Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Man on the Endless Stairway!"

A never-reprinted Stan Lee-Steve Ditko Silver Age tale?

Most would think it's easier to find a unicorn or an honorable Republican!

But we found it!

When Mighty Thor debuted in Journey into Mystery #83, the sci-fi/fantasy tales that filled the book were shifted to the back of the book where almost all of them were forgotten, even to Marvel's reprint editors!

This is one of those tales.

It hasn't been seen since it initially-appeared Marvel's Journey into Mystery #87 (1962)!

Pity, since it's a prime example of both writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko's almost-effortless mastery of their respective crafts!

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Atlas' Journey into Mystery Masterworks Vol 4

(The most recent volume in the series)

Baker Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Green Fog!"

Before a long-haired hippie (hey, it was the Swinging Sixties) with a hammer took over the book...

....Atlas-Marvel's Journey into Mystery was first a horror, then sci-fi anthology featuring some of the best work of the era...quite a bit of it never-reprinted, like this tale from #50 (1959), penciled by the legendary Matt Baker and inked by Vince Colletta!

The scripter is unknown, but probably isn't editor Stan Lee, who tended to incorporate his distinctive signature into the title page when he wrote the story.

You'll note the inking is much more detailed here than in the previous Baker Reading Room story, also inked by Colletta, but published by Charlton!

Atlas' reproduction quality was better than Charlton's, so art studio owner/inker Colletta (who packaged stories for Atlas, Charlton, Dell and others) put more effort into the final product.

The Marvel Masterworks: Journey into Mystery reprint series ended with Volume Four (2012), which only reprinted up to #40, so almost all the non-Thor and Tales of Asgard material since #40 (including this story) hasn't been seen since original publication!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Unreal!"

As Mighty Thor and Tales of Asgard took over Atlas/Marvel's Journey into Mystery...

...backup tales like this one were, sadly, slowly squeezed out of the book!

The cleverly-written narration doesn't offer a clue as to which protaganist is speaking.

Of course, we assume it's the human...

Plotted by Stan Lee, scripted and penciled by his brother Larry Lieber (Stan's birth name was "Stanley Leiber"), and inked by Matt Fox, this never-reprinted story from the back of Marvel's Journey into Mystery #100 (1964) was one of the last non-Asgardian tales in the book.

They were discontinued as of #105.

Matt Fox began as a pulp illustrator for Weird Tales, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, and others.

When the pulps died in the early 1950s, he moved to Atlas Comics, where, because he wasn't a fast penciler, he inked others' pencils more often than doing solo pencil-ink assignments.

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Atlas-Era

Journey into Mystery

Volume #4

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Return of the Martian!"

Yesterday we brought you "The Martian Who Stole My Body"...

...and now, we continue his saga with a never-reprinted adventure!

Hmmm.

A seemingly-invincible Martian invader who had no resistance to our Earthly diseases.

Sound familiar?

Yeah, those Martians.

And scattered about it, some in their overturned war-machines, some in the now rigid handling-machines, and a dozen of them stark and silent and laid in a row, were the Martians--_dead_!--slain by the putrefactive and disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared; slain as the red weed was being slain; slain, after all man's devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth.

For so it had come about, as indeed I and many men might have foreseen had not terror and disaster blinded our minds.

These germs of disease have taken toll of humanity since the beginning of things--taken toll of our prehuman ancestors since life began here.

But by virtue of this natural selection of our kind we have developed resisting power; to no germs do we succumb without a struggle, and to many--those that cause putrefaction in dead matter, for instance--our living frames are altogether immune.

But there are no bacteria in Mars, and directly these invaders arrived, directly they drank and

fed, our microscopic allies began to work their overthrow.

Already when I watched them they were irrevocably doomed, dying and rotting even as they went to and fro.

It was inevitable.

--War of the Worlds by HG Wells

So, plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, penciler Jack Kirby, and inker Dick Ayers, took a concept that had been done to death by the time this story appeared in Atlas' Journey into Mystery #58 (1960).

By all rights, it shouldn't work.

And it almost doesn't.

But Kirby's artwork saves it, gives it enoough OOOMPH to allow you to overlook the cliched ending.

Oddly, though Zetora's previous tale had been reprinted in the 1970s, this sequel has never been reprinted!

(Which might be just as well, since it'd be hard to explain him coming back from the dead...)

Perhaps to make up for that oversight, Marvel's Monsters Unleashed #3 does, give him a beautiful Francesco Francavilla cover...

Monsters Unleashed looks like a lot of fun, so get it at your local comic shop...NOW!

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Monsters Unleashed: Prelude
(which doesn't include either of Zetora the Martian's stories!)

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Martian Who Stole My Body!"

The new Monsters Unleashed miniseries continues this week...

...with a Klassic Kirby Kreature who appeared twice!

Poor Zetora.

Not only did this tale from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #57 (1960), reprinted in Marvel's Fear #7 (1972), not get a cover appearance either time, neither did the sequel story, which we'll present tomorrow!

However, Marvel's Monsters Unleashed #3 does, finally, give him a beautiful Francesco Francavilla cover...

Plotted by Stan Lee, scripted by Larry Lieber, penciled by Jack Kirby, and inked by Dick Ayers, it's an average story greatly-enhanced by Kirby's superb visuals.

Monsters Unleashed looks like a lot of fun, so get it at your local comic shop...NOW!

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Monsters Unleashed: Prelude
(which doesn't include either of Zetora the Martian's stories!)

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Fredreick Fenton's Future!"

Our final time travel tale of the year is about a greedy, fat, rich guy...

...who thinks of nobody but himself.
No, it's not Donald Trump...

I always wondered what would happen if a time machine ran out of power in a location that had no resources to refuel/recharge it.
Writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko supply the answer in this never-reprinted story from Marvel's Journey into Mystery #96 (1963)

Be here tomorrow as I re-present my favorite New Year's Eve story from the Silver Age of Comics!

It's a tale so graphically-awesome that two splash pages from it became highly-sought-after blacklite posters!

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Thor Masterworks

Volume 1 

featuring the Thor stories that appeared in front of the never-reprinted tales we're presenting!

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Off-Limits!"

Another never-reprinted goodie from the back of Journey into Mystery...

...in the days when a new strip about a Norse God got all the attention!

OK, it's a silly little tale from the back of Marvel's Journey into Mystery #85 (1962), but between Stan Lee's script and Steve Ditko's art, it has a whimsical charm that makes me glad we're re-presenting it to an appreciative audience for the first time in 53 years!

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Thor Masterworks
Volume 1 
featuring the Thor stories that appeared in front of the never-reprinted tales we're presenting!

Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Perfect Crime!"

More never-reprinted tales from Journey into Mystery...

...this time a crime story that veers into science fiction!

You'll note the last two panels are re-lettered.

I suspect the Comics Code Authority felt it was too cruel to allow the criminal to die for something he technically didn't commit!

This was one of the two tales backing up Mighty Thor's very first appearance in Marvel's Journey into Mystery #83 (1963).

Don Heck penciled and inked the tale.

Stan Lee plotted it, but experts are not sure if he scripted it.

Lee usually signed the later shorts he scripted, but only Heck's signature is here.

Just about everything Lee didn't script at this point was handled by his brother Larry Lieber.

(Stan's birth name is Stanley Leiber. He used "Stan Lee" on his comics work because he wanted his real name on the Great American Novel he planned to write.

When he finally realized he would be forever known for his comics and not any prose novel he might write, he legally changed his name to "Stan Lee".)

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Thor Masterworks
Volume 1 
featuring the Thor stories that appeared in front of the never-reprinted tales we're presenting!