Yes, I remember Fantasy Masterpieces Marvel Super-Heroes, a great 25 cent squarebound book that served for a while as the showcase for new ideas, one-shot try-outs, and odd-pieces.
Originally titled Fantasy Masterpieces, the book began life as a collection of monster and mystery short story reprints. As luck would have it, I happened to snag a coverless used copy of this book by accident in the large set of used Marvels that started my collection. (I bought them all for a nickle a piece at the school white elephant summer carnival sale. I got ALL my vintage FF and Marvels in this fell swoop. I thought they were SO old, but in fact, they were all from just a year or two earlier, but seemed old school to me.)
I recall that first issue because each story was lauded so strongly. But one that made a real impression on me was Ditko's "Those Who Change", which was based upon "A Sound of Distance Thunder", a classic sci-fi short story that warned about the dangers of time-travel and the butterfly effect.
I think there might have been a few other classics, like "Tim-Ban-Boo" and "I, Kurgo" or "Ororo"... these were good stories, but the artwork style changed so radically from story to story. It would have been hard NOT to understand that these were works by various artists. In fact, the stories were promoted as being the artist's piece...NOT the writer's accomplishment!
Fantasy Masterpieces continued in this vein for an issue or two, but then shifted into more of a reprint book of some of the golden age of super-heroes.... the Human Torch, The Sub-Mariner, The Black Knight, and various other also-rans.
Soon, instead of being a conglomeration cover, showing sample panels from each of the horror/mystery stories within, the covers were either redrawn scenes of Captain America, The Human Torch or Namor stories, or a variation on a character sketch cover with insets of one panel from the other reprint stories included.
Finally, by issue #11, some sales assessment determined that the formula was just not working well-enough... and with great cross-promotion, a new super-hero was to be launched in #12...Captain Marvel.
Now, much has been written about how and why Marvel chose to do a character of this name, so I won't repeat that here, but it should be noted that the good captain was all original story, backed up with several reprints of the golden age, as above. But even the name of the series was changed, to "Marvel Super-Heroes"...and the covers were given totally over to the new character.
It should be noted that in many ways, the Gene Colan drawn Captain Marvel story was an echo of Star Trek, complete with a splash page that indicated he was from a star-ship that looked a lot like the design of the Enterprise, while still being different.
To my eye, the uniforms of the Kree warriors looked an awful lot like those of Atlantis's guards, right down to the sun logos on the chests, and various other chest emblems. But that's Gene Colan for you.
After two issues, Captain Marvel was launched in his own book (with Gene Colan continuing at the helm for art chores only through issue #4... ironically, the sixth installment, and possibly the end of a six month agreement).
Marvel Super-heroes next showcased Spider-Man (say WHAT?!) in issue #14... with a funky art style on the cover.
But issue #15 was a delightful Gene Colan version of Medusa, trying to stave off the efforts of the Frightful Four to re-enlist her.
Issue #16 was a Herb Trimpe experiment with a WWI flying ace, "The Phantom Eagle". No word on why he was never picked up again...
Issue #17 was a Black Knight adventure.
Issue #18 saw the start of the Guardians of the Galaxy...and they would later on go on to be a force to be reconned with in the pages of the Avengers, and elsewhere.
Issue #19 was a Kazar appearance, and then it happened....the single most important appearance of a leading character for years to come...
The seminal #20 with a character defining chapter in the back-story of Doctor Doom.
It should be noted that both issues #19 and #20 featured characters that would go on to hold half the lime light in the next generation of split-books several years later....Astonishing Tales and Amazing Adventures.... or at least for the first 8 issues of said books, so perhaps the try-outs worked to an extent.
But then suddenly, the new material in Marvel-Superheroes #21 ceased.... and the book became just another reprint book featuring the Avengers and X-men, and eventually, Daredevil and Iron Man.
Why this Silver Age showcase married with golden age reprints was changed again is anyone's guess...and I invite you to speculate.
Come share your opinions on the first 20 issues of this series, whether Fantasy Masterpieces vol. 1, or Marvel Super-Heroes ... what are your memories?
Replies
This post on reprint giants of the period has an interesting bit about the changes made to the splash pages of two Golden Age Captain America stories when they were reprinted in Fantasy Masterpieces.
I'm not aware of any other Marvel Phantom Eagle series stories, but he put in a few more appearances. The ones I know of are the stories in Incredible Hulk #135 (a time-travel story), Ghost Rider #12 (as a ghost, apparently), and Invaders #7, in which he was shown in a one-panel flashback as a member of a WWI super-team called Freedom's Five. His name was taken from a WWII Fawcett young aviator character who appeared in Wow Comics and debuted several months before Airboy.
Marvel Super-heroes next showcased Spider-Man (say WHAT?!) in issue #14... with a funky art style on the cover.
Well, the funky art style was Ross Andru, inked by Bill Everett. Stan explained inside that Romita had sprained his wrist while working on ASM, and they didn't think he'd be able to get the issue done. So they had Andru and Everett put together a story quickly. But then Romita improved enough that he could finish his story. Rather than just leave the Andru/Everett story sitting around, they put it into MSH. That was their story, at least.
That issue also is notable for having a reprint of "Mercury in the 20th Century," Kirby's first work for Timely/Atlas/Marvel.
-- MSA
Martin Goodman decided he wanted to have a character named "Captain Marvel" so nobody else could have a magazine by that name, which could be confused with Marvel Comics. M.F. Enterprises (Myron Fass) had already done one a few years earlier, with work by Carl Burgos (creator of the Human Torch) so it must have bugged Goodman, but good. Not long after the debut of Captain Mar-Vell (I like to spell it that way to avoid confusion with the REAL C.M.), Goodman made a point of having the name Trademarked, so nobody else could do a book of that name... especially DC, once they licensed (and later bought outright) the original character from Fawcett.
It struck me as funny when I realized that Captain Mar-Vell debuted THE MONTH AFTER the last issue of Marvel's GHOST RIDER, which was cancelled as a result of Vincent Sullivan threatening legal action against Goodman for stealing his character.
It's notable that some effort went into licensing for the new Captain Mar-Vell, including a t-shirt, so Goodman must have had some high hopes for him. I have also read that-- SUPPOSEDLY-- there was also a tentative deal in the works for a TOY LINE based on the character (or vice-versa). This may go far to explain the rather clunky, bulky design of his costume, as it becomes very easy to imagine that bulky helmet, belt & wrist-mounted weapon as being part of an action figure toy.
The initial 3-part story was clearly meant to be in MSH, there's an ad in the back of #13 for issue #14, but-- apparently-- it was just about then that Goodman managed to find a new distributor, which meant he could expand his line for the first time since the 50's, which is why, ABRUPTLY, the 3rd part of the 3-parter appeared in the new CAPTAIN MARVEL #1. I always think it's stupid to have a "1st issue" which contains the middle or end of a story begun elsewhere. They also pulled this same idiotic stunt with IRON MAN #1, CAPTAIN AMERICA #100, SUB-MARINER #1, HULK #102, and much later, IRON FIST #1.
Stan went on record somewhere saying he really didn't like Ross Andru's version of Spidey. I'm sure what he meant was, he didn't like the story Ross came up with, so it got shelved for at least 6 months. If you look carefully at the art and compare it to the dialogue, you can see they don't match up. In the art, Pete is dating MJ, Harry is dating Gwen. but by the time it was published, Pete & Gwen had gotten serious. (A HUGE mistake, I've always felt, but Stan INSISTED on it, his wife was a blonde and, dammit, he wanted Pete dating a blonde.)
It seems the BLACK KNIGHT, GUARDIANS, KA-ZAR and DR. DOOM stories had all been sitting around for some months before getting published. So MSH turned out to be not so much a "tryout" book as an "inventory" book-- in the same way MARVEL FANFARE was about 15 years later. It's quite noticable that the KA-ZAR story takes place before, not after, his previous appearance, since the MSH story is the one where he leaves England and returns to Antarctica.
I haven't been able to figure out the MEDUSA thing, but it was very odd that she appeared in both MSH and ASM the same month, wearing 2 different costumes, neither of which she ever wore again. I'd guess the MSH story came first, as that would follow the pattern of the other stories.
The BLACK KNIGHT story is about the only one of these I haven't read, but I have read that Howard Purcell (who also did a few episodes of SHIELD) was very interested in doing more work for Marvel, but Stan objected on the grounds that he didn't live in the immeidate NYC area. An absurd reason for turning down talent.
I've often noted that Arnold Drake, who was much better at science-fiction than Stan Lee, Roy Thomas or Gene Colan, walked into CAPTAIN MAR-VELL with a lot against him, as so much about the series had been badly mis-conceived and derailed before he got there. This gave me the idea that GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (also with Gene) may have been his attempt to start from scratch with a sci-fi series he could call his own. Unfortunately, he had a major falling-out with Lee, who kept suggesting that Drake was a "Communist" because he had once tried to get medical benefits for freelancers at DC. GUARDIANS sat in limbo for about 5 years until Steve Gerber decided to revive them in MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE, then DEFENDERS, then MARVEL PRESENTS. (I've always thought it was a crime when Gerber was kicked off the series he'd worked so hard to revive and develop, in mid-story, because someone objected to the content of one of the published episodes. To this day, I feel no one has ever done the series as well as Gerber did.)
It makes sense that Captain Marvel might have been designed for a toy-tie-in, cause if you think about the first six installments... you find that he's got that clunky, round carrying case that does nothing except tick down like an exploding bomb... and, shortly after he's been beamed down to the planet Earth's surface, the freeze him to give him a wrist tracking device (like they couldn't have thought to have put that on him before he left?), and he's got an old fashioned clunky raygun Unibeam that is hand held. Between those three props and his helmet, I could see where he might be the latest attempt to cash in on Star Trek with a model of the starship as well. Has anyone seen that style ship since those initial 12 or so issues?
But I digress.... I have read in an interview or someplace that the reason that the Phantom Eagle came to be was that the artist was a nut about WWI biplanes...that is, he was begging for them to let him draw them in some story...and so, he came up with one as a device to let him go nuts on the topic. One thing always bugged me about those long scarves though. It would seem to be a risk to be flapping in the breeze that way... that if it got caught in the propeller...or anywhere else, you could get strangled rather easily. Now, I know that when flying a plane, the force of the air is back, not forward, but still.... seems to me I've seen some story, ( maybe in a DC book? Enemy Ace?) where exactly this plot device was used as a surprise ending. Does anyone recall that? I don't recall buying or reading Phantom Eagle at all.
As for Medusa, I suspect that there was some instruction to keep the character or the concept of the Inhumans fresh, and to preserve the copyright, to have her/them make an appearance. Wasn't this about the time that the Inhuman's back-up story started appearing in Thor? I always found it odd that those installments ran 7, and not an even number of installments. At only six or so pages per installment, this represents about 42 total, and that would translate to about two full books...assuming you could split one of the stories at the right place.
Wadda think?
Ok, I may have been mistaken about the number of pages in each of the seven installments of the Inhuman's back up. There were 5 pages (including a splash page each issue) which means about 35 pages total... Still, that could be split between two 18 page books...
Also, the Medusa month where she shows up in Marvel Super-Heroes #15 and in Amazing Spider-Man #62 is July 1968... exactly two months AFTER the Inhuman's back-up stories come to an end in Thor #152. Could it be that the Medusa story was going to be serialized in the back of Thor #153 also?? Or that it was comissioned but then not drawn that way? Who knows?
Guess I should of read my Marvel Masterworks #125 Inhumans volume first, cause the introduction by Mark Evanier explains not only "the secret origin of the Inhumans" (from concept through multiple attempts to publish a book on them) and the Medusa story in question.
Paraphrasing here, Mark says as Marvel was preparing to publish a full length book, Stan wasn't satisfied with the artwork by a first artist, and so it was scrapped. Instead, Archie Goodwin and Gene Colan started over again, but this time Publisher Goodman wasn't certain. So, the story was shelved, and a few months later, saw print in Marvel Super-Heroes.
(Ironically, just before re-reading this forward by Evanier, I went through and recounted the pages reprinted from the back-ups in Thor, and then also looked at the 25 page Medusa story and looked for end points, scene changes, or other indications that it might be prepared or plotted for serialization... five pages per installment. And, I've found a break point every 5 pages or so, with one six pages, and assuming a cliffhanger ending, before the resolution page. But even that has an odd last panel that ends the story, but seems a little rushed. Even the "End" label doesn't fit in the panel but is tacked onto the side of it. But even though I think I see "seams", this is not how the story was prepared.)
Poor Inhumans... Even when Goodman approved the expansion, Jack Kirby wrote and drew two issues....but even those got broken up into two 10 page installments in the new split books as well. Evanier says Kirby reworked the stories to allow for these 10 page installments, but shortly thereafter, left Marvel for DC. So the Inhumans passed to Neal Adams, and then another team who expanded to two full size issues (IMHO dreadful stuff).
Good call about that "carrying case". I hated that "sub-plot". Roy made me me want to strangle him the way he wrote it. (And did you notice the manager's nephew was named "Hal" was was a dead ringer for Hal Jordan?) The Super-Skrull 2-parter was Roy's best work on the series, but the rest of his episodes SUCKED big-time.
I've read (somewhere?) that the Inhumans storties were briefly intended to be half of one of the split books, but plans to spin the other half off into its own title failed to happen, so they were cut up and shoved into the back of THOR instead.
Yep, Herb Trimpe loved biplanes. By the way, "Phantom Eagle" is another in a long line of character names RIPPED OFF by Martin Goodman. It's horrible to offhandedly mention there was "another Phantom Eagle" in the 40's. Reading Roy's ALTER EGO, I got to know quite a lot about MARC SWAYZE, the creator of the original ("real") PHANTOM EAGLE, for Fawcett. This is the same guy who created MARY MARVEL (and nobody, I mean nobody, EVER drew Mary Marvel as good as Marc Swayze!!!) The one-and-only Trimpe PE episode kinda sucked. I hate to say it, but that's how it hit me. Nothing to brag about on any level. But the Swayze PE, that would be worth seeing a reprint collection of.
I've often thought the Kree starship in the early episodes was the clunkiest, poorest spaceship design I'd ever seen. Now you've got me wondering-- did Gene come up with that, or was it a TOY design? I found it very interesting that when often-overlooked and dismissed Don Heck took over the art, he immediately began doing far more detailed and interesting INTERIORS for that spaceship than Gene ever did. I just wish to God ANYBODY other than John Tartaglione had inked those first 3 episodes of his. "Murder".
Sad thing, there really weren't any STAR TREK toys in the 60's. I did have a (ALLEGEDLY!!!) "Star Trek" toy gun, but it didn't look anything like anything on the show, and it was one of those things that shot plastic discs. Some toy designer came up with those things, then slapped the words "Star Trek" on it to help it sell. Years later, same gun, different name on it. No kidding. I wonder if the packaging even used the logo from the show? It always bugs me that the Gold Key STAR TREK comics did not use the TV show logo. But then, they never used the logos of ANY tv shows they did licensed books from. Anyone who knows anything about advertising, marketing, etc. will tell you, you come up with a unique, recognizable logo, and you use it, consistently, everywhere. It's like the "CHICAGO" logo on all the band's albums, t-shirts, etc. Or The MONKEES. Took them a damn long time to realize every "Monkees" album should have the SAME logo on it.
But then... why the hell do they keep changing BATMAN's logo every 2 or 3 years??? SUPERMAN's had the same one since the mid-40's. There's a reason for that. It's a damn good logo!
I just took a look at Wikipedia... you know, it's an insult, they have like 5 times more info on the short-lived Marvel "Phantom Eagle" than they do on the real one from Fawcett, which ran like 6 YEARS.
I think there's a whole lot wrong with the attitude and focus of that website... like how for celebrities, they always seem to have the most recent photos, no matter how old sick and decrepit they look. I'd rather see people in their prime. There's a reson Cary Grant retired when he did...
Kirk G said:
(Answer spoiler warning.) I think you're thinking of the climax of "Ghost of the Killer Skies!" from Detective Comics #404, in which Batman investigates a murder connected to a movie being made about Enemy Ace. But the twist might have been used elsewhere as well.
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