ORIGIN OF MARVEL COMICS
7/71 Part Two


Introducing Doc Samson

ORIGIN OF MARVEL COMICS
8/71 Part One


Introducing Over-Mind

ORIGIN OF MARVEL COMICS
8/71 Part Two

ORIGIN OF MARVEL COMICS
9/71 Part One



Last issue written by Stan Lee




Last issue written by Stan Lee

ORIGIN OF MARVEL COMICS
9/71 Part Two




Last issue written by Stan Lee

LO, THERE SHALL BE AN ENDING!

ORIGIN OF MARVEL COMICS
10/71


Last issue of F.F. written by Stan Lee. Last regular issue written by Stan.


Introducing Morbius

ORIGIN OF MARVEL COMICS
APPENDMENT

October 1971 completes the first 10 years
Last .15 cent issues
Stan writes last regular issue and about this time moves from editor to publisher, Roy Thomas becomes editor
Until now the output was somewhat limited to the core original titles and characters. In 1972 alone they add: Marvel Premiere, Marvel Feature, Marvel Spotlight, Marvel Team-Up, The Defenders, Luke Cage, Ghost Rider, Tomb of Dracula, Werewolf By Night, Man-Thing, Warlock, The Cat
As to covers. October 1971 was the last month with the classic silver age corner box with the Marvel brand


Replaced in November 1971 with the banner

Huh, it ends right where I started collecting Marvel! The Spidey and FF issues were my first. Excelsior!

I was wondering when you were going to quit.

Lot of stopping points for that era... December '69; Kirby leaving Marvel; X-Men being cancelled; Cap, Thor, and Iron Man getting their own titles...

Mine begins in about 1975. I was wondering if we'd get that far. This was one of my first.

That was my last month. Spider-Man #101 was my last. Nothing to do with comics. I was 13 and Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath became more important.

The changes are always staggered/gradual. You can't really nail it down to one specific date. Conan, which I ignored was a big change. The relaxing of the code to allow horror and Marvel introducing Tower of Shadows and Chamber of Darkness was another. I stuck with the interconnected universe. There was war, western, Millie the Model and Not Brand Echhh and the same time. I also ignored reprint titles and annuals that were all reprints even though they had some pretty good new covers. X-Men continued with reprints but all new covers. They even had an Epic Collection of the reprint covers.
Until 1968 Marvel was limited by the printers to how many titles they produce. They negotiated a new deal which allowed unlimited titles with the printers. This allowed Cap, Iron Man, Hulk, etc. to get their own books.
You can see how Stan went from writer of every title, to gradually cutting back because of new responsibilities, then stopping altogether.
You can't nail it down to one specific point, but Oct. '71 seems the most definitive.

Unless it's just me, you can see the change in cover design. A few ongoing stories had to be wrapped up, but for me, the new cover style and new characters being introduced at a rapid pace represented the beginning of new phase.

Now do DC.

DC's first comic! This was just released in a facsimile edition. A few years ago, a Treasury edition in hardcover was released (which I bought but didn't read because I didn't want to open the wrapper). So this was a nice purchase. What I didn't know (until I looked it up) was that its size of 15x10 was how it originally came out. I thought it was just being reproduced larger for the "treasury" feel.

Batman and Superman related titles alone were almost as many as Marvel's total output.

Hence my joke. Speaking of...