Welcome to Friday’s Mega Comics Group Updates!

Fireworks

 

Happy New Year! Can you believe 2018 has come and gone! Here we are, in just 4 days, starting 2019! We are nearly 19 years into the 21st Century. This year has seemingly flown by fast! As we did when we began this site in 2008 we take our hats off to you, dear reader! Thanks for making our venture back into publishing comics such fun and successful! We expect the 2nd 10 years of MegaComicsGroup.com to be even better than the first 10! We hope you will hang around for all the fun and bring some friends as well.


New Year's Eve in the City

Jaylen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa, two of college football’s best Quarter Backs and the  pride of the University of Alabama Crimson Tide celebrate a score!

How About Those Bowl Games!? Now, we have seen some good football in the Holiday Bowls before but some of the games this year have been real thrillers and some total beat downs! WHEW! Last weekend we had a shoot out with Memphis and Wake Forest ending with the Demon Deacons at a 37 to 34 advantage. Army set new records routing a very good Houston team 70 to 14! The Dollar General Bowl featured Troy against Buffalo in a game that was another roller coaster ride with the Trojans coming away with a big win. Louisiana Tech shocked the Islands as well as the mainland with a 31 to 14 victory in the Hawaii Bowl. Several more will be had through out this week leading into Saturday’s big Bowls. That’s right. Those early Bowl Games were just the appetizers! The main course get’s going this Saturday with the Bowl Championship Playoffs pitting # 3 Notre Dame against # 2 Clemson (3 PM Eastern) and # 4 Oklahoma against # 1 Alabama (8 PM Eastern)! The winners will meet in the National Championship game a week later.

Enjoy and… Roll Tide!


Argon Zark Revisited!

(Originally posted Thursday, January 13th, 2009)

Argon Zark Banner

Argon Zark 2ZetaSTILL not your ordinary Web Comic! ? Charley Parker is considered one of webcomics founding fathers. His strip Argon Zark located at zark.com has been online since 1995 and is the first long form comic ever available on the web! Argon Zark is also unique in it’s content. Although it started out a some what simple yet elegant daily strip it soon evolved into a lush work of art with each strip having easter eggs, links and gorgeous animated effects. In his own words Mr. Parker sums up his vision for the strip:

“I started Argon Zark! with the intention of simply having fun doing a comic story the way I wanted, with no art directors, editors, or publishers telling me what I could or couldn’t do.”

Certainly Mr. Parker has accomplished that and more.

Argon Zark & ZetaArgon Zark is the name of the main character who is a computer geek. The first we see of him is in the opening scene of the first strip from book one. In his house which may be in a neighborhood or out in the country, that’s not clear, Argon is surrounded by computer monitors and wires running everywhere. Behind him is his sidekick robot, Cybert! Cybert is a bit challenged in his speech recognition program which adds lots of  humor to the strip. Argon has perfected PTP, Personal Transport Protocol which enables him to transport himself, Cybert and an unexpected guest, Zeta, the Fed Ex/UPS type delivery person through the internet and on an offbeat, madcap adventure!

If you have never read Argon Zark start with the first page of book one and let the fun begin!  Be warned! It’s hard to stop once you start and the first book is 50 pages long. So if your reading this at work, you might want to wait to start reading book one until you get home. 😉

Argon Zark 1 Page 1


MCG Turns Ten!

Work continues on our special 10 year Anniversary Editions of  Project: NewMan #3 AND the Humants #3 which will both be available soon from our  Comics Store and the fine folks at IndyPlanet and DriveThru Comics.

In the meanwhile… we continue our celebration by re-presenting from our Archives the very first postings of Project: NewMan and Humants exactly as they were 10 years back in June 2008.  MCG Turns Ten!

You will see a difference in the comments on Project NewMan #1 and Humants #1. These postings were originally separated by a month’s time. In the span we started to get the hang of this and ye ol’ friendly neighborhood, publisher -in-training, Mark Poe actually started segregating his comments from those of the dedicated Mega Minions in the style of early Marvel Age Bullpen Bulletin pages.

Rather than update the posts we are keeping everything as it was originally, as first presented in 2008. (Albeit with any needed typos corrected.) Likewise all the comics sites under MCG are thusly preserved. But all are clearly marked with the dates of posting so as to make your time traveling exploits somewhat less confusing. Keep that in mind  as you read. Back in the day, we were posting a page everyday whereas this blog now updates usually only once a week. That has become a nescessity in order to work one other things, like new material for new comics rather than just maintaining the blog. 😉 So when you read any references to “tomorrow” just know, that was then and this is now.

We’ll update the next installment from 2008 next Friday. But if you don’t want to wait, just keep reading. All the pages are there so have at it! OR better yet go to our Comics Store and purchase the PDF for a measly buck! Then put it on your iDevice of choice or your computer and read it whenever and wherever you like even if you don’t have an internet connection. Thanks and Enjoy!

 

New Man 1 Page 1

June 9th, 2008

Project: New Man 1 Page 01

I came up with the idea for Project: New Man. Freazie and I plotted out the first tale. I did a rough story and some tight blue line layouts on standard 11 x 17 art boards. Freazie White, Jr. re-wrote the story. Thomas O’Conner & Nathan Massengill embellished and in some cases finished the art. I came back and did some inking assists and the tones for the black and white interior art. Alan M. Baker gave an inking assist. Billy Leavell lettered the book. Whew! This was a lot of work!

 

July 3rd, 2008

Humants 1 Page 1

Humants 1 Page 1Meet OminiSpawn, one of Freazies oldest creations. He is sorta like the Spectre, or the Watcher, he pops up at the times you least expect. Hmmm… come to think of it, that could fit Stan Lee too.

Art Note: Freazie White, Jr., our esteemed Editor-In-Chief of the Legacy Comics label and creator of Humants, the Epochal Awakening, and Knight Priest, did the pencils and inks. Then Allan Lewis did the foreground and background inks on the first 10 pages or so and Mark did the halftones. These were the ol’ cut and stick halftone sheets like Zipatone use to sell. (Do they still make those?) For some reason some of these never really completely stuck and made some odd shadows in places. Ironically after we would use those, we would always find bits and pieces of them in the strangest places! Once or twice it was even scary! 😉

Mark's Profile PicMark’s Remarks: Here I am just after midnight AGAIN! Oh well, who needs sleep, eh? It’s a good thing I love my work or I could not do this late night thing when I have to be up by 5:30 in the morning. I am a fan of Freazie’s writing. He has been criticized for being too wordy and using too much lofty phraseology but I don’t see it that way. I read his scripts and it reminds me of those ’60’s Stan Lee or Roy Thomas stories. These tales are definitely not to be read and understood in 5 minutes like the current trend of comics. I like a story that I have to pay attention to the detail to get it. Too much today in the movies and on TV as well as in comics are too superficial. So a story with depth is most welcome. ’nuff said! 😉

Any questions or comments? All are welcome.


Christmas has come an gone! But what is that? You say you received money as a gift for Christmas and don’t know what to spend it on. We can help with that! So if you want to get some of our printed issues to bedazzle your senses with the digital color OR you had rather purchase the very inexpensive digital downloads for instant gratification, we’ve got you covered, effendi!

Shop The Mega Comics Group Comic Book Store

MT #1 Anniversary Issue

Project: NewMan #1 Anniversary Issue

Project: NewMan #2 Anniversary Issue

Humants #1 Anniversary Issue

Humants #2 Anniversary Issue

MCG T-shirt PNM #1!Mega Tales #1 (2nd Printing) Digital Copies only 99¢ at IndyPlanet. Finally we have the revised 2nd printing as a pdf download again at IndyPlanet. To celebrate you can go to IndyPlanet and download a free copy for the couple more days. This is a limited time offer so don’t delay.  Want some freebies? Still available at no charge are the two books from Legacy Comics which started it all Humants #1 and Project: NewMan #1. Once you read those you are sure to want Humants #2 and Project: NewMan #2 too.

And coming very soon we will have Humants #3 and Project: NewMan #3 ready for purchase and download.  What are you waiting for? Don’t delay, get ’em today!

And don’t forget we have all kinds of Mega Merchandise, like t-shirts, posters, mugs, phone cases and lots more:

Mega Graphics POD T-Shirt Shop

Sadly another episode of the MCG Friday Blog comes to a close! But fear not, web wayfarer! We’ll be back next Friday with another short and sweet, 15 minute, Blog Update. We have been getting some good compliments on these shorter blog postings, so for now, we’ll stick with it until you want something different. 🙂

Happy New Year!

CU Next Week!

______________________________

Fair Use reference to intellectual property of other companies are intended for historical and informational accuracy only. Mega Comics Group™ or Mega Graphics, LLC™ does not represent or have any relationship to any other company or entity or their intellectual property unless otherwise clearly noted. Mega Tales™ and © 2010 Mega Graphics LLC, unless otherwise noted herein.  Project: New Man™ and  Humants™ and © 2010 Freazie White, Jr. D.B.A. Legacy Comics. Tess, the Living Tesseract™ and © Stephen Greg Legat and Mark Poe. All rights reserved. Mega Graphics LLC, licensor.

 

Tags: # 1 Alabama, # 2 Clemson, # 3 Notre Dame, # 4 Oklahoma, Argon Zark, Army, Bowl Championship Playoffs, Buffalo, Charley Parker, Demon Deacons, Dollar General Bowl, Happy New Year!, Hawaii Bowl, Houston, Jaylen Hurts, Louisiana Tech, Memphis, National Championship, Personal Transport Protocol, PTP, Trojans, Troy, Tua Tagovailoa, University of Alabama Crimson Tide, Wake Forest |

4 Days ’til Christmas! • The Chosen • More Doom Patrol

December 21st, 2018

Merry Christmas

Welcome to Friday’s Mega Comics Group Updates!

Happy Chanukah

Only 4 days ’til Christmas!? WOW! This is our favorite time of year! It’s not just all the food, presents, shopping, Christmas music, lights and festivities, but the peace and good will that seems to be present most everywhere we go. Even though many traditions have been adopted to it over the many years of celebration it is still the birthday of the Messiah, Yeshua or as we commonly know his name: Jesus. Now, here’s a treat that tells you a little about him! This is the best video nativity scene we have ever run across. It’s not that long, about 23 minutes but it very realistic. Watching this will give you new perspective on what Christmas is all about. Enjoy!

Christamas Centerpiece

 

A Little More About The Doom Patrol!

New Man 1 CoverWe clued you in on the new collected volumes we discovered over on Amazon, last week.  We’ve all been having a great time going through our copies and reminiscing another Silver Age classic series. We thought we would follow up with a little more for your enlightenment.

The Doom Patrol is a superhero team appearing in publications from DC Comics. The original Doom Patrol first appeared in My Greatest Adventure #80 (June 1963), and were created by writers Arnold Drake and Bob Haney, and artist Bruno Premiani. The Doom Patrol has since appeared in multiple incarnations.
The first Doom Patrol consisted of super-powered misfits, whose “gifts” caused them alienation and trauma. Dubbed the “World’s Strangest Heroes” (an epithet conceived by editor Murray Boltinoff) the original team included The Chief (Niles Caulder), Robotman (Cliff Steele), Elasti-Girl (Rita Farr), and Negative Man (Larry Trainor). The team remained the featured characters of My Greatest Adventure, which was soon retitled Doom Patrol from issue #86 (March 1964) onwards. The original series was canceled in 1968, when Drake killed the team off in the final issue, Doom Patrol #121 (September–October 1968). Since then, there have been six Doom Patrol series, with Robotman as the only character to appear in all of them.

In 1963, editor Murray Boltinoff asked Arnold Drake to develop a feature to run in the anthology series My Greatest Adventure. Given the assignment on a Friday with a script due that Tuesday, Drake conceived of what would become the superhero team the Doom Patrol, and turned to another DC writer, Bob Haney, to co-plot and co-script the first adventure. Artist Bruno Premiani designed the characters. Drake would subsequently script every Doom Patrol story, with Premiani drawing virtually all, from the team’s debut in My Greatest Adventure #80 (June 1963) through the series retitling to The Doom Patrol with issue #86 (March 1964), to the final issue of its initial run, #121 (Oct. 1968). Arnold Drake and Bob Brown introduced Beast Boy in Doom Patrol #99 (Nov. 1965).

For more click the link and read the rest on Wikipedia.

Check it out and get all the info on Amazon: Doom Patrol: The Silver Age Volume One kicks off Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani’s beloved series with tales from My Greatest Adventure #80-85 and The Doom Patrol #86-95. The second volume features The Doom Patrol #95-121.


Christamas Centerpiece

MCG Turns Ten!

We are still working diligently, little by little on revisions and print preparations for the special 10 year Anniversary Edition of  Project: NewMan #3 AND the Humants #3 which will both be available soon from our  Comics Store and the fine folks at IndyPlanet and DriveThru Comics.

Meanwhile… we continue our celebration right here of the 10 year Anniversary for MegaComicsGroup.com we are digging into the Golden Oldies of the site Archives of Project: NewMan and Humants beginning with our postings from 10 years back in June 2008.  MCG Turns Ten!

Note the difference in the comments on Project NewMan #1 and Humants #1. These postings were originally separated by a month’s time. In the span we started to get the hang of this and ye ol’ friendly neighborhood, publisher -in-training, Mark Poe actually started segregating his comments from those of the dedicated Mega Minions in the style of early Marvel Age Bullpen Bulletin pages.

Rather than update the posts we decided to keep them as them original as first presented in 2008. Likewise all the comics site under MCG are thusly preserved. But all are clearly marked with the dates of posting so as to make your time traveling exploits somewhat less confusing. Keep that in mind  as you read. Back in the day, we were posting a page everyday whereas this blog now updates usually only occur once a week. That has become a nescessity in order to work one other things, like new material for new comics rather than just maintaining the blog. So when you read any references to “tomorrow” just know, that was then and this is now.

We’ll update the next installment from 2008 next week. But if you don’t want to wait, just keep reading. All the pages are there so have at it! OR better yet go to our Comics Store and purchase the PDF for a measly buck! Then put it on your iDevice of choice or your computer and read it whenever and wherever you like even if you don’t have an internet connection. Thanks and Enjoy!

 

New Man 1 Cover

June 8th, 2008

Project: New Man 1 Inside Cover

The inside Front cover may not be all that thrilling but it gives you a lot of info on exactly where we were back in 1990-91.

July 2nd, 2008

Humants 1 Inside Front Cover

New Man 1 CoverHere we have the inside front cover. We originally had not intended to put these inside covers on the web comic but this was a part of that original publication and it gives you information on where we were at the time as we did in Project: New Man #1. This one in Humants actually gives you an introduction to the story. That’s Freazie’s inks over Mark’s pencils, for a change, at the bottom of the page. All the text was set with an Electic Typewriter. Yep, these were the days before we had a computers. Back then they were still new and still considered more of a luxery item for many households. Now days, we can’t hardly do without them. Times have really changed, eh?

Mark's Profile PicMark’s Remarks: We always got some interesting reactions to our title Humants. It was especially interesting at conventions. People would pronounce it different ways and interpret in different ways than we ever conceived. Some would break the syllables into “Hum-Ants”. We came up with a slogan we used many times to help promote the proper pronunciation. We would say “Humants are not just mutants but a different name.” We hoped this would give the reader a clue that the pronunciation of Humants was similar to mutants with the dividing of syllables being “Hu-mants” just as it is “mu-tants” rather than “mut-ants.” Most caught on right away. But of course we did always have the obligatory wise guys who liked to get a laugh with “Hum-ants, huh? What are they… human ants?” sigh…. ?

Any questions or comments? All are welcome.


Only 4 (FOUR!) shopping days left! Not really enough time to order more physical gifts online UNLESS you don’t mind them delivered after Christmas. OR you can purchase the very inexpensive digital downloads for instant gratification! ’nuff said!

Shop The Mega Comics Group Comic Book Store

MT #1 Anniversary Issue

Project: NewMan #1 Anniversary Issue

Project: NewMan #2 Anniversary Issue

Humants #1 Anniversary Issue

Humants #2 Anniversary Issue

MCG T-shirt PNM #1!Mega Tales #1 (2nd Printing) Digital Copies only 99¢ at IndyPlanet. Finally we have the revised 2nd printing as a pdf download again at IndyPlanet. To celebrate you can go to IndyPlanet and download a free copy for the couple more days. This is a limited time offer so don’t delay.  Want some freebies? Still available at no charge are the two books from Legacy Comics which started it all Humants #1 and Project: NewMan #1. Once you read those you are sure to want Humants #2 and Project: NewMan #2 too. And coming very soon we will have Humants #3 and Project: NewMan #3 ready for purchase and download.  What are you waiting for? Don’t delay, get ’em today!

And don’t forget we have all kinds of Mega Merchandise, like t-shirts, posters, mugs, phone cases and lots more:

Mega Graphics POD T-Shirt Shop

That’s it for this week! Continuing our Holiday Policy of short and to the point 15 minute Blog Updates. We might just have to make this the norm which is more reminiscent of how we use to do this blog a few years ago. 🙂

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

CU Next Week!

______________________________

Fair Use reference to intellectual property of other companies are intended for historical and informational accuracy only. Mega Comics Group™ or Mega Graphics, LLC™ does not represent or have any relationship to any other company or entity or their intellectual property unless otherwise clearly noted. Mega Tales™ and © 2010 Mega Graphics LLC, unless otherwise noted herein.  Project: New Man™ and  Humants™ and © 2010 Freazie White, Jr. D.B.A. Legacy Comics. Tess, the Living Tesseract™ and © Stephen Greg Legat and Mark Poe. All rights reserved. Mega Graphics LLC, licensor.

Christamas Centerpiece

Tags: 10 Year Anniversary, 4 Days 'til Christmas!, Amazon, Arnold Drake, Beast Boy, Bob Brown, Bob Haney, Bruno Premiani, Christmas Gifts, DriveThru Comics, Elasti-Girl (Rita Farr), Golden Oldies of the site Archives, Happy Chanukah, Humants, Humants 1 Inside Front Cover, IndyPlanet, Murray Boltinoff, My Greatest Adventure #80-85, Negative Man (Larry Trainor), Project: New Man 1 Inside Cover, Project: NewMan, Robotman (Cliff Steele), Silver Age, The Chief (Niles Caulder), The Chosen, The Doom Patrol #86-95, The Doom Patrol #95-121, The Doom Patrol!, Yeshua |

Just 10 Days ’til Christmas! • Doom Patrol • Mannheim Steam Roller

December 14th, 2018

Welcome to Friday’s Mega Comics Group Updates!

Christmas Lights

Only 10 days ’til Christmas!? YES! We love this time of year! We love Christmas Lights and Trees and all that Holiday Glitter! We love Mannheim Steam Roller music. Okay, so you see these computerized,  music synced, light shows all over now days. But this is a new one just posted a few days ago! These are all over YouTube , of course, as well as various other places on the web. We have to say, this is one of the better ones we have seen with all the latest upgraded bells and whistles and one of our favorite Steamroller tunes: Stille Nacht A.K.A.  Silent Night! Enjoy!

Christmas Lights

Only 10 (TEN!) shopping days left! Can you believe it!? It will be gone before you know it! So while you still can check out the deals we have available for the fan on your Christmas gift list:

Shop The Mega Comics Group Comic Book Store

MT #1 Anniversary Issue

Project: NewMan #1 Anniversary Issue

Project: NewMan #2 Anniversary Issue

Humants #1 Anniversary Issue

Humants #2 Anniversary Issue

MCG T-shirt PNM #1!Mega Tales #1 (2nd Printing) Digital Copies FREE at IndyPlanet. Finally we have the revised 2nd printing as a pdf download again at IndyPlanet. To celebrate you can go to IndyPlanet and download a free copy for the couple more days. This is a limited time offer so don’t delay. The special sale ends THIS Sunday, December 16th at midnight. Unless, of course we forget to turn the sale off. But don’t count on that with ol’ Mark Scrooge hanging around! So grab all the free stuff you can while it’s legal! And that includes Humants #1 and Project: NewMan #1 too. YES! Ho,Ho, Ho and GO! GO! GO!

And don’t forget we have all kinds of Mega Merchandise for your Christmas Gifts:

Mega Graphics POD T-Shirt Shop


Also Available Now!

New Man 1 CoverLook what we found! We gave tribute to the late, great Stan Lee, as well as Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby all last month and last week. They, of course, are most famous for giving us all the Marvel Age of Comics during the 1960’s.

Didjaknow that the Marvel Phenomenon spawned about a gazillion imitators during the 2nd part of that tumultuous decade? Well it’s so! One of the first and most famous of those “Brand Echh” knockoffs, as Stan liked to tease them with, was by rival DC Comics entitled: The Doom Patrol! Yep, that’s right. Some of Marvel’s imitators were not so great, but that’s not true of this gem! You might have read some of the later incarnations of the world’s strangest ragamuffin band of hero’s in recent decades as many have tried to revive them to one degree of success or another. But we are talking about the original! Doom Patrol: The Silver Age Volume One kicks off Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani’s beloved series with tales from My Greatest Adventure #80-85 and The Doom Patrol #86-95. The second volume will feature The Doom Patrol #95-121. DC Comics has released two volumes, one this past July one available right after Christmas. Check it out and get all the info on Amazon.

NO, we don’t get a profitable kick back on this. None other than that wonderful feeling we always have knowing we’ve spread the joy with fellow fans of awesome treasures to be had. Just doing unto others as we would want done to us. Now don’t you feel all warm and fuzzy? ’nuff said!


Christmas Lights

MCG Turns Ten!

This week we are working hard on revisions and print preparations for the special 10 year Anniversary Edition of  Project: NewMan #3 soon to be available from our own little Comics Store and the fine folks at IndyPlanet and DriveThru Comics. And to continue our celebration right here of the 10 year Anniversary for MegaComicsGroup.com we are digging into the Golden Oldies of the site Archives of Project: NewMan and Humants beginning with our postings from 10 years back in June 2008.  MCG Turns Ten!

As we have done in a few other places, on the site, rather than update the posts we’re bringing it to you just the way it was presented back then. So keep that in mind  as you read. Back then, we were posting a page everyday and did so until we ran out of our previously published material. In this blog we update once a week, so when you read any references to “tomorrow” just know, that was then and this is now.

But HEY! if you don’t want to wait for the update next week, just keep reading. All the pages are there so have at it! OR better yet go to our comics store and purchase the PDF for a measly buck! Then put it on your iDevice of choice or your computer and read it whenever and wherever you like even if you don’t have an internet connection. Thanks and Enjoy!


New Man 1 Cover

June 7th, 2008

Project: New Man 1

Project: New Man #1 It was late 1990 and my partner, Freazie White, Jr. (pronounced Fray-zee) and I had put together our first Independent Comic. We had done some Small Press books prior to NewMan, so this was big step for us. Tomorrow I’ll clue you in on the talented folks that helped us put this first publication together. On the cover: Freazie drew it up, I inked it up, and Nathan Massengill colored it up!

July 1st, 2008

Humants 1

Humants #1 – Cover – At last! We’ve been looking forward to this day! The Web Comic debut of Legacy Comics’ Humants title originally published back in 1991. Freazie wrote and drew this title. This was his baby! For the cover: Freazie drew it up, Mark Poe inked it, and Nathan Massengill did his blazing color treatment! WOW! And so it begins…Humants 1 Cover

Mark's Profile PicMark’s Remarks: Here I am just after midnight. My family long since retired to bed for the evening and even though I’m tired too, I’m also jazzed with seeing this cover again. Sure we had done some comics before this but these were different. Legacy Comics were well received by everyone we met and gave or sold an issue too. We got fan mail with almost no negative feedback at all. People who stopped by our booths at comic cons were thrilled and hopeful. People were wanting something new and different from what the big two had to offer and yet something familiar to them, something like what they grew up with. We were doing our best to give them just that. Sure we had our shortcomings, but somehow that seemed to endear us to everyone all the more. If we had only had a way to spread the word more… something which everyone had access to… something like… the internet! Hmmmm… maybe we were just ahead of our time, eh?

 


That’s a wrap for this week! We’ve made this one short and sweet! Didn’t want to bore you… Now, go enjoy the rest of your time period in doing whatever it is you enjoy spending time on. 😉

CU Next Week!

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Fair Use reference to intellectual property of other companies are intended for historical and informational accuracy only. Mega Comics Group™ or Mega Graphics, LLC™ does not represent or have any relationship to any other company or entity or their intellectual property unless otherwise clearly noted. Mega Tales™ and © 2010 Mega Graphics LLC, unless otherwise noted herein.  Project: New Man™ and  Humants™ and © 2010 Freazie White, Jr. D.B.A. Legacy Comics. Tess, the Living Tesseract™ and © Stephen Greg Legat and Mark Poe. All rights reserved. Mega Graphics LLC, licensor.

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Tags: 10 Year Anniversary, Amazon, Arnold Drake, Brand Echh, Bruno Premiani, Christmas Gifts, DriveThru Comics, Golden Oldies of the site Archives, Humants, IndyPlanet, Jack Kirby, Marvel, Marvel Age of Comic, Marvel Phenomenon, My Greatest Adventure #80-85, Only 10 days ’til Christmas!, Project: NewMan, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, The Doom Patrol #86-95, The Doom Patrol #95-121, The Doom Patrol! |

Mega Comics SALE! • Stan & Jack • The Marvel Method

December 7th, 2018

Welcome to Friday’s Mega Comics Group Updates!

Christmas WreathSanta Down The ChimneyTry as we did we just couldn’t do it. Blame it on the Holidays and all that Thanksgiving Turkey or maybe it was the extra posts we did this month… whatever the reason we could not get the blog posted by last Friday. So rather than more for November, we just kept what we started for last week and so this will be the first for the month of December. What? That means Christmas is almost here! WOW!

Speaking of Christmas… Check out the deals we have available for the fan on your Christmas gift list:

Shop The Mega Comics Group Comic Book Store

MT #1 Anniversary Issue

Project: NewMan #1 Anniversary Issue

Project: NewMan #2 Anniversary Issue

Humants #1 Anniversary Issue

Humants #2 Anniversary Issue

MCG T-shirt PNM #1!Mega Tales #1 (2nd Printing) Digital Copies FREE at IndyPlanet. Finally we have the revised 2nd printing as a pdf download again at IndyPlanet. To celebrate you can go to IndyPlanet and download a free copy for the next week. This is a limited time offer so don’t MCG Turns Ten!delay. The special sale ends next Sunday, December 16th at midnight. Also remember Humants #1 and Project: NewMan #1 are free right now too. What are you waiting for? An engraved invitation? This is it!

And don’t forget we have all kinds of Mega Merchandise for your Christmas Gifts:

Mega Graphics POD T-Shirt Shop

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Credit Where Credit Is Due

By Mark Poe
Stan and Jack

A rare photo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Most likely this was during an ’80’s San Diego Comics Con.

This is probably the last installment of our tribute to Stan Lee and his life. We started out listing his accomplishments, in remembering the Marvel Comics legend. In so doing we found it necessary, more or less, to come to his defense, for lack of a better way of phrasing it. Most have been respectful of the dead but others… Well, I ran across several on social media who could not let go of their bitterness and saying how bad Stan Lee treated Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko as well as others. This is due to debates in the past 40 years or so, on who created what at Marvel in the ’60’s, in order to give Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others credit where credit is due. That part is fine. However, in so doing, whether intentionally or not, some have diminished and in some cases attempted to completely discredit Stan Lee’s contributions to the creation of the Marvel Universe. That is the problem. It’s not fair and not accurate. That’s going from one extreme to the other. In giving credit where credit is due if we find we have to tear down the character of someone or discredit them, that should be a red flag. So this is not so much a defense of Stan Lee or any individual so much as it is a defense of fairness and truth.

Over the years we have read many interviews and articles of how Jack, Steve and  others were cheated out of credit and extra pay by Stan Lee. Maybe Stan could have done better in certain instances. But there has been a lot of speculation and judging Stan Lee’s intentions and character even by those who knew and worked with him. If these assessments of Stan were fair, even those from Jack, Steve and other Marvel Bullpen members, they would also give Stan the benefit of the doubt. That’s something only a very few have given Stan.  In other words, no one is seeing this from Stan’s viewpoint. That’s another red flag. Therefore, we can only go on experience guided by intelligence, the character and established track records of those involved. When we look at the big picture it may reveal more than focusing on isolated events and running the risk of taking something out of context.

That point also brings up the question on just how accurately interviewers may have quoted Jack, Steve and other Bullpen members. That’s fair in these days of Fake News. We have learned reporters are not and have not been as unbiased as they were thought to be. This of course doesn’t just apply to this situation but any occurrence whether of history or current events. Fair enough?

Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko Should Have Gotten More

Wally Wood's script for Daredevil # 10

Stan wasn’t afraid to give credit to others for their writing. Wally Wood gets credit as a wordsmith as well as artist in Daredevil #10.

It’s true! Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and other Marvel Bullpen creators should have gotten credit where credit was due for plotting and co-writing or a writing assist or full writing where it applied. They also should have gotten paid more for the extra work they did. Furthermore, they should have gotten royalties as well for reprinted and repackaged work they did. That is the comic book industry of today, but that was NOT the comic book industry in the 1960’s. These creators helped blaze a trail for creators of today to get those benefits. If you are a writer, artist or whatever working for the mainstream publishers today you owe these guys a debt of “Thanks” for the benefits you enjoy today.

Stan probably should have given them more credit. But, we cannot effectively judge the past by the standards of today. I say “Probably” because this was a different era and Stan was giving credit which was a new thing then. Very rarely did more than 1 or 2 people get their names credited to a comic book story before Stan adapted the policy. This policy was Stan’s idea, not that of Martin Goodman or anyone else. We have no information that Jack or Steve suggested having credits on the stories. This of course was NOT a totally selfless action on Stan’s part. He would benefit from the credits as well as the others. During the ’60’s Stan adjusted the credits at the request of the artists. Wally Wood was perhaps the first to ask for this. He wanted credit for scripting Daredevil beginning with issue #10. (Sidenote: It’s unknown whether Wally gave Stan a typed out script. We can suppose he may have used margin notes similar to how Jack added margin notes, but that is speculation.) Wally not only did the script but the finished pencils and inks as well over the layouts of Bob Powell. The point here is that Stan did give credit where credit was due even, possibly, if reluctantly, doing so. But this one example showed Stan was willing to work with his fellow creators. So if Stan didn’t give writing credit to Jack maybe there a was reason for it, other than Stan trying to steal the credit from Jack as some have speculated. Stan did eventually drop the writer artist credit for the books he collaborated on with Jack. Those were credited as “By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby” or “A Stan Lee – Jack Kirby Production” giving Jack equal credit for plotting and writing. Some still don’t see this as equal credit for some reason. Why is that?

Maybe there was a time when it was necessary to draw more attention to the fact that Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others did more than just the art for titles like the Fantastic Four and the Amazing Spider-Man.  Sometimes to get someone’s attention more emphasizes on certain points are used. Such was the thought of those who felt Stan was taking credit for more than his fair share. That was a good thing to get the debate going and iron out the differences. That mission was accomplished. Whereas, there still is a need to remind others that Jack and Steve share in the creation of these Marvel Characters, there is no justifiable cause to demean and discredit Stan Lee’s contribution in so doing.

Written Evidence

Finished and printed art for the Inhumans Origin page 1

Jack Kirby’s pencil art with margin notes from The Mighty Thor #147. Click the thumbnail for a larger image then the browser back button to return here.

In the past several years we have had the good fortune to have seen many copies of Jack Kirby’s pencil art including his margin notes which were not available before. A lot of these can be found somewhere on the web. After Jack passed on these files became available through a few sources, mainly Two Morrows Publishing. The Jack Kirby Collector, which was started and still maintained by publisher John Morrow, has been the premier publication for Jack Kirby Fans for more than 20 years. Mr. Morrow has published many insightful articles over the years. TwoMorrows has done a lot to give credit to Jack Kirby where due, WITHOUT taking away from Stan Lee’s part. Many of their articles have helped clarify exactly where the split in credit resides. Case in point: One of the best series of articles is entitled A Failure To Communicate by Mike Gartland. In this series of articles, Mike compares Jack’s margin notes with Stan’s script. What is revealed is what Jack had in mind for the story told by his art was often at odds with what Stan had in his mind for the story. This is something Mike first noticed when he was reading Fantastic Four Annual # 3. He noticed in one panel some of the action of the art seemed as if Jack had drawn it with something in mind that didn’t exactly match the dialog. This is something I have noticed many times over the years when reading Stan and Jack’s Marvel Comics. It is also noticeable in some of the other Marvel books as well. This is in fact a tale tale sign of the Marvel Method which Stan employed his artists to use. It is also another indicator that Stan wrote his own stories which explains the difference. Had Stan merely reworded the script supplied by Jack’s margin notes there would not have been a discrepancy between dialog and drawings. No, there were actually often two stories in every book, the story the artist envisioned and the story the writer,in most cases Stan, interpreted or else wrote around the art. So crediting Jack for both the story and the art is somewhat off target. Clearly Jack did a story but it was not the finished story which made the final cut in the printed books. Let’s look closer at how these books came about.

The Marvel Method

Jack's Pencils for the Inhumans Origin page 2

Jack’s Pencils for the Inhumans Origin page 2. Read Jack’s notes first then read Stan’s dialog which Sam Rosen has so masterfully lettered onto the penciled pages before sending to Joe Sinnott for inking embellishment. 

Stan did not originate the Marvel Method but he did fine tune and upgrade it. Other comics studios had employed a similar method before Stan and the Marvel Bullpen made it famous. The process was conceived to make shorter work of the task of producing a finished comic book story and art. The concept is simple: The editor or writer, Stan in this case since he wore both hats, would come up with the plot for a story. Sometimes it was more complex and at other times if was maybe a paragraph of an idea. Stan has said at first he would type out a page or a paragraph for Jack or another artist. Often he would have a story conference with the artist and the typed synopsis would be the product of the meeting. As they grew more accustomed to working this way Stan would not bother to write it down but just discuss it with Jack or Steve or whoever was working on a particular book. From there the artist would go home and begin to breakdown the pages of the story. This part was different for every artist and still is. Some pencilers prefer to do small thumbnail sketches of the whole  issue then breakdown the panels on the full size art boards. Other, more experienced hands, like Jack Kirby would visualize the story so strongly in his mind, he would sit down with the full size bristol boards and start drawing in full detail one page at a time. His experience guided him in how to pace the art panels and others who watched him draw pages often remarked it was one of the most fascinating displays to behold as Jack  start at the top corner and draw, with nearly no sketching, to the lower corner of the page and have a complete piece of pencil art ready for the inker when he finished. One observer remarked it was as if the art was already there and Jack was just bringing it out of the paper, uncovering it magically for all to see. As he would go, Jack would write out his margin notes to refine his story telling so Stan would know exactly what he had in mind. Or so Jack thought.

Jack's Pencils for the Inhumans Origin page 3

Jack’s Pencils for the Inhumans Origin page 3. 

*(Side Note: It has been reported that Steve Ditko and others have given slightly different versions of this process. Steve has gone so far as to say Stan didn’t give him any plot whatsoever and that he never had story conferences with Stan. Some critics have sighted Stan’s recollections of events as faulty due to an admitted bad memory. That’s possible. Isn’t it also possible Steve and Jack’s memories were faulty as well? Jack did admit to having a bad memory as well as Stan.)

Jack would finish up his pages and deliver them to Stan, go over what was next and head back home with a new idea from Stan for the next issue. Of course Jack had his own ideas on any ideas Stan gave him. While Jack made his way home, Stan would sit down with Jack’s marvelous pencil art and begin to imagine the dialog and captions. He would take pencil and paper and start writing out dialog to fit the spaces in the art. He would word a balloon or caption, erase it, refine his idea, reword it and jot it down again. This would happen over and over until he felt he had punched up the story script to make it the best, most dramatic tale possible. He would lightly draw out and number the word balloons in Jack’s panels to correspond with the dialog he had written and numbered with directions, his own margin notes, for the letterer. All this would neatly be typed up before sending the script and art pages off to the letterer. Even after the finished lettered art would come back he might refine some of his wording and Sol Brodsky or the letterer would white out the old word balloon and re-letter the revisions. Sometimes Stan would also have pencil art altered to make it fit the story he had in mind better. Also on copies of some of Jack’s pencils you can see places where characters were erased or an arm erased or some such for repositioning by Jack, if he happened to around the office, or Sol or the inker.

Jack's Pencils for the Inhumans Origin page 4

Jack’s Pencils for the Inhumans Origin page 4. 

Both Men worked hard to bring about what they envisioned for the story. It would seem neither Stan nor Jack understood just how much each of them had invested into the actual story itself. It’s seems clear Stan did not follow or possibly did not even notice some of Jack’s notes. This is not an unusual occurrence when people are working together on a project with a tight deadline. Something has to give and usually, in such pressure, communications  is the first casualty. Had Stan realized it, he might have done things differently so as not  to alienate Jack and Steve or Wally or anyone else. Stan as editor would have seen the value in giving Jack and Steve co-plotter credit and very likely would have tried to get them a few more bucks pay to compensate their extra work. Stan was the editor but Martin Goodman was the publisher with final say and the one who signed the checks in the ’60’s. Stan very likely did not perceive Jack’s margin notes as a script. It was not in a recognizable form to a writer. Most likely Stan saw the notes as just… well… notes, suggestions. Something Jack wrote to explain why he drew something in the panels. Stan may have thought the notes unnecessary, not in disrespect to Jack’s ideas or attempt to communicate, but with the thought the art spoke for itself and did not need farther explanation. Not much higher respect than that can be given to a comic book artist, that is to say, “His art speaks louder than words.” But clearly Stan saw himself as the writer. He wrote the captions and word balloons even if some of the ideas were a springboard off of Jack’s. As far as Stan knew that was the way it was suppose to be… the way they started working as a team. Put yourself in Stan’s place. What would you have thought?

Will We Ever See There Like Again?

Jack's Pencils for the Inhumans Origin page 5

Jack’s Pencils for the Inhumans Origin page 5. 

Stan Jack and Steve along with the rest of the early Marvel Bullpen were a cultural phenomenon.  Keep in mind they knew they were succeeding, but they probably did not realize at the time they were a phenomenon.

Some of today’s talents are exceptional. Today we see many great talents in the comic book industry of every station, writers, pencilers, inkers, colorists and letterers. We don’t realize how key each of these positions are until we lose one. One thing we don’t see much of any more is creative teams like Stan and Jack or Stan and Steve. Possibly talented creators are afraid of not getting proper credit, like Jack and Steve didn’t at times. Perhaps in this Me Generation we are all just a little too selfish to share the credit and perhaps there was a little of that where Stan, Jack and Steve were concerned too. Maybe that’s why they couldn’t stay together. It may be a long time before we see another Bullpen to Marvel at. 😉

Stan, Jack and Steve may be gone but they will never be forgotten, not by a long shot. They taught us much. Some of the lessons were taught on purpose and some not so much. But if we can learn from another’s successes as well as perceived mistakes, all the much the better. Learning is the key!

The End of an Era?

Maybe or maybe it ended long ago.  Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko went on after their time at Marvel. All had their tenures come to an end at their own choosing. They could have stayed as long as they liked. Stan outlasted them all but both Jack and Steve would come back to Marvel after they left in the ’60’s. Stan maintained an honorary position even after he was no longer publisher. (Another thing his critics take great pride in their list of sins they accuse him of.) Stan, Steve and Jack all continued to churn out ideas and new books throughout the rest of their careers but were they ever really as successful as they were together? This, of course, would be somewhat a matter of opinion. But if we look at the output and maybe more importantly, the impact of their various solo projects it’s hard to say they did better on their own than when they worked together. This makes one wonder just what they might have accomplished had they stayed together. But we do have to keep in mind the era in which the Marvel Age occurred as well. The ’60’s were the last great age for comic books.

The Marvel Age lasted 9 years and Steve Ditko left a few years before it’s end. Look at all Stan, Jack and Steve accomplished in less than 10 years. What could they have accomplished working together if they had stayed together longer? We’ll never know. But we can still savor the treasures they laid up for our enjoyment.

Finally, without Stan Lee, or Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko we would not have had the Marvel Age of Comics. Take away any one of these and you change the equation which would produce a different outcome. Without Jack would there have been a Marvel Universe? Without Steve, would Spider-Man or Dr. Strange even be characters now? Without Stan, would there have even been a Marvel Comics Group at all?

Mark’s Remarks

Lo, There Shall Be an Ending

Jack and Stan as Cap and The Falcon

My art  for the Alpha-Omega Apazine cover back in 1994 when Jack Kirby passed away. It’s a homage to the cover of the Kirby – Romita, first, Captain America issue # 193, when Kirby returned to Marvel and a tribute to Jack AND Stan.

In 1994 Jack Kirby died.  I did not find out until days afterwards. I did not have a computer in those days and the internet was really just getting started so we didn’t have social media and web sites with nearly instantaneous news updates. If they reported on the national news radio or TV broadcasts or cable, I don’t remember it. I was subscribed to the Comics Buyer’s Guide which then was still a newspaper rather than a slick magazine. Of course it’s neither now having ceased publication in 2013 after more than 40 years of publication. It was a Saturday morning when I saw the headline on CBG’s front page in my mailbox when I learned the King of Comics had passed away. I remember the shock and the sadness. Much like the news of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s passing, it was not totally unexpected. Although with Stan and Steve’s deaths I learned just hours after they died. Such is the wonder of this media age we live in now!  Jack’s health, like Stan’s, had not been as good in the year or so leading up to his death.  But it was not something I was really prepared for. Even now after nearly a month the news of Stan’s death, which now has been determined as a heart attack, seems a bit unreal. I suppose we honor and respect these guys as being so much above mere mortals that we think they will always be there. Maybe that’s just human nature to think of those we admire and who were born long before us and had become legendary, to always be there. It’s similar to the love and respect we have for parents and family members.

Cap and The Falcon - Captain America 193

Captain America issue # 193

At the time of the Kirby news I was the Central Mailer for Alpha-Omega, The Christian Comics APA. With the news, of course, all other plans for the bi-monthly contributions for Alpha-Omega were put aside. I can’t remember if the current mailing was going out or had just gone out. Seem s like I recall it have just been mailed so maybe I sent a post card to all the members, about 30 at the time, letting them know the next APAzine would be a special tribute to Jack Kirby, his life and career. Almost immediately I started putting together my contribution and the overall theme, covers and Central Mailer’s report. I needed a special cover but what to do I did not know. I looked around some at some of my favorite Kirby art.

The Jack Kirby – John Romita cover of Captain America issue # 193, when Jack returned to Marvel in 1976, was one of my all-time favorites. As I looked at it I no longer saw Captain America and The Falcon charging ahead into the unknown, but in there place, Jack and Stan. I had my cover! I redrew everything as close to the Kirby – Romita style as I possibly could, added Stan and Jack’s faces and then was inspired to letter in: “The End of an Era!”

1976-1978, those were the days! It seemed the world was back on its axis with Jack back at the House of Ideas! It was not just the fact that Kirby was coming back to Marvel, there were expectations among long time Marvelites that Stan and Jack would once again be working together regularly on the Fantastic Four! Stan could not wait to make the announcement! Originally it was at the Mighty Marvel Comics Convention in early 1975 then in the Marvel  comic books cover dated October of that year, which meant back then, most of us did not see it until Christmas. It had been just over 4 years since Jack left the Halls of Marvel for fame and fortune at DC Comics. Most comics historians note 1970 as the end of the Marvel Age which began with the first issue of Fantastic Four #1 in late 1961. So when Jack left Marvel for DC most said it was the “End of an Era” and it was. Stan Lee even started hawking The Marvel Age Phase II as the beginning of the next chapter of the Marvel Saga at the beginning of the 1970’s after Jack left. So even Stan acknowledged, albeit indirectly, that the original Marvel Age had ended.

The King is Back!

The October 1975 Bullpen Bulletins

So when Stan announced Jack’s return in 1975 there was some tremendous excitement! Unfortunately it was not the same and the King only lasted 2 years at Marvel after what at first seemed like a triumphant return to glory. Jack had some great ideas when he returned. In addition to Captain America and the Falcon he gave us the Eternals, a new take on the Black Panther, 2001, A Space Odyssey, Machine Man and much more. He was essentially setting up house at Marvel as he had planned and been promised he could at DC, more or less, but was never allowed to really bring it to fruition. Jack was treated better at Marvel than at DC, at least at first. Stan made him an editor and he was getting credit for writing as well as art and the art direction of his own projects. Unfortunately, his vision would not fully happen at Marvel either. There was a lot of people on staff at Marvel in the late ’70’s who did not like Kirby’s work and attempted, with great success, to sabotage his success. Jack was on the west coast and Stan was commuting back and forth from the east coast to the west working on TV and movie deals for Marvel. This no doubt made it easier for some to undermine the Marvel Founding Fathers. Stan got wind of it and came to Jack’s defense but it only proved just how much influence Stan had lost since he had turned his attention from the comics to promoting the TV and Movie licensing of the Marvel Properties.

Stanand Jack's Silver Surfer Graphic Novel

Stan  and Jack’s Silver Surfer Graphic Novel. This is the painted cover taken form Jack’s original drawing. Painting by Earl Norem. Stan and Jack’s last book together.

Stan and Jack did work together again but not on the FF. They did the very first Marvel Graphic Novel with the Silver Surfer.  The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience was a whole ‘nother experience it seems. Not exactly much like anything Stan and Jack had done before but still aglow with their Marvel Magic! The story seems to be set so as to be independent of the Marvel Universe as it was in 1978. Similar to the treatment of the Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man TV series which were being made at about the same time and Stan was a consultant on those. Jack even did a cameo in one of the the Incredible Hulk episodes. The graphic novel is the last book Stan and Jack collaborated on, and it was some great work! The credits read by Stan Lee AND Jack Kirby. There are no designated writer and artist credits as they once had. But as with all their collaborations you can tell Stan did the majority of the writing. Stan did a great script! Joe Sinnott joined them and embellished Kirby’s pencils reminiscent of his work with Jack on Fantastic Four in the ’60’s. John Costanza lettered it and Glynis Wein did the coloring. It was a great tribute to their work from the ’60’s.

 There are a few copies of Jack’s pencils floating around the web, but I could not find any with margin notes. I did find one letter Jack sent to Stan regarding some changes he made. The letter is all business but casual and friendly, not antagonistic at all. Jack is remarking an effect he employed that seemed to work. He writes, “…in a movie sequence it would be very effective…”  This reference seems to indicate Stan and Jack may have thought this graphic novel could actually be adapted as a Silver Surfer movie. That would make sense and explain why the novel, part of which re-tells the Silver Surfer and Galactus coming to earth and the Surfer effectively stopping Galactus from destroying the planet without the help of the Fantastic Four as originally depicted in FF # 48-50. It’s possible Stan was attempting to get Jack involved in the movie and or TV productions as Stan himself was. This is speculative on my part but based on other reports I’ve read the theory would fit in with the goings on of that particular time period. Here’s a little something that leads credence to my theory.

Letter From Jack about Silver Surfer Graphic Novel

A letter from Jack to Stan about changes in art on the Silver Surfer Graphic Novel. Stan and Jacks last book together.

I quoted from the book by Ronin Ro titled Tales To Astonish, in my last column. To recap: A few months before Jack died, he and Stan saw each other at a party. They had not spoken in about 3 years and they had not parted company on the best of terms the last time they spoke because of these credit and copyright issues. They saw each other at this event and Stan flashed his trademark smile, then the two hugged.  Stan shared later Jack said something to him which seemed strange at the time. As Ronin Ro tells it:

“…Jack told Stan sternly, ” ‘You have nothing to reproach yourself about, Stan.’And it was such…kind of a strange thing for him to say. I was glad to hear it, but didn’t expect it. And that was about it. And then some people came over and interrupted us and he went away and I went away. That was the last time I ever spoke to him.” Stan could not believe what he’d heard. “Maybe deep down,”  he thought, “Jack had always felt something positive about him.”

Last time, I left out part of the quote from Stan. Here’s the rest: “And I think we worked so well together that if he had stayed with me, there’s no end to what we might have accomplished, you know?”

Jack and Joe's Original Silver Surfer Graphic NovelCover

Jack and Joe’s Original Silver Surfer Graphic Novel Cover.

That doesn’t sound like the callous Funky Flashman character Jack portrayed in the New Gods. No, it sounds like someone, a man… a friend who cared what happened to Jack and had wanted to work with him so that they could both make something better for themselves. This was long after the graphic novel and the movie and TV deals of the late ’70’s. But this was something Stan still thought about through the years evidently.  Had Jack stayed with Stan and Marvel at the end of the’60’s and they had worked out their differences, imagine what they might have done by 1978 and beyond. Or maybe even if they might have stayed together at the close of the ’70’s.

There are no perfect relationships. It doesn’t matter whether it is business or personal. There always has to be give and take and we have to work with what we are given for better or worse. The grass is always greener in some one else’s yard. But when people work together the chances of accomplishing better things with them both is far greater than if they try going it own their own. Jack had some legitimate complaints with his collaborator, his co-worker, as WE ALL often have at one time or another. Was it Stan or was it Jack or was it both? What if Jack had been encouraged to work things out with Stan? Who knows, maybe he did get that encouragement. But most likely, in the decade of the ’60’s with plenty of negative re-enforcement from our culture which was protesting everything, fighting “The Man,” the establishment, institutions, you name it, any thoughts Jack may have had of working things out with Stan was drummed out. There was plenty of negative atmosphere to discourage Jack and reenforce that he was being taken advantage of rather than to look at how to resolve the issues between himself and Stan. I’m not saying who was right or who was wrong or that anyone was to blame any more than the other. We are all human and we all look back at times and think how we wish we would have handled certain situations differently. I know full well there are plenty of things in my past, if I had them to do over again, I would hope I would do a lot better especially where people are concerned. On the other hand: We never know for sure that anything would have been any different. Not every difference can be reconciled it seems. Stan and Jack were adults, and when it was all said and done they made their own decisions and had to live with them.

Maybe, if nothing else we can learn from their situation. Maybe  we can all be a little more forgiving and understanding of the human condition and the awful fact that not one of us is perfect. But where one is weak another is strong and vice versa. When we work together we strengthen each other and reenforce the good in us all. If not, then certainly, we have seen not just “The End of an Era” but maybe “The End of ALL Eras.”

For years many in comics fandom have speculated when and if anyone would ever come on the scene and do what Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and the whole Marvel Bullpen did AGAIN. Don Thompson once wrote an editorial about that in CBG.  If memory serves me correctly, he entitled it It Happened Once, It Could Happen Again. Many have tried, but all have come up short. The comic book industry still continues to hover at the edge of total ruin even with the success of all the recent comic book inspired movies. Maybe Stan and the gang raised the bar too high. I don’t know. But maybe if we work at it, learn to forgive and be tolerant, who knows what we can achieve… together.

Mark's Profile Pic
Onward!

– Mark

(Sources: A Failure To Communicate – Part One by Mike Gartland, Tales To Astonish by Ronin Ro, Marvel Bullpen Bulletins October 1975, The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, The Comics Journal: Jack Kirby: Behind the Lines, The Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee, Son of Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee, Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics by Les Daniels, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe, Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir by Stan Lee, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby: who did what?, KirbyWithoutWords.tumblr.com, Daredevil #10, Captain America #193, The Mighty Thor #147, Fantastic Four #43)

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*Note to Fact Checkers: Everyone has two things in common: 1) An Opinion – which is usually influenced by so many factors it may be impossible to separate truth from fiction. 2) A Fuzzy Memory – Memories, like dreams, are often hard to verify since only one person has direct access to them and the memories are often influenced by opinion. Two people will witness the same incident and yet the recollection of events may be different to one degree or another. 😉

CU Next Week!

______________________________

Fair Use reference to intellectual property of other companies are intended for historical and informational accuracy only. Mega Comics Group™ or Mega Graphics, LLC™ does not represent or have any relationship to any other company or entity or their intellectual property unless otherwise clearly noted. Mega Tales™ and © 2010 Mega Graphics LLC, unless otherwise noted herein.  Project: New Man™ and  Humants™ and © 2010 Freazie White, Jr. D.B.A. Legacy Comics. Tess, the Living Tesseract™ and © Stephen Greg Legat and Mark Poe. All rights reserved. Mega Graphics LLC, licensor.

 

Tags: 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Failure To Communicate by Mike Gartland, A Stan Lee - Jack Kirby Production, Alpha-Omega The Christian Comics APA, Amazing Spider-Man, APAzine, Bob Powell, Captain America, Captain America and the Falcon, Christmas is almost here!, Civil Rights, Credit Where Credit Is Due, Daredevil #10, Dr. Strange, Fantastic Four, FREE at IndyPlanet, Incredible Hulk, Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, John Morrow, John Romita, Lo, Machine Man, Martin Goodman, Marvel Bullpen, Marvel Characters, Marvel Comics Group, Marvel Properties, Marvel Universe, Me Generation, Mega Comics SALE, Mega Graphics POD T-Shirt Shop, Rebels Without a Cause, Sam Rosen, Shop The Mega Comics Group Comic Book Store, Stan and Jack, Stan Lee, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, the Black Panther, the Eternals, the Inhumans, The Jack Kirby Collector, The Marvel Age, The Marvel Age of Comics, The Marvel Age Phase II, The Marvel Method, The New Gods., The October 1975 Bullpen Bulletins, The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience, There Shall Be an Ending, The End of an Era, Two Morrows Publishing, Wally Wood |

Stan Lee and Roy Thomas: Together Again One Last Time • The Lee – Kirby Debate

November 23rd, 2018

Welcome to Friday’s Mega Comics Group Updates!

Bullpen Reunion

A heart warming cartoon which made the rounds on Facebook last week. It’s signed but we could not identify the artist.

The world still mourns the passing of Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee. Stan was 95 years old and had some health issues the past year so it was not a big shock that he passed away. It was more or less expected but not something any of us was looking forward to of course. We had just lost Steve Ditko and Marie Severin a few months before, and Flo Steinberg last year. To those of us who grew up reading these guy’s work and admiring their art, this is a sad time. Jack Kirby, Sol Brodsky, John Buscema, Don Heck, Wally Wood, John Severin, Chic Stone, John Verpoorten, Gil Kane, Frank Giacoia, Mike Esposito, Gene Colan, Ross Andru, Bob Brown and Dan Adkins all passed on years ago. There may be others as well we can’t recall at the moment.  There are not many of the original Marvel Bullpen of the ’60’s and ’70’s left.  Our generation’s heroes are passing away and an era is coming to an end. 🙁

Roy Thomas and Stan Lee Together Again

Roy Thomas visited Stan Lee on November 10 just 2 days before Stan passed away. Long time Marvel fans will recall Roy was the first full time writer with the Bullpen Stan hired back in 1965. Roy worked on several fillers at first and had long stints on Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, X-Men, Avengers and Conan. He later wrote nearly every series at one time or another for Marvel and succeeded Stan as the 2nd Editor In Chief over the Marvel line in 1972 once Stan became Publisher.

In an article on the HollwoodReporter.com Roy wrote:

 

Stan & Roy

This may be the last photo of Stan taken before he passed on 2 days later. It’s great that old friends Stan and Roy got to visit again one last time.

“I was just with Stan on Saturday. It was arranged a week earlier for me to come from back east. I was told Stan said he didn’t want to see anybody, but when they mentioned my name, he said, “I’d like to see Roy.” Which was very flattering. I was just with him for half an hour, less than 48 hours before he passed away. He was on the sofa, facing the swimming pool, had kind of a view. He was nattily dressed and so forth. He just didn’t have the energy that he had the last time I saw him. He looked frail, but he could get around when he needed to.”

Roy always complimented Stan’s style in his own writing and often ghosted for him on Bullpen Bulletin pages as well as the Spider-Man newspaper comic strips. As Editor-in-Chief Roy maintained the spirit of the Marvel Age of the ’60’s during his tenure. In short he came closer than any of the Chief Editors in doing it like Stan would have. It’s was good to know Roy got to see Stan again before he passed on.

Roy has another article on the HollwoodReporter.com: Roy Thomas on Life at Marvel in the 1960s you might enjoy.

The Marvel Creator Controversy

Stan and Steve

Who created what? Do the artists deserve more credit than Stan gave them?

Depending on just how much you know of the comic book industry history, you may or may not have ever heard of this controversy. For a number of years there has been a debate in fandom concerning how much of the Marvel Universe Stan Lee created and wrote as opposed to how much Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko contributed as well as other Marvel Bullpen members. Average fans would probably logically conclude it was a 50/50 split. However, there are those who say that is not so. Some very devoted Kirby fans say Jack wrote all the stories and Stan just did a little editing and put his name on it. Why would they say that? Because Jack was reported to have said similar things in several fanzines for several years, mainly in the ’80’s. Did Jack actually say these things? The interviewer may have merely exaggerated or else misunderstood what Jack was saying. That had happened on more than one occasion with Jack on various subjects. Jack was known to have an opinion about most things but he also had a strong sense of professionalism, so Jack giving an opinion in private or in what he thought was a private conversation was often different than what he would say publicly. This was fairly common practice in the World War II Generation. There were similar rumblings from fans of Steve Ditko over the years but we are not sure whether Steve ever made similar complaints to those of Jack. Steve Ditko was a very private man and as a rule didn’t give interviews. He did not often like to talk about past work, he was more interested in what was next.

A Good Article On the Subject

Daniel Best is a comics fan, writer, author, historian and public speaker. Daniel is a good friend of Bob Almond of The Inkwell Awards (see the ad to the right of this blog). Bob has also inked a lot of Marvel Comics and others for about the past 20 years. Daniel knows a lot of folks in the comics industry in addition to Bob. He has some great insight into all this he has shared in a great article on his blog regarding the controversy. Here’s a couple excepts:

“The Fantastic Four were the flagship of the Marvel line and clearly both Stan and Jack had a fondness for the characters. They were the first in a long line of super-heroes, and they marked the longest continuous collaboration that the two men had, as they worked on the title for 102 issues, plus a handful of annuals from its inception in 1961 through to 1970, creating a volume of work and characters that is still unmatched today.  The characters and concepts that were introduced make up the foundations of the Marvel Universe as we know it – the Silver Surfer, Galactus, The Black Panther, the Inhumans, Adam Warlock and countless others all had their introductions in the Lee/Kirby run.  Even so there is still conjecture as to who did what on the title.

“In one corner are those who firmly believe that Stan Lee had a strong hand in the writing and editing of the book.  This would also mean that Lee had the controlling say over the direction of the title and Lee also took more than an active hand in the creation of the characters.  In the other corner are those who equally believe that Jack Kirby did it all.  This means that Kirby wrote, or, at the very least, plotted every issue, suggested dialogue, created all of the characters alone and controlled the direction of the title.  While it’s true that there are strong arguments to be had for both sides of the fence, such as the fact that Stan Lee never created characters as strong away from Kirby as he did with him, and Jack Kirby’s dialogue left a bit to be desired without Lee’s editing, the absolute truth may never be known as Kirby and Lee were certainly at odds when it came to giving the other man credit for their efforts, although Lee has been more charitable when it comes to giving Kirby his due than Kirby did for Lee.”

You can read the rest of Daniel’s opinions on the research he has done at his blog: OhDannyBoy.blogspot.com

The Return of Jack Kirbys Original Art

Jack's Original Art

An example of Jack Kirby’s pencil art. This was for a Marvel Calendar for, perhaps, 1978.

During the late ’70’s through the mid ’80’s the feud heated up as professionals and fans were taking sides. Lawyers were hired by Marvel and by Jack Kirby and a legal battle ensued. Beginning sometime in the ’70’s it became customary for publishers to return the original art of comic book artists after an issue was published. However  due to some copyright disputes regarding whether or not Jack retained some of the rights to some of the Marvel characters , Marvels legal department held hostage several hundred pages of Jacks original art. It was important to Jack to get his art back. A nice income could be had from the sale of those original art pages to the relative new original art collectors who began to surface in the ’70’s. Jim Shooter was the Marvel Editor In Chief at this time. He wrote on his blog concerning the return of the art:

 

Jim Shooter

Jim Shooter was the Editor In Chief of Marvel from 1978 until 1987.

“So then because he was suing Marvel, the lawyers felt that the artwork couldn’t be returned — it’s complicated, but doing so could tend to support his claims. In fact, they wouldn’t let me return artwork to anyone while the case was pending. Imagine the frustration of guys like Joe Sinnott and the Buscemas.

“The legal sparring went on a long time. Starting, as most lawsuits do, with a period of threats and legal maneuvering, in 1978 the Kirby side began an aggressive legal and PR attack on Marvel that ended (or lessened somewhat) in mid-1986 when the matter was settled. Though it was a complex case about who owned the characters the way it was pitched to the public by their side was that Marvel — and in particular, I wouldn’t give Kirby his art back.

“During this time, I’d run into Jack at conventions; he couldn’t have been nicer to me. If you look at what Jack said from the podium in those days, he’d acknowledge he had a dispute with Marvel, but he’d also say, “We’re trying to work it out.” He was very gracious about it. Some people around him would get pretty vicious. There was one time I was at a show; I’d sit in the back of the room if I ever went to a panel. Jack was on the panel so I went. There were some other people up there, some of the people who kind of gathered around him; some for genuinely noble reasons, some for self-serving reasons. I think it was Gary Groth who worked this crowd into a frenzy, shouting, “If you see anybody from Marvel, go after them with 2x4s!” I’m in the back of the room, and there’s 300 people between me and the door, and I thought, ‘Hmm, this is going to be interesting.’ “

So Jim Shooter was caught in the middle and took heat for something that was not really his fault. He had to do what the Marvel Legal Department told him got do to keep his job. But Jack did finally get his art back as Shooter recounts:

“So Jack, with his lawyer’s help, sent us a letter refusing to accept the artwork back unless he were given credit as sole creator on all the old stuff he and Stan worked on together. He specifically insisted that Stan would get no credit, and that Jack must get credit, or Jack would not accept his artwork back. That just blew my mind. Shortly after that, I met with Jack in San Diego, and I talked with him. I said, “Doesn’t Stan deserve some credit?” Jack said, “Yeah, he does.” And I said, “So you’d be okay if we put ‘Stan and Jack’?” He said yes. I said, “And another thing, Jack, in your letter you insist you created Spider-Man, and I know you developed a version of Spider-Man, but it wasn’t the one that was actually used. The one that was actually used was the one Steve did.” He said, “Yeah, you’re right, that’s his.” Jack was fine with it; he had no problem. So we settled, and he got his artwork back.

Jacks Original Thor 154 Cover

Another example of Jack Kirby’s original art. Thor # 154 form the late ’60’s.

“Finally, Kirby got his art back. But to this day, no one has a clue who Jim Galton was or his role in this. Very few people know the people behind the scenes who were calling the shots in this thing. To the average fan, Marvel was Jim Shooter, and why did he do this? I was in a position where, unless I was willing to get out there and badmouth one of our founding fathers, or badmouth the people who were paying my checks, what could I do? I wasn’t willing to talk bad about Jack certainly, and I felt honor-bound to represent Marvel as best I could, even though I disagreed; not with the legality of their stance, but with the intelligence of it. It was just an idiotic position. I kept hoping I could work something out. From my point of view, no one on this planet fought harder for Jack and his interests than me, ever. I’m the most vilified human being in the world when the subject of Jack Kirby comes up, and it wearies me. It really does. Probably no one will believe me, and at this point, so be it. I’m not interested in proving my case. I’m not interested in getting into a debate over it. I’ve said my piece. They can take it or leave it.”

This reckoning of these events does match other articles and books we’ve read of what really happened. There was a struggle over copyright and returning art which then evolved into who should get the credit for the creation of the characters.

Who Created What?

So did Stan create the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man or did Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko create them?  There is no way to know exactly. Outside of Stan, Jack and Steve there would only be a few others who would possibly know for sure. Some of those have already passed on as well, so the absolute truth in the matter may never be known. None of us were there so we only have second hand knowledge. It should be noted here many who claim they know, base their belief on second hand knowledge as well, so though their intentions may be honorable, their facts may or may not be completely accurate. It is with this in mind we examine the publicly known reports.

Conclusions

Jack and the Marvel Characters

Jack Kirby and the Marvel Characters.

What have we learned? We have examined a few reports of the events which occurred leading up to the birth of the Marvel Age. So who created the Marvel Universe? As Daniel Best wrote there are strong arguments from both camps. Those who are ardent fans of Stan lee take his side while those who adore the work of Jack Kirby maintain he created it all. It’s remindful of some of the great Football Rivalries! Who’s the best? It depends on the fan viewpoint!

Stan Lee and the Marvel Characters

Stan Lee and the Marvel Characters.

Here at MCG we are torn. We admire both men and their work both together and separate. Most we talked to on the subject do tend to agree on one thing; Stan and Jack did their best work together on the Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor, Captain America and their other varied Marvel masterpieces. The same can be said concerning Stan lee and Steve Ditko. It would seem that this could be the strongest argument. Their best work was on titles with both their names in the credits. So maybe it was closer to a 50/50 split than any of them remember or wanted to admit or some bias fans would concede.

Regardless of whose side you take, who you believe created what, like those football rivalries, let’s keep it all in perspective. These are some of our favorite comics from a bygone era. Let’s be thankful for that and NOT let the argument of who did the most work ruin our enjoyment of the books. That’s fair isn’t it?

 

(Sources: Wikipedia: Stan Lee, Wikipedia: Jack Kirby, Wikipedia: Jim Shooter, JimShooter.com,Tales to Astonish by Ronin Ro, OhDannyBoy.blogspot.com,  The Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee, Son of Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee, Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics by Les Daniels, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe,  Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir by Stan Lee,)

Mark’s Remarks

No Reproach

Jacks amazing adventures #1 splash page with his writing credit.

Jack’s Amazing Adventures #1 splash page with his writing credit. 

There is a book, a biography of Jack Kirby, that was written in 2004 by Ronin Ro entitled Tales to Astonish.  The book is a biography of  Jack Kirby but is it also a chronicle of Jacks relationship with Stan Lee. There are still paperback copies which can be ordered from places like Amazon but there are no digital versions that I’ve found. It’s been a few years since I read it and I’m thinking I need to re-read it. I’ve read so much sometimes I’ve forgotten where I read certain revelations. This book, as I recall, was full of details that clarified things about Jack’s journey I had read before but here the author put a new perspective on it. This was especially true concerning the Marvel years. More on that in a minute.

Jacks amazing adventures #2 splash page with his writing credit.

Jack’s Amazing Adventures #2 splash page with his writing credit. 

There are a couple points I want to make here concerning the Great Debate on who actually created the Marvel Universe.  Like a lot of what is written above I tend to think that Stan AND Jack created the Fantastic Four regardless of where the split in creativity, ideas and labor really was. Had either of them done the lions share of the work on the titles the results would have been more like some of the other works they did separate from each others influence. I believe the Fantastic Four and the other books Stan and Jack worked on were products of their unique partnership. I believe the same concerning the Amazing Spider-Man and Dr. Strange when those storylines were handled by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. I believe the proof has been there all along right in front of us. Just look at some of the work which was close by. In the case of  Spider-Man, look at how the title changed when Steve left and John Romita came on board the strip to do the art. I made a similar observation when I re-read a couple titles Stan and Jack did right before Jack left for DC. Look at and read the first two issues of Amazing Adventures dated August and September 1970. These were the first solo adventures of The Inhumans as Written and Drawn by Jack Kirby. Stan only had Editor credit in these. If you read these issues closely and notice the use of narration, vocabulary and splash page text it is clear Jack did the writing as credited. The writing is more in line with the style he wrote Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olson when he went to DC shortly after these stories were published at Marvel. Now, look at one more: Silver Surfer # 18 which is also cover dated September of 1970 and also featured The Inhumans in continuity with the  Amazing Adventures tales. Look at the credits. Stan is credited to have written this one. Read the story and notice the difference in writing style, vocabulary, and narration, it’s all strikingly different and especially noticeable when you read them one after the other. How much more proof do we need?

Jack's Silver Surfer #18 splash page with his Stan's writing credit.

Jack’s Silver Surfer # 18 splash page with Stan’s writing credit. 

Some say that just proves Jack wrote it and Stan edited and rewrote the Surfer tale. That could be true, but the Silver Surfer tale is much better paced and has more polish than The Inhumans tales in Amazing Adventures. Let me ask you this: Did Jack do the art? “Why of course he did! That’s his style and the credits say so.” you might well reply. Ah! But did he? Notice those credits again. Jack did the pencils all right, but the inks were by Herb Trimpe on the Silver Surfer and Chic Stone on Amazing Adventures. That’s two different inkers and you will have to admit the finished art has a different look from one title to the other even though done in the same time frame because each inkers style is different. The printed copies were not made from Jack’s pencils. We might say the inkers edited, re-drew and polished Jack’s art in ink. Now, some were more faithful to Jack’s original pencils than others, but that essentially is what inkers have always done. That is also what a writer and editor does in regards to the story. So Jack may have included his suggestions or even a whole script in his margin notes but Stan re-wrote, polished and edited the story. It was no longer PURELY Jack’s no more than the art was PURELY his.

Jack's Fantastic Four #61 page 17 panel 4 pencils

Jack’s pencils for Fantastic Four #61 page 17 panel 4. Here you can see some of Jack’s script in the margin notes. The sketchy numbered word balloons were added by Stan which corresponds to HIS typed script and showed the letterer where to place the words.

So what’s my point? Just this: while we might debate whether it was Stan or Jack that did the most in creating these works there were inkers for the art and letterers for the story, not to mention colorists, that contributed to the finished product. It was a team effort. How it was done or who did exactly what might be splitting hairs when you get right down to it. Now, NO ONE would argue that Stan and Jack really didn’t do much of the real work, but rather the inkers, colorist and letters did most of it. Stan may have used notes or a rough script from the margins of Jack’s pencils but the finished story was polished just like Jacks pencils were polished by inkers. It was all a team effort by Jack and Stan and several others. It started with a rough idea from Stan, Jack polished it and expanded it with his pencils to tell the story. Jack added margin notes to help convey his story to Stan along with suggestions for dialog. Sometimes Stan used Jacks ideas in writing and other times, if Jack got away from Stan’s original premise telling the story, Stan would write it back to the original idea. But all of this was part of the polishing and refining process. Stan would write and rewrite captions and dialog until he felt he had it just right to match Jack’s art. The letterers skillfully put the dialog and captions on the page for the most dramatic effect and best flow along with sound effects. The inkers refined the pencils to get the best clarity and most dynamic impact for the art.

Jack's Fantastic Four #61 page 17 panel 4 inked

Jack’s pencils INKED by Joe Sinnott for Fantastic Four #61 page 17 panel 4. Notice the details embellished by the inker. Also notice the amount of detail in the word balloons. Jack may have given Stan a little direction with his margin notes but Stan really added a lot on his own as can plainly be seen.

Colorists would add various shades of color to add even more eye popping drama. And when it was all done by the short deadlines they had to meet, most couldn’t remember where a particular idea originated. I guarantee you, by my own experience working with Freazie White, Jr. and others, sometimes we couldn’t remember who suggested what in a story or the creation of characters. Sometimes one of the inkers or the letterer would have a better idea in refining something. Collaborating as a team is like playing Football, everyone has their job and each position refines the process on the way to scoring and eventually winning the game.

Jack should have gotten more credit like maybe plotting or co-writer and he should have been paid for plotting as well as penciling. But back then that was not done very often. Stan wasn’t getting any extra for plotting, editing or art direction either. But he did start giving Jack equal billing in the form of something like “This is a Stan Lee – Jack Kirby Production” right above the other credits. It was Stan that started giving the artists, and inkers and letters and eventually colorists credit at the beginning of the story. Before Stan did it we seldom knew who were the creators on a comic book story. This was revolutionary! Later  comic book creators got more rights and even royalties for past work that went into repackaging and reprinting. None of that happened in the ’60’s, it came later. Today comic book creators have more rights, get more credit and get paid more than ever before. Stan got the ball rolling when he first had the idea of giving credit where credit was due.

One last word: Back to the book by Ronin Ro titled Tales To Astonish, I mentioned above. This book has something I have not seen anywhere else concerning Stan and Jack’s relationship. A few months before Jack died, he and Stan saw each other at a party. They had not spoken in about 3 years and they had not parted company on the best of terms the last time they spoke because of these credit and copyright issues. They saw each other at this event and Stan flashed his trademark smile, then the two hugged.  Stan shared later Jack said something to him which seemed strange at the time. As Ronin Ro tells it:

“…Jack told Stan sternly, ” ‘You have nothing to reproach yourself about, Stan.’ And it was such…kind of a strange thing for him to say. I was glad to hear it, but didn’t expect it. And that was about it. And then some people came over and interrupted us and he went away and I went away. That was the last time I ever spoke to him.” Stan could not believe what he’d heard. “Maybe deep down,”  he thought, “Jack had always felt something positive about him.”

Mark's Profile PicSo maybe after it was all said and done Stan and Jack mended the fences, like old friends often do… before the end. If so maybe there is hope for all of us Lee and Kirby and Ditko fans to do likewise, eh?

Onward!

– Mark

 

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See The New Mega Comics Group Web Gateway!

New MCG GatewayAll this year we have been upgrading various areas of our web site in celebration of our 10 Year Anniversary. Several pages needed a face lift. One of the sections that we most wanted to upgrade was our gateway page. That’s the first page of the site. Those familiar with our pages may not have seen the gateway page all that often. Most of the weekly focus has been here on the blog page for the past years. But if you go to www.megacomicsgroup.com you will see a totally new entrance to our web pages!

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Mega Graphics Print On Demand T-Shirt Shop

PNM No1 Cover PosterWe continue to stock our new online merchandise shop. This week we have been adding posters which was one of our favorite items in the old virtual Cafe Press store back when the site began 10 years ago. So in addition to t-shirts, tanks, ladies tanks and tops, mouse pads, clip on buttons, doggy scarfs, pillows, throw pillows, sweat shirts and hoodies which feature your favorite Mega Comics Group art and some nifty mascot cartoons as well, we have posters! Remember, this is a Spreadshirt store with a Create Studio App right on the web site! So you can customize and add your name or catch phrase to the art designs, size them up or place them in any position and almost any place on the item to be printed.  As we have said previously, this is part of our MCG Web Site 10th Anniversary Celebration! Keep watching this space each week for more announcements of new items and art as we add them! AND don’t forget the glorious printed anniversary comics we have below!MCG Turns Ten!

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Shop The Mega Comics Group Comic Book Store

MT #1 Anniversary Issue

Project: NewMan #1 Anniversary Issue

Project: NewMan #2 Anniversary Issue

Humants #1 Anniversary Issue

Humants #2 Anniversary Issue

CU Next Week!

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Fair Use reference to intellectual property of other companies are intended for historical and informational accuracy only. Mega Comics Group™ or Mega Graphics, LLC™ does not represent or have any relationship to any other company or entity or their intellectual property unless otherwise clearly noted. Mega Tales™ and © 2010 Mega Graphics LLC, unless otherwise noted herein.  Project: New Man™ and  Humants™ and © 2010 Freazie White, Jr. D.B.A. Legacy Comics. Tess, the Living Tesseract™ and © Stephen Greg Legat and Mark Poe. All rights reserved. Mega Graphics LLC, licensor.

 

Tags: Adam Warlock, Amazing Adventures, Amazon, Avengers, Bob Almond, Bob Brown, Captain America, Chic Stone, Conan, Dan Adkins, Daniel Best, Don Heck, Flo Steinberg, Frank Giacoia, Galactus, Gene Colan, Gil Kane, Herb Trimpe, HollwoodReporter.com, Jack Kirby, Jack Kirbys Original Art, Jim Galton, Jim Shooter, John Buscema, John Romita, John Severin, John Verpoorten, Marie Severin, Marvel Universe, Mike Esposito, Ronin Ro, Ross Andru, Roy Thomas, Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, Silver Surfer # 18, Sol Brodsky, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olson, Tales to Astonish, the Black Panther, the Fantastic Four, the Inhumans, The Inkwell Awards, The Mighty Thor, the Silver Surfer, Wally Wood, World War II Generation, X-Men |

The Whole Truth About Thanksgiving

November 22nd, 2018

Welcome to a special, Thanksgiving 

Mega Comics Group Update!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is a very special MCG Blog update. We’ve never done this before. However, over the past 25 to 30 years we have seen attempts made by various groups to rewrite history. The truth is that which is closest to its source of origin. Therefore, to get the truth we have to study the earliest known documents as written without embellishment, exaggeration or misleading.

Mark’s Remarks

The Whole Truth About Thanksgiving

The story of the Pilgrims begins in the late 1600s, the seventeenth century, 300 years ago. These events were documented in a journal by William Bradford.

King James was persecuting all who did not recognize the absolute civil and spiritual authority of  The Church of England. Those who believed strongly in freedom of choice to worship as one felt lead in their own heart were imprisoned, and sometimes executed for the crime of heresy. A group of Puritans, separatists, whom would later be known as Pilgrims, people who wanted no part of The Church of England and its laws which made it illegal for anyone not to attend church services, banded together and traveled to Holland to established their own community.

However, all was not perfect in Holland. They lived in Leiden a bustling city of 100,000 inhabitants.  There was a language barrier and an educational barrier. Many found work but many more of the separatists had limited work experience and lacked training to find good paying jobs.  Nearly half of the original number agreed to make a perilous journey to the New World, the new Continent, America, which they had heard so much about. A land where opportunity abounded to seek their fortunes as free men and most of all “live and worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, their beliefs and their desires.” But it was so far away, across the vast ocean. How would they ever make the long perilous journey? To these people it was worth the risk.

The Mayflower

The Mayflower, after its long perilous journey, sets anchor in Plymouth Bay.

So on August 1, 1620, pooling all their resources, and with additional funding from merchant-sponsors in London, they set sail on a small ship, the Mayflower. It carried a total of 102 passengers, not all of them Pilgrims. The group of 40 Pilgrims was led by William Bradford. On the long journey there was much time to discuss and plan among the Pilgrims. Bradford proposed an agreement, a contract, for all the Pilgrims to agree to and sign, which would establish fair and equal laws for the whole new community. This agreement would not benefit or restrict anyone based on their religious beliefs. All would be treated equal. The contractual agreement would dictate behavior and consequences. This agreement was later called the Mayflower Compact.

Where did the revolutionary ideas for the Mayflower Compact come from? From the Bible. The Pilgrims were a people dedicated to learning the lessons of how to live life from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. They were inspired by the ancient Israelites as their role models. This all comes from Williams Bradford’s journal. They were confident their experiment would work because they believed they were following the paradigm they saw in the Bible.

The Mayflower Compact

The Mayflower Compact, was a contract drawn up by William Bradford and the first Pilgrims. This document would later inspire the U.S. Constitution and other documents of the Founding Fathers.

This ocean voyage they were on was no pleasure cruise. It was a long and arduous journey. Imagine the bad relationships and problems on board a ship which was only about 100 feet long and less than half that in width, not much bigger than a Greyhound Bus, with 102 people aboard! One crew member and one passenger died before they reached land. A child was born at sea and named Oceanus. But they made it. They had to do it in ways that people would not travel today but they had no other choice. Think about it. Imagine the primitive forms of navigation, no radio or radar showing them any upcoming weather or conditions of the seas. But in spite of all, they made it.

Finally the Pilgrims landed in New England in November, in late Autumn with Winter bearing its fangs. According to Bradford’s detailed journal, their promised land was hardly anything to excite the senses, “…nothing a cold, barren, desolate, unsettled, wilderness.” There were no friends to greet them. Bradford wrote, “There were no houses…” There was no shelter of any kind, other than the trees. There was nothing that could be considered creature comforts whatsoever. There were no hotels. There were no bathrooms. There was no place they could refresh themselves. They had endured a long perilous journey by sea and yet the sacrifice they had made for freedom was just beginning. These were far from ideal conditions. They had to build a settlement and quickly as Winter was about to begin in earnest. 20 of them, half of the 40 Pilgrims who had made the long journey, including Bradford’s own wife — died of either starvation, sickness or exposure to the severe weather conditions. They endured the winter as best they could. When Spring finally came, the Indians,  Native Americans of the region, did welcome them.  They taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers for coats. Life improved for the Pilgrims, but they were far from the prosperity they had dreamed of in coming to the New World, to America. This the point most current History teaching on the Pilgrims end. This is all the story of Thanksgiving current generations are taught. But there was much more to the story!

The Rest of the Story

 

The First Thanksgiving Feas

The First Thanksgiving Feast, after losing half their original members, the Pilgrims eventually prospered and shared their wealth.

Thanksgiving, for these first Pilgrims was a devout expression of gratitude to God for their survival. There was a lot more to it than just the assistance by the Native Americans. An important part of the story has been omitted: The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into the Mayflower Compact and their merchant-sponsors in London. They had no money. They had to have people help them get here.The original contract called for everything they produced to go into a common store, a common account, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share. Everything was to be divided up equally among everyone in the colony. It was fairness and it was equality. That included all of the land they cleared and the houses they built. It was ALL for the community,  not to the individual people personally. Nobody owned anything personally but all had goods, food and property in common. It was a commune. You would think this would be perfect and fair everyone having free and fair access to anything anyone else had. But they were still having a lot of problems and prosperity was still not to be had among them. They had enough to survive but not much, if any, more.

William Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that this wasn’t working.  Like a standing pool of water there was nothing here but stagnation going on. Everybody was entitled to the same things. Everything was to be equally distributed, equal work and equal goods. But with no incentive some didn’t do their share, they didn’t won’t to contribute, so others had to pitch in to pick up the others slack. Everyone got the same amount as everybody else which led to accusations, jealousy and anger. Bradford saw he had to change things if they were to survive as a colony.

Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage. Whatever they produced was theirs and what they did not use, they could sell in the marketplace. The Pilgrims had  experimented with what could only be described as socialism, probably inspired by the account in the Bible from early chapters of the book of Acts where we read “And all that believed were together, and had all things common.” (Acts 2:44) However, this was a temporary and voluntary arrangement among the early Christians not meant to be institutionalized socialism. The Pilgrims, like those early Christians found out it didn’t work as a form of lasting government. But why not? It seems so fair to everyone?  What Bradford recounts in his journal is his community found that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than they had to. Why give something your all if you have little to nothing to show for it?  The Pilgrims found they had utilize the power of personal motivation to keep what they produced or earned as reward for their work. This also produced motivation to help those who could not work for themselves, widows and orphans, in need of more help.

The Pilgrims learned in less than a year something millions of people in the course of history have failed to recognize. The people of the world for hundreds of years have fallen for “leaders” who preach equal dispersement of all things as the most fair way for everyone to live. It may work as a temporary measure in the beginning but it is not meant to sustain and cannot sustain for the population as a whole. What Bradford wrote about in his journal, what these first Pilgrims learned, this social experiment failure and what turned it around, should be in every schoolchild’s history books and it use to be. Knowledge of this history has in the past prevented much needless suffering and can do so in the future, IF we know it and teach it. Bradford wrote, “The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato’s and other ancients applauded by some of later times; that the taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For thiscommunity (so far as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For the young men, that were most able and fit for labour and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense.”  They didn’t want to produce for other men’s families what other men should have providing for their own. Eventually this was thought of as a great injustice, being pressed into service for the cause of others which was essentially what they had in England from which they had fled. Why should you work for other people when you can’t work for yourself?

The First Thanksgiving Feas

The Bradford Journal, Of Plymouth Plantation is the title of the diary record of the Pilgrims.

The Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without incentive. “This had very good success,” wrote Bradford, “for it made all hands industrious.”  In other words they got off their butts and started working. Ironically, as they worked and did for themselves it benefited the entire community.  “Much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.” After their long journey, enduring many hardships physically and then from their own best intentions and failing, they at last began to experience prosperity. It was at this point in the true story, according to the Bradford journal, they welcomed the Native Americans in, because there was so much production they shared it with them as well as themselves. They had so much more than they needed, so much a wealth and bounty of produce that they, in gratitude for the abundant harvest of the Summer and Autumn and entering into the next Winter shared with the Native Americans who had helped them.

So the original Thanksgiving was to give thanks to God for the enlightenment, the courage, the fortitude to withstand all of the hardship to finally prosper in their dream, in their Promised Land. The Pilgrims set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Native Americans,  the Indians. The profits from their bounty allowed them to pay off the debts to their sponsors, the merchants in London and Holland who helped bankroll the whole endeavor. The success of the Plymouth settlement attracted more Europeans and began what came to be known as the Great Puritan Migration and spawned to massive additional trips from many nations to settle colonies in the New World, America. Their sacrifice and ultimate victory benefited the whole world.

To sum it all up, the Pilgrims were inspired by what they saw in the Bible and the ancient Hebrews as a pattern for them to follow in seeing their freedom, prosperity and practice their beliefs in God according to the convictions in their hearts rather than be subservient to what a tyranny dictated they should do or what they could be. A people who had  faith in God survived all manner of obstacles and ultimately prospered. They experimented with many plans which seemed fair but led to more hardship before learning the wisdom of how to accomplish true fairness. That was the original reason for their trip in the first place. And for all of that they were eternally thankful to God who inspired them and led them and enabled them to ultimately succeed. That is the whole story of Thanksgiving.Mark's Profile Pic

Onward! – Mark

P.S. Okay, even  though this is the whole over all story there are still a lot of details to each section I left out due to space restraints. Check out the sources below for more details. Enjoy!

 

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(Sources: Wallbuilders.com: Celebrating Thanksgiving In America, Wikipedia: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony), Wikipedia: The Mayflower, Wikipedia: William Bradford, Wikipedia: Of Plymouth Plantation- The Bradford Journal,U. of Chicago: William Bradford Journal on Property)

MCG Turns Ten!We are thankful for many things. We are thankful for our talents, our health, our family, … for you! Thanks for being there for us. We pledge to do the same! Happy Thanksgiving!

CU 2morrow!

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Fair Use reference to intellectual property of other companies are intended for historical and informational accuracy only. Mega Comics Group™ or Mega Graphics, LLC™ does not represent or have any relationship to any other company or entity or their intellectual property unless otherwise clearly noted. Mega Tales™ and © 2010 Mega Graphics LLC, unless otherwise noted herein.  Project: New Man™ and  Humants™ and © 2010 Freazie White, Jr. D.B.A. Legacy Comics. Tess, the Living Tesseract™ and © Stephen Greg Legat and Mark Poe. All rights reserved. Mega Graphics LLC, licensor.

 

Tags: 1620, America, August 1, Holland, King James, Native Americans, New England, Oceanus, Of Plymouth Plantation, Plymouth Bay, separatists, The Bradford Journal, The Church of England, the Great Puritan Migration, the Indians, The Mayflower, the New World, The Whole Truth About Thanksgiving, William Bradford |

A Tribute to Stan “The Man” Lee

November 16th, 2018

Welcome to Friday’s Mega Comics Group Updates!

Monday we were told the sad news of Marvel Comics founding father’s passing. Stan “The Man” Lee died Monday, November 12,  2018 at the age of 95. We posted the news that day, just a plain black background with Stan’s signature, his date of birth and death and the word “Excelsior!” which we borrowed from the TheRealStanLee.com web site. We were so numbed by the news that’s really all we could think to do. But it seemed appropriate. Today, we want to do a bit more. We’ve started with the basic information from Wikipedia, and added our own memories from readings of articles and books about the Marvel Age and Stan Lee and added photos and pieces of art from all over.

Stan Lee • 1922–2018

Stan Lee Alter Egos

A cool animated gif we found on the web. We could not find the artist’s name to credit him, but it’s so cool we just had to share it.

Co-Creator of

Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Ant-Man and the Wasp, the Mighty Avengers, Daredevil, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Dr. Strange, The X-Men and MORE characters and titles than we have room to list!

Stan and his Marvels

Stan and his Marvels!

Stan Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber on December 28, 1922. He passed on November 12, 2018. He was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher and briefly president of Marvel Comics Group, as well as fulfilling some of these roles for other companies. He is best remembered as the writer, co-creator and editor-in-chief presiding over the founding of Marvel Comics,  during the Marvel Age lasting from 1961-1970 and leading to its expansion from a small division of a magazine publishing house to a large multimedia corporation in itself.

Stan Lee working with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and several artists—co-created the fictional Marvel comic book characters: Spider-Man, the Hulk, Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Black Panther, the X-Men, and—with his brother, co-writer Larry Lieber—the characters Ant-Man, Iron Man, and Thor. He pioneered a more complex approach to writing superheroes in the 1960s, and in the 1970s challenged the standards of the Comics Code Authority, indirectly leading to it updating its policies.

After retiring from Marvel, Stan remained a public figurehead for the company, and frequently made cameo appearances in movies based on Marvel characters. Meanwhile, he continued independent creative ventures into his 90’s until his death in 2018.

Stan Lee was inducted into the comic book industry’s Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1995. He received the National Medal of Arts in 2008.

Early Life

Stanley Martin Lieber was born on December 28, 1922, in Manhattan, New York City, in the apartment of his Romanian-born Jewish immigrant parents, Celia (Solomon) and Jack Lieber. His father, trained as a dress cutter, worked only sporadically after the Great Depression. Stan had one younger brother named Larry Lieber. He said in 2006 that as a child he was influenced by books and movies, particularly those with Errol Flynn playing heroic roles.  By the time Stan was in his teens, the family was living in an apartment in The Bronx. Stan described it as “a third-floor apartment facing out back”. Lee and his brother shared the bedroom, while their parents slept on a foldout couch.

Stan attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. In his youth, he enjoyed writing, and entertained dreams of one day writing the “Great American Novel”. Stan said that in his youth he worked such part-time jobs as writing obituaries for a news service and press releases ; delivering sandwiches for the Jack May Pharmacy to offices in Rockefeller Center;  ushering at the Rivoli Theater on Broadway; and selling subscriptions to the New York Herald Tribune newspaper. He graduated from high school early, aged 16½ in 1939, and joined the WPA Federal Theatre Project.

Early Comics Career

Stan Meets Spider-Man

One of the last series Stan wrote for Marvel was “Stan Lee Meets…”. This one featured Spider-Man. Other “meetings” featured the Thing, the Silver Surfer and Dr. Strange.

Stan Lee became an assistant in 1939 at the new Timely Comics, a division of Martin Goodman’s pulp magazine company, with the help of his uncle Robbie Solomon. Timely, by the 1960s, would evolve into Marvel Comics. Stan Lee, whose cousin Jean was Goodman’s wife, was formally hired by Timely editor Joe Simon.

Stan was not much more than a “go-fer” at first. “In those days the artists dipped the pen in ink, so I had to make sure the inkwells were filled”, Lee recalled in 2009. “I went down and got them their lunch, I did proofreading, I erased the pencils from the finished pages for them”. Marshaling his childhood ambition to be a writer, young Stanley Lieber made his comic-book debut with the text filler “Captain America Foils the Traitor’s Revenge” in Captain America Comics #3 (cover-dated May 1941), using the pseudonym, Stan Lee, which years later he would adopt as his legal name. This initial story also introduced Captain America’s trademark ricocheting shield-toss.

Two issues later, Stan graduated from writing filler to actual comics scrpting with a backup feature, “Headline Hunter, Foreign Correspondent.” Stan’s first superhero co-creation was the Destroyer, in Mystic Comics #6 (August 1941). Other characters he co-created during this era which fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books include Jack Frost, debuting in U.S.A. Comics #1 (August 1941), and Father Time, debuting in Captain America Comics #6 (August 1941).

When Joe Simon and Jack Kirby left in 1941, Martin Goodman promoted Stan, who was only 18 years old, to be the interim editor. Stan showed a knack for the business that led him to remain the comic-book division’s editor-in-chief, as well as art director from that time until 1972. 30 years as interim editor has to be a record! 😉 He remained in that capacity until he succeeded Goodman as publisher.

Stan Lee served in the U.S. Army

Stan Lee served in the U.S. Army Signal Corp. His function eventually was a writer of publications.

Stan Lee entered the United States Army in early 1942 as a member of the Signal Corps, repairing telegraph poles and other communications equipment. He was later transferred to the Training Film Division, where he worked writing manuals, training films, slogans, and occasionally cartooning. His military classification, he says, was “playwright”; he adds that only nine men in the U.S. Army were given that title. Vincent Fago, editor of Timely’s “animation comics” section, which put out humor and funny animal comics, filled in until Stan returned from his World War II military service in 1945. Stan was inducted into the Signal Corps Regimental Association and was given honorary membership of the 2nd Battalion of 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord at the 2017 Emerald City Comic Con for his prior service.

In the mid-1950s,  Stan wrote stories in a variety of genres including romance, westerns, humor, science fiction, medieval adventure, horror and suspense. In the 1950s, Lee teamed up with his comic book colleague Dan DeCarlo to produce the syndicated newspaper strip, My Friend Irma, based on the radio comedy starring Marie Wilson. By the end of the decade, Stan had become dissatisfied with his career and considered quitting the field.

The Marvel Revolution

The Marvel Revolution

In the late 1950s, DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz revived the superhero archetype and experienced a significant success with its updated version of the Flash, and later with super-team the Justice League of America. In response, publisher Martin Goodman assigned Stan Lee to come up with a new superhero team. Stan’s wife, Joan, suggested that he experiment with stories he preferred, since he was planning on changing careers and had nothing to lose.

Stan Lee and Marvel Cinematic Universe Characters

Stan Lee and Marvel Cinematic Universe Characters

Stan acted on that advice, giving his superheroes a flawed humanity, a change from the ideal archetypes that were typically written for preteens. Before this, most superheroes were idealistically perfect people with no serious, lasting problems. Stan introduced complex, realistic characters who could have bad tempers, fits of melancholy, and vanity; they bickered amongst themselves, worried about paying their bills and impressing girlfriends, got bored or were even sometimes physically ill.

The first superheroes Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby created together were the Fantastic Four, inspired by the Kirby adventure team, Challengers of the Unknown, Jack did for DC Comics a year or so prior to returning to Marvel. The team’s immediate popularity led Stan and Marvel’s illustrators to produce a cavalcade of new titles. Again working with Jack Kirby, Stan co-created the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and the X-Men; with Bill Everett, Daredevil; and with Steve Ditko, Doctor Strange and Marvel’s most successful character, Spider-Man, all of whom lived in a thoroughly shared universe. Lee and Kirby gathered several of their newly created characters together into the team titled The Avengers and would revive characters from the 1940s such as the Sub-Mariner and Captain America.

Stan Lee's Auto-biography: Excelsior

Stan Lee’s Auto-biography: Excelsior

Comics historian Peter Sanderson wrote that in the 1960s:

DC was the equivalent of the big Hollywood studios: After the brilliance of DC’s reinvention of the superhero … in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it had run into a creative drought by the decade’s end. There was a new audience for comics now, and it wasn’t just the little kids that traditionally had read the books. The Marvel of the 1960s was in its own way the counterpart of the French New Wave… Marvel was pioneering new methods of comics storytelling and characterization, addressing more serious themes, and in the process keeping and attracting readers in their teens and beyond. Moreover, among this new generation of readers were people who wanted to write or draw comics themselves, within the new style that Marvel had pioneered, and push the creative envelope still further.

Stan meets the Thing in 2006

Stan meets the Thing in 2006.

Stan Lee’s revolution extended beyond the characters and storylines to built a sense of community between fans and creators. He introduced the practice of regularly including a credit panel on the splash page of each story, naming not just the writer and penciller but also the inker and letterer. The credits and even the story introductions and sometimes  the narration in the middle of the story spoke directly to the reader with a friendly, chatty style. Stan remarked that his goal was for fans to think of the comics creators as friends. A sign he was succeeding showed up in fan mail they received which began with “Dear Stan and Jack” rather than the customary “Dear Editor.” Letter columns became a focal point of each issue and fans would buy the books and quickly flip to the back to see if their letter made it into he letter sections. The letter pages grew from 1 to as many as 3 pages, some of which were filled with the latest news and goings on of the Marvel Bullpen. The regular news soon found its own page in each issue in addition to the letters page as the Bullpen Bulletins page. Another extension of this friendly policy was Stan’s recorded messages to the newly formed Merry Marvel Marching Society fan club in 1965. The record contained not only Stan’s voice but the voices of most of the Marvel Bullpen artists.

Stan meets the Thing in 2006 Cover

The Stan Lee meets the Thing cover was a homage to the classic FF # 51.

Throughout the 1960s, Stan acted as the head writer, art director and editor in chief for all of Marvel’s new super-hero and adventure titles. He moderated the letters pages, the Bullpen Bulletins pages which included his monthly column called “Stan’s Soapbox”, signing off with his trademark motto, “Excelsior!” (which he borrowed from the New York state motto) and wrote endless promotional copy for ads. Stan would probably never been able to pull this off without adapting a system that was used previously by various comic-book studios. Stan’s version and the success he had with using it, inspired it becoming known as the “The Marvel Method”. Typically, Stan would brainstorm a story with the artist either in his office or on the phone and then prepare a brief synopsis rather than a full script. Based on the synopsis, the artist would fill the allotted number of pages by determining and drawing the panel-to-panel storytelling. After the artist turned in penciled pages, Stan would write the word balloons and captions, and then oversee the lettering and coloring. In effect, the artists were co-plotters, whose collaborative first drafts Stan built upon.

Stan’s greatest innovation would come back to bite its master. Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko gradually became disillusioned with the Marvel Method and wanted credit and more pay for the extra work they were doing which they saw as actually writing the stories. They felt Stan was just filling in the words from their notes in the margins. There was a little more to it than that. Actually, Jack and Steve should have gotten paid more and plotting credit, which was something later artists would receive. But at this time in Marvel’s beginnings it just wasn’t happening. Martin Goodman was the publisher and the guy who signed the paychecks. He looked at the bottom line. He was not concerned with the way the books were produced as long as they produced a profit. He wasn’t going to give any of the artists any more than he had to. Stan has said many times he would have done things different if not for Publisher Goodman’s veto.

Lee Vs Ditko

Stan Lee and Steve Ditko were great as a creative team on Spider-Man and Dr. Strange. Unfortunately, the two both had their own vision for the characters which eventually lead them in different directions altogether.

Following Steve Ditko’s departure from Marvel in 1966, John Romita Sr. became Stan’s collaborator on The Amazing Spider-Man. Within a year, it overtook Fantastic Four to become the company’s top seller. Lee and Romita’s stories focused as much on the social and college lives of the characters as they did on Spider-Man’s adventures. The stories became more topical, addressing issues such as the Vietnam War, political elections, and student activism. Robbie Robertson, introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man #51 (August 1967) was one of the first African-American characters in comics to play a serious supporting role. In the Fantastic Four series, the lengthy run by Lee and Kirby produced many acclaimed storylines as well as characters that have become central to Marvel, including the Inhumans and the Black Panther, an African king who would be mainstream comics’ first black superhero.

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s finest achievement was the “Galactus Trilogy” that ran in Fantastic Four #48-50 (March-May 1966). The continued storyline chronicled the arrival of Galactus, a cosmic giant who wanted to consume all the planets natural resources, proceeded by his herald, the Silver Surfer. Fantastic Four #48 was chosen as #24 in the 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time poll of Marvel’s readers in 2001. It seemed to many at the time and looking back years later that after only 4 years of the Fantastic Four, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were really just getting started. It was perhaps the pivotal milestone of the Marvel Age. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that “the mystical and metaphysical elements that took over the saga were perfectly suited to the tastes of young readers in the 1960s.” Stan  would soon discover the the story was a favorite on college campuses. Lee and artist John Buscema launched The Silver Surfer series in August 1968.

Stan Lee circa 1975

Stan “The Man” Lee in 1975

The following year, Stan Lee and Gene Colan created the Falcon, comics’ first African-American superhero in Captain America #117 (September 1969). Then in 1971, Stan indirectly helped reform the Comics Code. The U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare had asked Stan to write a comic-book story about the dangers of drugs and Stan conceived a three-issue subplot in The Amazing Spider-Man #96–98 (cover-dated May–July 1971), in which Peter Parker’s best friend becomes addicted to prescription drugs. The Comics Code Authority refused to grant its seal because the stories depicted drug use. The anti-drug context was considered irrelevant. With Goodman’s cooperation and confident that the original government request would give him credibility, Stan had the story published without the Comics Code seal. The comics sold well and Marvel won praise for its socially conscious efforts. The CCA subsequently loosened the Code to permit negative depictions of drugs, among other new freedoms.

Stan also supported using comic books to provide some measure of social commentary about the real world, often dealing with racism and bigotry.  “Stan’s Soapbox”, besides promoting an upcoming comic book project, also addressed issues of discrimination, intolerance, or prejudice.

In 1972, Stan stopped writing monthly comic books to assume the role of publisher. His final issue of The Amazing Spider-Man was #110 (July 1972) and his last Fantastic Four was #125 (August 1972).

Stan Lee Presents:

Stan Lee Publisher

In the 1970’s Stan the Writer / Editor In Chief became Stan the Publisher.

In later years, Stan became a figurehead and public face for Marvel Comics. He made appearances at comic book conventions around America, lecturing at colleges and participating in panel discussions. Stan Lee and John Romita Sr. launched the Spider-Man newspaper comic strip on January 3, 1977. Stan’s final collaboration with Jack Kirby, The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience, was published in 1978 as part of the Marvel Fireside Books series and is considered to be Marvel’s first graphic novel. Stan Lee and John Buscema produced the first issue of The Savage She-Hulk (February 1980), which introduced the female cousin of the Hulk and crafted a Silver Surfer story for Epic Illustrated #1 (Spring 1980).

Stan moved to California in 1981 to develop Marvel’s TV and movie properties. He was an executive producer for, and made cameo appearances in Marvel film adaptations and other movies. He occasionally returned to comic book writing with various Silver Surfer projects including a 1982 one-shot drawn by John Byrne, the Judgment Day graphic novel illustrated by John Buscema, the Parable limited series drawn by French artist Mœbius, and The Enslavers graphic novel with Keith Pollard. Stan was briefly president of the entire company, but soon stepped down to become publisher instead, finding that being president was too much about numbers and finance and not enough about the creative process he enjoyed.

Stan Lee circa 1975

Stan Lee’s The Traveler

Peter Paul and Stan Lee began a new Internet-based superhero creation, production, and marketing studio, Stan Lee Media, in 1998. It grew to 165 people and went public through a reverse merger structured by investment banker Stan Medley in 1999, but, near the end of 2000, investigators discovered illegal stock manipulation by Peter Paul and corporate officer Stephan Gordon. Stan Lee Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 2001. Peter Paul was extradited to the U.S. from Brazil and pleaded guilty to violating SEC Rule 10b-5 in connection with trading of his stock in Stan Lee Media. Stan was never implicated in the scheme. In 2001, Stan Lee, Gill Champion, and Arthur Lieberman formed POW! (Purveyors of Wonder) Entertainment to develop film, television and video game properties. Stan announced a superhero program that would feature Ringo Starr, the former Beatle, as the lead character. Additionally, in August of that year, Stan announced the launch of Stan Lee’s Sunday Comics, a short-lived subscription service hosted by Komikwerks.com. From July 2006 until September 2007 Stan hosted, co-created, executive-produced, and judged the reality television game show competition Who Wants to Be a Superhero? on the Sci-Fi Channel. On March 15, 2007, after Stan Lee Media had been purchased by Jim Nesfield, the company filed a lawsuit against Marvel Entertainment for $5 billion, claiming Stan had given his rights to several Marvel characters to Stan Lee Media in exchange for stock and a salary. On June 9, 2007, Stan Lee Media sued Stan Lee; his newer company, POW! Entertainment; and POW! subsidiary QED Entertainment.POW!

In 2008, Stan wrote humorous captions for the political fumetti book Stan Lee Presents Election Daze: What Are They Really Saying? In April of that year, Brighton Partners and Rainmaker Animation announced a partnership POW! to produce a CGI film series, Legion of 5. Other projects by Stan announced in the late 2000s included a line of superhero comics for Virgin Comics, a TV adaptation of the novel Hero, a foreword to Skyscraperman by skyscraper fire-safety advocate and Spider-Man fan Dan Goodwin,  a partnership with Guardian Media Entertainment and The Guardian Project to create NHL superhero mascots and work with the Eagle Initiative program to find new talent in the comic book field.

Stan promoted Stan Lee’s Kids Universe at the 2011 New York Comic Con. In October 2011, Stan announced he would partner with 1821 Comics on a multimedia imprint for children, Stan Lee’s Kids Universe, a move he said addressed the lack of comic books targeted for that demographic; and that he was collaborating with the company on its futuristic graphic novel Romeo & Juliet: The War, by writer Max Work and artist Skan Srisuwan. At the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International, Stan announced his YouTube channel, Stan Lee’s World of Heroes, which airs programs created by Stan, Mark Hamill, Peter David, Adrianne Curry and Bonnie Burton, among others. Stan wrote the book Zodiac, released in January 2015, with Stuart Moore. The film Stan Lee’s Annihilator, based on a Chinese prisoner-turned-superhero named Ming and in production since 2013, was released in 2015.

Stan Lee Re-imagined Batman with Joe Kubert

Stan Lee Re-imagined Batman with Joe Kubert.

In his later career, Stan’s contributions continued to expand outside the style that he helped pioneer. An example of this is his first work for DC Comics in the 2000s, launching the Just Imagine… series, in which Lee re-imagined the DC superheroes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash. Manga projects involving Stan include Karakuri Dôji Ultimo, a collaboration with Hiroyuki Takei, Viz Media and Shueisha, and Heroman, serialized in Square Enix’s Monthly Sh’nen Gangan with the Japanese company Bones. In 2011, Stan started writing a live-action musical, The Yin and Yang Battle of Tao.

This period also saw a number of collaborators honor Stan Lee for his influence on the comics industry. In 2006, Marvel commemorated Stan’s 65 years with the company by publishing a series of one-shot comics starring Stan himself meeting and interacting with many of his co-creations, including Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, the Thing, Silver Surfer, and Doctor Doom. These comics also featured short pieces by such comics creators as Joss Whedon and Fred Hembeck, as well as reprints of classic Stan Lee-written adventures. At the 2007 Comic-Con International, Marvel Legends introduced a Stan Lee action figure. The body beneath the figure’s removable cloth wardrobe is a re-used mold of a previously released Spider-Man action figure, with minor changes. Comikaze Expo, Los Angeles’ largest comic book convention, was rebranded as Stan Lee’s Comikaze Presented by POW! Entertainment in 2012.

At the 2016 Comic-Con International, Stan introduced his digital graphic novel Stan Lee’s God Woke, with text originally written as a poem he presented at Carnegie Hall in 1972. The print-book version won the 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards’ Outstanding Books of the Year Independent Voice Award.

Cameos

Stan Lee and President George W. Bush

Stan Lee received the National Medal of Arts in 2008 from President George W. Bush.

Stan Lee and his collaborator Jack Kirby appear as themselves in The Fantastic Four #10 (January 1963), the first of several appearances within the fictional Marvel Universe. The two are depicted as similar to their real-world counterparts, creating comic books based on the “real” adventures of the Fantastic Four.

Stan was parodied by Jack in comics published by rival DC Comics as Funky Flashman. Jack later portrayed himself, Stan, production executive Sol Brodsky, and Flo Steinberg as superheroes in What If #11 (October 1978), “What If the Marvel Bullpen Had Become the Fantastic Four?”, in which Stan played the part of Mister Fantastic. Stan also made numerous cameo appearances in many Marvel titles, appearing in audiences and crowds at many characters’ ceremonies and parties, and hosting an old-soldiers reunion in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #100 (July 1972). Stan appeared, unnamed, as the priest at Luke Cage and Jessica Jones‘ wedding in New Avengers Annual #1 (June 2006). He pays his respects to Karen Page at her funeral in Daredevil vol. 2, #8 (June 1998), and appears in The Amazing Spider-Man #169 (June 1977).

In 1994, artist Alex Ross rendered Stan Lee as a bar patron on page 44 of Marvels #3.

Stan and his Marvels

Stan Lee’s How To Draw SuperHeroes!

In Marvel’s “Flashback” series of titles cover-dated July 1997, a top-hatted caricature of Stan as a ringmaster introduced stories that detailed events in Marvel characters’ lives before they became superheroes, in special “-1” editions of many Marvel titles. The “ringmaster” depiction of Stan was originally from Generation X #17 (July 1996), where the character narrated a story set primarily in an abandoned circus. Though the story itself was written by Scott Lobdell, the narration by “Ringmaster Stan” was written by Stan, and the character was drawn in that issue by Chris Bachalo.

Stan and other comics creators are mentioned on page 479 of Michael Chabon’s 2000 novel about the comics industry The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Chabon also acknowledges a debt to Stan and other creators on the book’s Author’s Note page.

On one of the last pages of Truth: Red, White & Black, Stan appears in a real photograph among other celebrities on a wall of the Bradley home.  Under his given name of Stanley Lieber, Stan Lee appears briefly in Paul Malmont’s 2006 novel The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril.

In Stan Lee Meets Superheroes, which Lee wrote, he comes into contact with some of his favorite creations. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby appear as professors in Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #19.

Stan Lee's Mighty 7

Stan Lee’s Mighty 7!

In Lavie Tidhar’s 2013 The Violent Century, Stan appears – under his birth name of “Stanley Martin Lieber” – as a historian of superhumans.

There were many more projects Stan had a hand in. Some were successful while others were not. We mentioned mostly the best. Stan Lee was never at a  loss for ideas. A few he had he may well have preferred they be lost after less than favorable receptions, but those were the rare exceptions. Of course, as we wrote in the opening paragraphs of this tribute, when it’s all said and done, what Stan Lee will be remembered for was The Marvel Age of Comics from 1961 through 1970 which laid the foundation for the Marvel Universe and the multimillion dollar enterprises which were born out of it. It’s hard to imagine how the world would have been if Stan Lee and the Marvel Bullpen had never been. It would have certainly been a lot less entertaining.

(Sources: Wikipedia, The Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee, Son of Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee, Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics by Les Daniels, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe, How to Draw Comics The Marvel Way by Stan Lee and John Buscema, Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir by Stan Lee, TheRealStanLee.com, plus hundreds of Marvel Comics too numerous to list,  books from TwoMorrows Publishing and lots of Comic Book Fanzines too numerous to list.)

 

 

Mark’s Remarks

“The Man“

Mark's Profile Pic

Mr. MarvelWhat more can I say about Stan Lee that hasn’t already been said? Like many others Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and the whole Marvel Bullpen had a big impact on my life. That really goes without saying otherwise I would not be writing these words which you are reading now. In case you have not picked up on it, I’ve modeled a lot of this web site and the comics we’ve done after what Stan Lee did in the’60’s and ’70’s at Marvel.

Even though Stan certainly didn’t do it all by himself, I think it’s safe to say without Stan there would have been no Marvel Comics. That’s not to say there could not have been a comics company established without Stan featuring the works of Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita, Don Heck, Joe Sinnott, Dick Ayers and all the other talents who made up the Marvel Bullpen. Martin Goodman could have done it with another editor. He ALMOST did in the ’70’s after he left Marvel and by proxy, with the help of his son, Chip, started Atlas Comics (A.K.A. Seaboard Periodicals). However, that Atlas Comics was patterned after Marvel andshowcased the talents of such Bullpen Fan Faves as Steve Ditko and Wally Wood.  SO, had these guys come together WITHOUT Stan, the company which they would have built and the characters and stories they would have told, would NOT have been the same. Stan was the glue that held it all together. He was the personality and eventually the face of Marvel. There really is no separating Stan Lee from the Marvel phenomena any more than there would be to imagine Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko not being part of it.

Stan, Jack and Steve are no longer with us. Jack Kirby of course passed on nearly 25 years ago. Steve Ditko passed on earlier this year.Several other Bullpen Greats have died also. Now, Stan Lee is gone. But they did give us some great memories, some tremendous inspirations, some good examples and a mighty high standard to measure up too.

Thanks for the memories, Stan.

Onward!

– Mark

P.S. My pal, Edgar Campusano over at the A-Men Book Line shared a pic with me the other day of a good friend of his. I asked Edgar if I could share it with you. He told me the following:

Stan and Izzy“…Izzy Lauriano who is an artist and part of C1Comics and also inked a recent Brothers In Space sketch that I drew during a comic con at the Jacob Javits Center this past October. Izzy amazingly had the honor to sit with Stan Lee and take a picture with him”

If a picture is worth a thousand words this one is worth about a million! Stan doing a couple of the things Stan did best… having fun and making friends.

 

 

Stan’s Marvel Age Art Gallery

Stan Lee could draw a little but he seldom did, always preferring to write. As Editor-in-Chief and Art Director during the Marvel Age, he presided over some the best covers Marvel artists ever produced. Click the small image to open a new window with a larger image. Close the window to return here. Rinse. Repeat. 😉

FF # 1

FF # 3

FF # 11

FF # 21

FF # 28

Hulk Annual Inhumans

FF # 46

FF # 48

FF # 49

FF #50

The Incredible Hulk #1

Spider-Man #1

Amazing Spider-Man # 14

Amazing Spider-Man # 33

Amazing Spider-Man # 40

X-Men # 1

X-Men # 14

X-Men # 39

X-Men #57

Daredevil #8

The Mighty Thor #134

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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See The New Mega Comics Group Web Gateway!

New MCG GatewayAll this year we have been upgrading various areas of our web site in celebration of our 10 Year Anniversary. Several pages needed a face lift. One of the sections that we most wanted to upgrade was our gateway page. That’s the first page of the site. Those familiar with our pages may not have seen the gateway page all that often. Most of the weekly focus has been here on the blog page for the past years. But if you go to www.megacomicsgroup.com you will see a totally new entrance to our web pages!

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Mega Graphics Print On Demand T-Shirt Shop

PNM No1 Cover PosterWe continue to stock our new online merchandise shop. This week we have been adding posters which was one of our favorite items in the old virtual Cafe Press store back when the site began 10 years ago. So in addition to t-shirts, tanks, ladies tanks and tops, mouse pads, clip on buttons, doggy scarfs, pillows, throw pillows, sweat shirts and hoodies which feature your favorite Mega Comics Group art and some nifty mascot cartoons as well, we have posters! Remember, this is a Spreadshirt store with a Create Studio App right on the web site! So you can customize and add your name or catch phrase to the art designs, size them up or place them in any position and almost any place on the item to be printed.  As we have said previously, this is part of our MCG Web Site 10th Anniversary Celebration! Keep watching this space each week for more announcements of new items and art as we add them! AND don’t forget the glorious printed anniversary comics we have below!MCG Turns Ten!

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Shop The Mega Comics Group Comic Book Store

MT #1 Anniversary Issue

Project: NewMan #1 Anniversary Issue

Project: NewMan #2 Anniversary Issue

Humants #1 Anniversary Issue

Humants #2 Anniversary Issue

CU Next Week!

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Fair Use reference to intellectual property of other companies are intended for historical and informational accuracy only. Mega Comics Group™ or Mega Graphics, LLC™ does not represent or have any relationship to any other company or entity or their intellectual property unless otherwise clearly noted. Mega Tales™ and © 2010 Mega Graphics LLC, unless otherwise noted herein.  Project: New Man™ and  Humants™ and © 2010 Freazie White, Jr. D.B.A. Legacy Comics. Tess, the Living Tesseract™ and © Stephen Greg Legat and Mark Poe. All rights reserved. Mega Graphics LLC, licensor.

 

Tags: "Galactus Trilogy", 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time, Adrianne Curry, Alexander Pope, Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir by Stan Lee, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Atlas Comics, Batman, Bill Everett, Black Panther, Bonnie Burton, Brothers In Space, Bullpen Bulletins, C1Comics, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Daredevil, DC Comics, Dear Stan and Jack, Dick Ayers, Doctor Doom, Doctor Strange, Don Heck, Education and Welfare, Epic Illustrated, Excelsior, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four #48-50, Father Time, Flo Steinberg, Fred Hembeck, Funky Flashman, Gene Colan, Green Lantern, How to Draw Comics The Marvel Way by Stan Lee and John Buscema, Iron Man, Izzy Lauriano, Jack Frost, Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, John Buscema, John Byrne, John Romita, John Romita Sr, Joss Whedon, Julius Schwartz, Keith Pollard, Larry Lieber, Les Daniels, Live and let live, Mark Hamill, Martin Goodman, Marvel Age, Marvel Bullpen, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe, Marvel Universe, Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics by Les Daniels, Merry Marvel Marching Society, Mœbius, New York Herald Tribune, Peter David, POW! Entertainment, President George W. Bush, Robbie Robertson, Robbie Solomon, San Diego Comic-Con International, Seaboard Periodicals, Silver Surfer, Sol Brodsky, Son of Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee, Spider-Man, Stan "The Man" Lee, Stan Lee, Stan Lee Media, Stan Lee's God Woke, Stan Lee's How To Draw SuperHeroes, Stan Lee's Kids Universe, Stan Lee's Mighty 7, Stan Lee's Sunday Comics, Stan Lee's The Traveler, Stan Lee meets the Thing, Stan's Soapbox, Stanley Martin Lieber, Steve Ditko, Sub-Mariner, Superman, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers, The Bronx, The Comics Code Authority, The Destroyer, the Falcon, The Flash, the Hulk, The Marvel Age of Comics, The Marvel Method, The Marvel Revolution, the National Medal of Arts, The Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee, The Savage She-Hulk, the Silver Surfer, The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience, The Thing, The U. S. Department of Health, the X-Men, TheRealStanLee.com, Thor, Timely Comics, TwoMorrows Publishing, United States Army, What If #11, What If the Marvel Bullpen Had Become the Fantastic Four?, Wikipedia, Wonder Woman |
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