Martin Goodman founded the company later known as Marvel Comics under the name Timely Publications in 1939, publishing comic books under the imprint Timely Comics. Goodman, a pulp magazine publisher who had started with a Western pulp in 1933, expanded into the emerging—and by then already highly popular—new medium of comic books. He began his new line from his existing company’s offices at 330 West 42nd Street, New York City, New York. He officially held the titles of editor, managing editor, and business manager, with Abraham Goodman officially listed as publisher.
Timely’s first publication, Marvel Comics #1 (cover dated Oct. 1939), included the first appearance of Carl Burgos’ android superhero the Human Torch, and the first generally available appearance of Bill Everett’s anti-hero Namor the Sub-Mariner, among other features. The issue was a sales blockbuster and the contents came from an outside packager, Funnies, Inc., but by the following year Timely had its own staff in place. With the second issue the series title changed to Marvel Mystery Comics.
The company’s first true editor, writer-artist Joe Simon, teamed up with imminent industry-legend Jack Kirby to create one of the first[citation needed] patriotically themed superheroes, Captain America, in Captain America Comics #1. (March 1941) It too proved a major sales hit, with sales of nearly one million.
While no other Timely character would achieve the success of these “big three”, some notable heroes—many of which continue to appear in modern-day retcon appearances and flashbacks—include the Whizzer, Miss America, the Destroyer, the original Vision, and the Angel. Timely also published one of humor cartoonist Basil Wolverton’s best-known features, “Powerhouse Pepper”, as well as a line of children’s funny-animal comics featuring popular characters like Super Rabbit and the duo Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal.
Goodman hired his wife’s cousin, Stanley Lieber, as a general office assistant in 1939. When editor Simon left the company in late 1941, Goodman made Lieber—by then writing pseudonymously as “Stan Lee”—interim editor of the comics line, a position Lee kept for decades except for three years during his military service in World War II. Lee wrote extensively for Timely, contributing to a number of different titles.
As the late 1940s went on, Timely branched out into new genres, notably romance, Western and crime.
Goodman’s business strategy involved having his various magazines and comic books published by a number of corporations all operating out of the same office and with the same staff. One of these shell companies through which Timely Comics was published was named Marvel Comics by at least Marvel Mystery Comics #55 (May 1944). As well, some comics’ covers, such as All Surprise Comics #12 (Winter 1946-47), were labeled “A Marvel Magazine” many years before Goodman would formally adopt the name in 1961.
Atlas Comics (1950s)
The post-war American comic market saw superheroes falling out of fashion. Goodman’s comic book line dropped them for the most part and expanded into a wider variety of genres than even Timely had published, featuring horror, Westerns, humor, funny animal, men’s adventure-drama, giant monster, crime, and war comics, and later adding jungle books, romance titles, espionage, and even medieval adventure, Bible stories and sports. Like other publishers, Goodman also courted female readers with mostly humorous comics about models and career women.
Goodman began using the globe logo of Atlas, a newsstand-distribution company he owned, on comics cover-dated November 1951. This united a line put out by the same publisher, staff, and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth Comics to Zenith Publications, under the umbrella name Atlas Comics.
Atlas, rather than innovate, took a proven route of following popular trends in television and movies—Westerns and war dramas prevailing for a time, drive-in movie monsters another time—and even other comic books, particularly the EC horror line. Atlas also published a plethora of children’s and teen humor titles, including Dan DeCarlo’s Homer the Happy Ghost (à la Casper the Friendly Ghost) and Homer Hooper (à la Archie Andrews). Atlas unsuccessfully attempted to revive superheroes from late 1953 to mid-1954, with the Human Torch (art by Syd Shores and Dick Ayers, variously), the Sub-Mariner (drawn and most stories written by Bill Everett), and Captain America (writer Stan Lee, artist John Romita Sr.).
Part 1: Documentary About the Birth of the Superheroes
This is a documentary made in 2002 about the creation and evolution of comic book superheroes (with a greater leaning towards Marvel comics.)
It show us superheroes such as Batman, Superman, The Flash, The X-Men, Captain America, Silver Surfer, The Fantastic Four, Hulk, Daredevil; with more of a focus on Spider-Man because of the movie released at the time.
The documentary features the creators, writers & artists behind the superheroes such as Dave Gibbons, Alex Ross, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Travis Charest, John Romita, Joe Kubert, Jim Lee, Carmine Infantino, Joe Simon, Mark Evanier, Paul Dini, Neal Adams, Joe Quesada, John Buscema, Bill Sienkiewicz and radio interview with Jerry Siegel.
The Golden Age of Marvel Comics
The Golden Age of comics and the rise in popularity of costumed superheroes coincided with the beginnings of World War II. Unsurprisingly, many heroes of the day were directly influenced by the events unfolding in the European and Pacific theaters. Easily the most iconic and enduring WWII superhero is Captain America. Cap debuted in the pages of Captain America Comics #1 in March 1941. Though this issue appeared months before the US entered the war, its cover featured Cap storming a Nazi stronghold and socking Hitler in the jaw.
Cap wasn’t quite the first patriotic red, white and blue-clad superhero to hit the stands, but he quickly became the most popular and inspired legions of imitators. Meanwhile, other superheroes began to enter the fictional battlegrounds of WWII. Even the likes of Batman and Superman traded battling mad scientists and rogue criminals for Nazi spies and death machines.
Superhero comics are often accused of serving as thinly veiled male power fantasies. The comics of this era were perhaps a little more guilty than most. Rather than providing an even-handed look at the conflict, many comics featured politically incorrect racial stereotypes that served no other purpose than to be walloped by Cap or Namor. Hitler or various fictional Nazi villains would be regularly defeated in the name of freedom, only to return to menace the superhero population again.
One can respect the enthusiasm of comic creators of the time, if not always their methods of creative expression. The early comic industry featured a high number of Jewish creators who were highly opposed to the actions of Hitler’s Nazis. Some, like Jack Kirby and Will Eisner, were drafted into the military and fought the Axis more directly. Those who remained on the home front looked to their comics as weapons.
When the war ended, superheroes were suddenly lacking in high profile villains to tussle with, and this contributed to the temporary collapse of the superhero market and the rise of other genres. In the decades since, various writers have revisited World War II from a more modern context. Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos retroactively chronicled the characters’ exploits during the war. Creators like Garth Ennis and Joe Kubert have devoted much of their careers to telling war stories that strive to depict the realistic trials, tribulations, and hardships of the time. Superhero comics depict battles between good and evil, and WWII was perhaps the last conflict in history where it was so easy to draw lines between one side and the other. Thus, the storytelling attraction will always remain.
