852 – Hulk Goes Green

In Incredible Hulk #2 (May 1962), we get a quick re-telling of the Hulk’s origin… saves Rick Jones, dose of gamma radiation, upon nightfall turns in Mr. Hyde… with the never-explained change from grey-skinned to green-skinned. Bruce and Rick proceed to build an underground bunker for the Hulk to spend his quiet evenings, with 10-ft […]

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824 – Marvel Monsters: Aug 1961

It’s important to remember that, just because Marvel launched their flagship Silver Age superhero comic this month, it was still basically an experiment and this superhero transition did not happen over night. Marvel continued to churn out wacky monster stores across all their other wacky supernatural/sci-fi titles with still wackier names: The Creature From Krogarr! […]

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820 – Marvel Monsters: July 1961

Marvel brings us some more wacky monsters in July 1961: Monsteroso, The Glob, Bruttu, the Abominable Snowman, and Fin Fang Foom, an alien that resembled a dragon. Like Groot before it, Fin Fang Foom is later ret-conned into the Marvel superhero universe as a minor villain.

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808 – Marvel Monsters: May 1961

Well Marvel Comics is finally here, and by May 1961, all comics by Atlas Comics have the “MC” insignia. I also notice a distinct lack of kooky monster names this month. Other than a revisit of Grogg, Marvel seems to have switched to more descriptive names like “Sandman”, the return of Colossus, and “The Crawling […]

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802 – Marvel Monsters: April 1961

I’m going to call April 1961 the month when Atlas Comics finally FINALLY became Marvel Comics, since some of their comic books on sale that month had a very distinctive “MC” insignia box on the covers: Journey into Mystery #69 and Strange Tales #86. Farewell Atlas Comics! I, for one, welcome our overlords Stan Lee, […]

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797 – Marvel Monsters: March 1961

Atlas Comics still has a just a teensy bit longer before they officially become Marvel Comics, so I guess we should keep going with the “Marvel Monsters” series, this time showing issues on sale in March 1961: Torr, Gargantus, Kraa the Unhuman and “X” the Thing That Lived!

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792 – Marvel Monsters: February 1961

Those wacky Atlas / Marvel comics are still covered in giant monsters in February 1961. This volley includes Spragg, Googam (Son of Goom), Rommbu, and… Magneto. No, not that Magneto. This Magneto is an 8-foot tall, not-too-bright human, Hunk Larken, who gets continuously picked on for his lack of brains until he is fed up […]

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787 – Marvel Monsters: January 1961

Atlas/Marvel’s latest batch of wacko giant monsters in January 1961 features Gruto, Grogg, Gorgilla and Metallo. Someone needs to fix the ‘G’ key on Stan Lee’s typewriter, it seems to be sticking! Metallo is a proto-Iron Man story. The army has produced an impenetrable metal suit about twice the size of a man. An escaped […]

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782 – Return of the Less-Incredible Hulk

I should have known by the ending of the first Xenmu story back in July 1960 that he would return. In Journey into Mystery #66 (Dec 1960), he does this very thing – being the only “giant Marvel monster” to appear in the last couple months. Production trouble at Atlas/Marvel? Or maybe a re-thinking of […]

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