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Marvel: August 1961 Omnibus
In August 1961, FANTASTIC FOUR #1 hit newsstands, heralding a new take on super hero stories and the birth of the Silver Age Marvel Universe! But Marvel Comics had been around for years before that, publishing Western, romance, comedy, monster and science fiction titles…and in August 1961, FANTASTIC FOUR was just one of over a dozen very different Marvel books! Now, sixty years later, experience the excitement of being a comic book fan in that momentous month — with a complete collection of every issue that shared the shelves with FF #1, many never before reprinted!
COLLECTING: Journey Into Mystery (1952) 73-74; Kathy (1959) 13; Life with Millie (1960) 13; Patsy Walker (1945) 97; Amazing Adventures (1961) 6; Fantastic Four (1961) 1; Kid Colt, Outlaw (1949) 101; Linda Carter, Student Nurse (1961) 2; Millie the Model (1945) 105; Strange Tales (1951) 90; Tales of Suspense (1959) 23; Tales to Astonish (1959) 25; Gunsmoke Western (1955) 67; Love Romances (1949) 96; Teen-Age Romance (1960) 84; Amazing Adult Fantasy (1961) 7; Patsy and Hedy (1952) 79; Rawhide Kid (1960) 25
COLLECTING: Journey Into Mystery (1952) 73-74; Kathy (1959) 13; Life with Millie (1960) 13; Patsy Walker (1945) 97; Amazing Adventures (1961) 6; Fantastic Four (1961) 1; Kid Colt, Outlaw (1949) 101; Linda Carter, Student Nurse (1961) 2; Millie the Model (1945) 105; Strange Tales (1951) 90; Tales of Suspense (1959) 23; Tales to Astonish (1959) 25; Gunsmoke Western (1955) 67; Love Romances (1949) 96; Teen-Age Romance (1960) 84; Amazing Adult Fantasy (1961) 7; Patsy and Hedy (1952) 79; Rawhide Kid (1960) 25
520 pages, Hardcover
Published August 10, 2021
9 people want to read
About the author
Stan Lee
7,562 books2,344 followersStan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 7, 2024
This thick volume contains all the comics Marvel (though the company hardly even used that name) published in the two ancient months of August and September 1961 when their groundbreaking super hero team, the Fantastic Four, debuted. The Fantastic Four was something new for the company. Super heroes were presumed to be an extinct genre until DC lit a new fire with their Flash in 1956, and this was Marvel's first shot at the reborn genre since the early 50s.
Besides the first issue of the FF, the contents of this book include Archie clones, cowboys, a nurse, young men and women in love, and a healthy stable of monsters, magicians, and ghosts in titles like TALES TO ASTONISH or the remarkable AMAZING ADULT FANTASY drawn by the astonishing Steve Ditko. What really stands out to me is how insanely prolific the creative teams at Marvel must have been, hundreds of pages of script and art in a single month. Stories were short, usually three or four in each comic. Even the FF's long story is episodic, so Stan and the crew had to come with not a dozen ideas, but 30 or so each month, across four genres. Continuity was almost entirely nonexistent. The casts were steady but each strip existed in its own moment of time. The introduction of the FF, of course, changed all of this and Marvel more or less invented the endlessly continued story in the comic book medium, a feature that leads down a strange road to the idea of the "comic book universe" and then, inevitably, to a "multiverse."
I think Stan absorbed all those other genres while he was writing the FF. Before Marvel, romantic intrigue was Lois trying to reveal Superman's identity, but Stan brought in soap by the bucket full. And all those outlaw cowboys prefigure Marvel's outsider heroes, like the Thing in the early days, the Hulk, even Spiderman. The teen comedy shows up in stories about Spiderman, the Human Torch, and even in the early X-Men.
I missed FF 1. The only comic included here that I remember buying is AMAZING ADULT FANTASY 7, which blew my young, TWILIGHT ZONE-addicted mind. I bought the second issue of the FF though and became an overnight Marvel fanatic (though the company still didn't quite have a name), a condition that lasted till sometime in high school. Stan and the crew did another smart thing. They let their comics grow up with their audience, the complexity of the characters and plots increasing radically until college kids read them, adults read them, and eventually until nearly everyone went to the movies to see the same stories.
It started here.
Besides the first issue of the FF, the contents of this book include Archie clones, cowboys, a nurse, young men and women in love, and a healthy stable of monsters, magicians, and ghosts in titles like TALES TO ASTONISH or the remarkable AMAZING ADULT FANTASY drawn by the astonishing Steve Ditko. What really stands out to me is how insanely prolific the creative teams at Marvel must have been, hundreds of pages of script and art in a single month. Stories were short, usually three or four in each comic. Even the FF's long story is episodic, so Stan and the crew had to come with not a dozen ideas, but 30 or so each month, across four genres. Continuity was almost entirely nonexistent. The casts were steady but each strip existed in its own moment of time. The introduction of the FF, of course, changed all of this and Marvel more or less invented the endlessly continued story in the comic book medium, a feature that leads down a strange road to the idea of the "comic book universe" and then, inevitably, to a "multiverse."
I think Stan absorbed all those other genres while he was writing the FF. Before Marvel, romantic intrigue was Lois trying to reveal Superman's identity, but Stan brought in soap by the bucket full. And all those outlaw cowboys prefigure Marvel's outsider heroes, like the Thing in the early days, the Hulk, even Spiderman. The teen comedy shows up in stories about Spiderman, the Human Torch, and even in the early X-Men.
I missed FF 1. The only comic included here that I remember buying is AMAZING ADULT FANTASY 7, which blew my young, TWILIGHT ZONE-addicted mind. I bought the second issue of the FF though and became an overnight Marvel fanatic (though the company still didn't quite have a name), a condition that lasted till sometime in high school. Stan and the crew did another smart thing. They let their comics grow up with their audience, the complexity of the characters and plots increasing radically until college kids read them, adults read them, and eventually until nearly everyone went to the movies to see the same stories.
It started here.
May 12, 2025
I've always had a vague awareness that Marvel wasn't always all superhero comics all the time. But I've really only ever read their superhero output, with occasional dips into stuff like horror that was still published after the Marvel game really got going. I've read a little bit of the Golden Age Captain America and keep meaning to read more one of these days. But their output in the late 40s and all of the 50s? No clue. So it was a lot of fun to read this volume which collects all the comics published the same month as the first issue of Fantastic Four and get a taste of what things were like before Stan Lee was a household name among comics fans.
I sometimes say books are a mixed bag, but it's more accurate to call this a grab bag. Aside from the one fully superhero comic with FF #1, this really is a cross section of what was popular at the time. The intro, as well as the bits at the end taken from intros to other FF collections, make it clear that the Marvel method at the time was to constantly pivot to ride the coattails of whatever trend was big at the time.
As a result there's a lot of sci-fi monster stories, with no continuity as Earth is menaced by one goofy named orange abomination after another or some poor sap meets a Twilight Zone fate. There's two stories in different comics about televisions being used as teleportation devices for alien invasions that are thwarted only when some coincident shuts the TV off. That sort of repetition also rears its head in the humor books, with jokes about hamfat appearing at least twice. The humor books are clearly riffing on Archie and the gang but all put a teen girl or young woman front and center and include outfits designed by readers and various pin up and paper doll features. I was also amused to see that, rather like Archie, some of the humor leading ladies are popular enough to star in multiple books.
There's also a couple of romance comics, which while starring women and also being aimed at an audience of young girls, differ in their focus somewhat. The humor comics follow one woman consistently, along with her best friend, snotty rival, and generic love interest (they're all pretty formulaic, even the one about a nurse). The romance comics instead are more like the sci-fi anthologies, telling a series of short tales about different women and their love lives. Themes range from being attracted to older men to the problems of finding love in the big city.
Finally, there's a couple of cowboy books, and in a way these feel most similar to a lot of the DC superhero stuff I've read from the early Silver Age. Obviously Kid Colt and pals aren't trying to dodge Lois Lane's marriage attempts, but these stories present somewhat archetypal characters in a series of heroic adventures. While the outlaws are wanted by the law, providing a convenient reason for them to keep moving, they never kill or even wound on page - there's an amazing, Comics Code granted ability to shoot guns out of hands on display here.
To a degree these were the most enjoyable, or at least felt the closest to the enjoyment I get from older superhero comics. I had fun with the sci-fi stuff but that generally felt rather disposable. With some stories I'd go "oh that's a clever twist" or "oh boy haven't we seen this a million times, even back then?" But with the Westerns while I know I probably wouldn't get even the level of continuity and character development I'd see in the here just dawning Marvel age, I admit I'm still a bit curious to read more and see what other issues of these comics are like.
Overall this is an interesting adventure into the past, and it does make it feel like the Fantastic Four are a natural outgrowth of a lot of what Marvel was doing. Even aside from the fact that they fit the theme of riding trends by being a clear grab at the JLA's market share, the FF feel like a version of the sci-fi comics that start to add more depth and most importantly an ongoing story. Any of the four heroes, as well as the evil Mole Man, could easily have emerged as stars of a one-off story in Amazing Adult Fantasy or Tales of Suspense. The big exciting change is putting them all together and making them an ongoing concern. I read some of the early FF adventures as a kid and I'm planning to revisit them at some point in the near future. So it's pretty cool to read this book and get a better appreciation for the context in which they were created.
I sometimes say books are a mixed bag, but it's more accurate to call this a grab bag. Aside from the one fully superhero comic with FF #1, this really is a cross section of what was popular at the time. The intro, as well as the bits at the end taken from intros to other FF collections, make it clear that the Marvel method at the time was to constantly pivot to ride the coattails of whatever trend was big at the time.
As a result there's a lot of sci-fi monster stories, with no continuity as Earth is menaced by one goofy named orange abomination after another or some poor sap meets a Twilight Zone fate. There's two stories in different comics about televisions being used as teleportation devices for alien invasions that are thwarted only when some coincident shuts the TV off. That sort of repetition also rears its head in the humor books, with jokes about hamfat appearing at least twice. The humor books are clearly riffing on Archie and the gang but all put a teen girl or young woman front and center and include outfits designed by readers and various pin up and paper doll features. I was also amused to see that, rather like Archie, some of the humor leading ladies are popular enough to star in multiple books.
There's also a couple of romance comics, which while starring women and also being aimed at an audience of young girls, differ in their focus somewhat. The humor comics follow one woman consistently, along with her best friend, snotty rival, and generic love interest (they're all pretty formulaic, even the one about a nurse). The romance comics instead are more like the sci-fi anthologies, telling a series of short tales about different women and their love lives. Themes range from being attracted to older men to the problems of finding love in the big city.
Finally, there's a couple of cowboy books, and in a way these feel most similar to a lot of the DC superhero stuff I've read from the early Silver Age. Obviously Kid Colt and pals aren't trying to dodge Lois Lane's marriage attempts, but these stories present somewhat archetypal characters in a series of heroic adventures. While the outlaws are wanted by the law, providing a convenient reason for them to keep moving, they never kill or even wound on page - there's an amazing, Comics Code granted ability to shoot guns out of hands on display here.
To a degree these were the most enjoyable, or at least felt the closest to the enjoyment I get from older superhero comics. I had fun with the sci-fi stuff but that generally felt rather disposable. With some stories I'd go "oh that's a clever twist" or "oh boy haven't we seen this a million times, even back then?" But with the Westerns while I know I probably wouldn't get even the level of continuity and character development I'd see in the here just dawning Marvel age, I admit I'm still a bit curious to read more and see what other issues of these comics are like.
Overall this is an interesting adventure into the past, and it does make it feel like the Fantastic Four are a natural outgrowth of a lot of what Marvel was doing. Even aside from the fact that they fit the theme of riding trends by being a clear grab at the JLA's market share, the FF feel like a version of the sci-fi comics that start to add more depth and most importantly an ongoing story. Any of the four heroes, as well as the evil Mole Man, could easily have emerged as stars of a one-off story in Amazing Adult Fantasy or Tales of Suspense. The big exciting change is putting them all together and making them an ongoing concern. I read some of the early FF adventures as a kid and I'm planning to revisit them at some point in the near future. So it's pretty cool to read this book and get a better appreciation for the context in which they were created.
October 1, 2024
1961, the year the Marvel revolution began with the first issue of fantastic four. This is a very good collection. It’s interesting to see some of the other comic books that were being printed in the same year as the first issue of fantastic four. You can see what a contrast the fantastic four Was to anything else that was out there..
Many of the comics in this issue were scripted by or plotted by Stan the man, Lee . You Can also see artwork of Ditko,Kirby, and Simon.
This is a great volume for fans of the early days of marvel comics .
Many of the comics in this issue were scripted by or plotted by Stan the man, Lee . You Can also see artwork of Ditko,Kirby, and Simon.
This is a great volume for fans of the early days of marvel comics .
November 21, 2025
As someone interested in comics history, I love the concept of this book. It's not terribly readable however, so y'know, six of one, half-dozen of the other.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews