Early Tales of Suspense

Of the major pre-hero Marvel titles, I've done the best in completing sets of TALES OF SUSPENSE and TALES TO ASTONISH. I only lack a few issues of each in completing the runs that preceded the appearances of the superheroes who ended up dominating the titles. In the case of SUSPENSE it was Kirby' Iron Man who took over the book, and in ASTONISH it was Kirby's Ant-Man (later Giant Man) who eventually overshadowed the monster and aliens stories that had kept Goodman's comic book fortunes afloat during the mid to late 1950s.

Every time I see these books I am reminded once again of how much was stolen from Kirby and Ditko. (All comics pictured are from my personal collection.)

Lower grade, yes. But at least I have a copy of #1.

I know this is a Kirby cover, but this monster always seemed as if it was not created by the King. It just doesn't look like something he'd have concocted. Possibly it was inserted by another artist to meet the demands of the editor.

I've written about this book before. Again, it appears as if the original figure was removed and this one inserted into the cover art. Marvel did constantly worry about the Comics Code in those days, so perhaps the original monster was deemed too scary.

Every Kirby/Ditko monster had a theme. Perhaps requested by the editor, perhaps not. Cloud monster. Rock monster, Plant monster. Lizard monster. Etc.