I was just talking with co-workers about the stark black and white photos of the Achorage, Alaskan earthquake that happened just at Easter Time in 1964, I was 8 and can recall all the stark photos from the Associate Press plastered across all the newspapers and Life Magazine, etc.
As I think back about this, I can recall seeing the photos, but didn't read the newspaper accounts. It was in the evening news as well and on the radio.
But I was wondering if the concept or topic of earthquakes had reared their heads in the months immediately after April 1964. It occurs to me the images were so strong, that they might have appealed to Jack Kirby or Ditko or others to be written or drawn into the adventures of 1964 Marvels and DC Comics.
Does anyone remember any stories, images or plot elements that might have been related to this event?
Recall, this is about 5 months after JFK was shot and killed in Dallas, and we could find no impact on comics then, either.
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I think the comics publishers tend to avoid traumatic real events like the JFK assassination and killer earthquakes, at least when the wounds are fresh.
When you referred to the 1964 Alaskan earthquake I was reminded of its effect on Crescent City, California.
Crescent City is right on the ocean twenty miles from Oregon. A tsunami generated by the Alaskan earthquake destroyed a significant part of this small city and killed, I believe, over 100 people. Not sure if more were killed elsewhere.
I became aware of this several years ago when my wife and I drove from Southern California to just inside Oregon and back down the coast. It was the first time I ever saw "Tsunami Evacuation Route" signs.
I've been mulling over which, if any, Marvel comics might have been inspired or have some tangential link to the Alaskan earthquake... and I've come up with a few... a very few... See if any of these ring a bell.
Avengers #5 --(May '64) Attack of the Lava men (Earthquakes generated by the giant rock being hoisted by them to the surface.
X-men #5--(May '64) The X-men are fighting on Asteroid X and the rock tunnel they're escaping down collapses in a quake.
X-men #9-(Jan. '65) The X-men race the Avengers to descend into a cave where Prof X has been fighting Lucifer.
Fantastic Four #31--(Oct. '64) The Fantastic Four attempt to dissuade the Avengers from interfering with the Mole Man who has "lowered" various cities.
(Gee, there are the Avengers showing up again... they seem to be everywhere there's a cave, a tunnel or an earthquake, huh? I wonder... just the Thunder God, or the god of Earthquakes as well??)