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| Bottom tier, page 3. Copyright MARVEL COMICS |
If you read BARRY PEARL's guest post about the MARVEL METHOD, then you'll be aware of how the 'House of Ideas' produced their comics back in the 1960s. (Perhaps you even knew before reading Barry's article.) However, writing the captions and dialogue after the art had been drawn sometimes resulted in the occasional continuity blip, and this new 'now-and-again' series playfully and affectionately takes a look at some of STAN LEE's howlers - when his script didn't reflect exactly what was happening in the pictures.
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| Top tier, page 4. He could never have made it home that quick |
One example is The AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #13, where PETER PARKER is sitting in a deserted classroom one moment, and mere 'minutes later' is in the kitchen of his AUNT MAY's Forest Hills home. Stan obviously wasn't paying too much attention to the background scenes in the preceding panels (though to be fair, he'd have dialogued them in their pencil form). Had the caption read 'Later, back home...' then there would have been no problem, but Stan's oversight managed to sneak through into print undetected.
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Hardly an earth-shaking revelation, but it just goes to show that even the mighty Stan Lee wasn't exempt from the odd boneheaded boo-boo from time to time. Apart from that, it's a nice little tale, reprinted in the above TRUE BELIEVERS if you'd like to refresh your memory.
I think Marvel once produced a "no-prize" book devoted to famous errors, one of the best being a scene where Captain America tells his opponent Batroc, "Only one of us is gonna walk out that door-- and it won't be me!" He even says this while slugging Batroc, which works to underscore the "huh?" moment.
ReplyDeleteStill, Stan also painted over some blunders. In one FANTASTIC FOUR issue, Kirby drew a scene where Daredevil, his arms pinioned by Mister Fantastic, kicks out against the approaching Thing, and Kirby shows the rocky hero stumbling back. Lee surely knew that an ordinary mortal couldn't even budge the Thing, so he Lee threw in some dialogue asserting that Reed actually zapped Ben with a ray to keep him away, which almost makes as little sense as Kirby's original setup.
I have that very issue, GP, and was planning to use some of its contents in this occasional series. As for the Daredevil and The Thing scene, I'm surprised that Stan didn't simply have DD think "Just as well he was off-balance, or I'd never have been able to budge him!" The same sort of explanation was used in the first Batman/Hulk team-up if I remember correctly.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite Marvel blooper is from a Hulk issue where a pirate (who I think was called Captain Barracuda - with a name like that, piracy was probably the only career open to him) is seen looking through a periscope with his eyepatched eye!
ReplyDeleteYup, that was another in the Marvel 'No-Prize' book (comic), DS. Don't remember ever reading the actual story though.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite blooper appears in Tales of Suspense 74-75. In issue #74 Captain
ReplyDeleteAmerica jumps off the airborne Sleeper and then opens his parachute. The next story
begins right after the jump and there is no parachute! Cap apparently is falling to his death.
I remember that one, Barry, though it's really a 'Kirby Kock-Up' rather than Stan's fault. And again, it was in the Marvel 'No-Prize' book. Hey, this series could run for years.
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