“Tales of Suspense #86: Iron Man p 11” (February 1967)
by Gene Colan (1926 -2011) and Frank Giacoia (1924-1988)
12.5 x 18.5 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection
After a pitched battle between the Mandarin and Iron Man, Iron Man manages to fight off his foe. As he’s rescuing Happy Hogan from the Mandarin’s soldiers, Iron Man learns that they have altered the course of a test missile being launched in Peking to target the United States.
Fifty years ago!
I’ve got a few pages from comics published in these few months in 1967 that stem from a particular nostalgia. I turned 10 years old in February 1967, and this page was from the Iron Man story in the first issue of Tales of Suspense that I ever bought. And, along with Tales to Astonish #88, the first two Marvel Super-Hero comics I ever read. Suspense featured two independent 12-page stories starring the Iron Man and Captain America, while Astonish featured Sub-Mariner and the Hulk. This two-story strategy was good, I think. For the price of two books, you got to follow four characters. I have pages from Astonish #87 and #89… but not from #88.
Why pick up these books?
During the Fall 1966 TV season, along with the premieres of Star Trek, the animated “Great Pumpkin” Peanuts special and the animated “Grinch” Christmas special (not to mention the January broadcast of the first Batman episode and the summertime appearance of The Beatles on Ed Sullivan), Marvel created four 13-segment animated adaptations of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, and Sub-Mariner. I use “animated” in a loose sense, as these were pastiches of photocopies with limited, often toggled still frames, taken mostly from the published comics. I saw them as they appeared in the late afternoon, five days a week, out of the ABC affiliate in Boston. The bridging segments weren’t hosted by a live action emcee dressed (and in character) as Captain America.
I am pretty sure that these cartoons did more for increasing general interest and awareness in the Marvel Super-Heroes than anything else they ever did. There was also a bubble gum card campaign during 1966.
They certainly got me.
