ANOTHER MARVEL 'MYSTERY' SOLVED!

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Well, to be honest, it's not really that much of a mystery - except to the team responsible for the reprint editions of the TALES Of SUSPENSE/IRON MAN adventures from the early years of MARVEL.

If you're the proud possessor of the softcover printing of MARVEL MASTERWORKS, the first OMNIBUS volume, or even the ESSENTIALS edition of ol' Shell-Head's early adventures, you'll have seen the b&w production stat of TOS #42, misnumbered as #41 and toting the previous issue's cover blurb.

The books ponder how this 'boob' occurred and consider possible explanations - including what I regard as the most obvious one, making me wonder why anyone ever thought it was such a mystery.  Let me elaborate.

Back when I freelanced for IPC/FLEETWAY, I regularly visited the offices of KING'S REACH TOWER and often saw pages of artwork with missing logos - sometimes removed cleanly, or simply cut from (or ripped off) the page.  The logos were photo-mechanical-transfers (referred to as PMTs - oh, behave missus) and were sharp, high-quality images which reproduced well in the printed comics.

Occasionally, however, there might be none available when required, with no time to wait while new ones were printed.  So, as I said, a logo from an old page of artwork was re-used on a new page - problem solved.

What obviously happened in Marvel's case with this ish was something not too dissimilar.  They were fresh out of logos so stuck a copy from a b&w stat of the previous issue onto the cover art for the next issue.  Duplicate stats of the cover would then be made - one for the files and one to be sent for lettering.  (Once that was done, a copy of the finished page would then be made for colouring.)  As Marvel has quite a number of cover file stats which differ from the printed versions, I'm surprised as to why anyone was puzzled by the matter.

Too easy - Columbo, eat your heart out!