Murdock and Marvel: 1961-1963

Episode 1 - Murdock and Marvel: 1961-1963

Normally we will be moving a year at a time, starting with Daredevil’s introduction in 1964.  But this week we want to set the stage, with a quick look at the early years of the Marvel Universe, from 1961-1963.

Reintroducing Ourselves

The Year in Comics

Comic books in the early 1960s were selling at levels that today’s publishers can’t even hope to attain, but the industry still down in comparison to the heady days of the pre-code “Golden Age” of comics during the 1940s and 1950s.

SALES DATA 

Publisher  

Monthly Copies 

Market Share 

Dell  

 9,686,424  

 37% 

National (DC)  

 6,653,485  

 25% 

Harvey  

 2,514,879  

 10% 

Charlton  

 2,500,000  

 10% 

Marvel  

 2,253,112  

 9% 

Archie  

 1,608,489  

 6% 

ACG  

 975,000  

 4% 

 

The Year in Marvel

• Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin Goodman
• First title was Marvel Comics #1 with the Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch 
• Joe Simon was first Editor-In-Chief
• Jack Kirby was hired in 1940, and co-created Captain America with Simon that year 
• Also in 1940, Stanley Lieber, the teenage cousin of Goodman’s wife, was hired as an office assistant. 
• In 1961 Timely became Marvel, just in time for FF #1.  The 1st Marvel branded comics were Journey into Mystery #69 and Patsy Walker #95 

Many important creators worked for Marvel during this time, but according to the data in the Grand Comics Database it was primarily the work of 2 writers, 3 artists, 3 inkers, two letterers and one colorist that set the groundwork for the Marvel universe. These 11 creators are: 

Stan Lee 

476 

Writer/Editor 

Larry Lieber 

260 

Writer 

Steve Ditko 

253 

Writer/Artist 

Jack Kirby 

222 

Writer/Artist 

Don Heck 

132 

Artist 

Dick Ayers 

173 

Inker for Kirby / Penciller 

Paul Reinman 

52 

Inker for Kirby / Penciller 

Sol Brodsky 

36 

Inker / Production Manager 

Artie Simek 

303 

Letterer 

Ray Holloway 

62 

Letterer.  Black creator 

Stan Goldberg 

424 

Colorist / Artist (humor stuff) 

 

The Year in Daredevil 

Way back in 1940 Jack Binder created the first Daredevil as a boomerang wielding vigilante who had a tragic backstory like Batman and was fighting Hitler in the comics before the US entered the war like Captain America.  The character was popular through the 1940s, but was mothballed when superheroes went out of favor in the 1950s.

Note: Jack Binder is the older brother of Otto Binder, co-creator of Mary Marvel, Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes!  Otto was one of the all-time greats in comics, with over 50,000 pages written over parts of five decades. For more about him check out: 

Otto Binder: The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary by Bill Schelly (2016) 

• https://www.penguinrandomhouseretail.com/book/?isbn=9781623170370

This Week's Spotlight

No spotlight this week because there haven't been any Daredevil comics published yet! The fun starts next week. 

The Takeaway

The Marvel boom of the 1960s heralded a fundamental transformation of the comics industry.  Marvel books skewed towards older audiences, with more disposable income.  Marvel fans increasingly looked at comic writing or drawing as a preferred career choice, and both the comic industry and comic fandom began a transformation that would result in the creation of specialty shops and the direct market.  One way to see this change is to look at how the popularity of comic “genres” changed over time. 

Marvel genres in the early 1960s 

• Humor (13 titles, 116 issues, 25%) 
• SF/Fantasy/Monsters (7 titles, 108 comics, 23%)  
• Romance (11 titles, 94 issues, 20%)  
• Superhero (7 titles, 47 issues, 10%)  
• Western (4 titles, 44 issues, 10%)  
• Pinup (4 titles, 42 issues, 10%)  
• War (1 title, 4 issues, 1%) 

Marvel by the late 1960s is over 50% Superhero! 

Questions or comments

We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

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THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES 

Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/. 

The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts. 

Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data. 

Man Without Fear: Kuljit Mithra’s Daredevil site contains a staggering collection of resources about our hero, including news, interviews and comic details.   

The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time. 

Joshua and Jamie Do Daredevil: A fantastic podcast that does a deep-dive into Daredevil comics.  This ran from 2018-2020, and covered most of the first volume of Daredevil, and was a fun way to get an in-depth look at each issue of Daredevil from 1-377. 

My Marvelous Year: This is a reading-club style podcast where Dave Buesing and friends chose important or interesting books from a particular year to read and discuss.  This helped me remember some fun and crazy stories, and would be a great companion piece to Murdock and Marvel for those who want more comic-story-specific coverage. 

BOOKLIST 

The following books have been frequently used as reference while preparing summaries of the comic history segments of our show.  Each and every one comes recommended by Dan for fans wanting to read more about it! 

Licari, Fabio and Marco Rizzo.  Marvel: The First 80 Years: The True Story of a Pop-Culture Phenomenon.  London: Titan Books, 2020.  This book is sort of a mess, as the print quality is terrible, and Titan doesn’t even credit the authors unless you check the fine print.  It’s like this was published by Marvel in the early 60s! But the information is good, and it is presented in an entertaining fashion.  So its decent, but I would recommend you see if you can just borrow it from the library instead of purchasing. 

Wells, John.  American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-1964.  Raleigh: Two Morrows, 2015.  Not cheap, but a fantastic series that is informative and fun to read. 

Wright, Bradford.  Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.  Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.  This is the revised edition. 

Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2022.  The academic in my rails at using information from any work that doesn’t have an author credit, but this is a decent (if very surface) look at each year in the history of Timely / Marvel from 1939 to 2021.   

Cowsill, Alan et al.  DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual History.  New York: DK Publishing, 2010.  Because its nice to occasionally take a peek at what the Distinguished Competition is up to. 

Dauber, Jeremy.  American Comics: A History.  New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022.  An excellent, relatively compact history of the domestic comic industry from its 19th century origins through to recent 21st century developments.  An excellent successor to Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation.