Marvel Comics #1

History

Pulp magazine publisher Martin Goodman entered the comic book field in 1939, motivated in large part by the commercial explosion that followed Superman's debut in 1938. Rather than build a creative staff from scratch, Goodman contracted comics packager Funnies, Inc. — run by Lloyd Jacquet — to supply the full writing and artwork for his maiden issue. Jacquet's roster included Carl Burgos and Bill Everett, who had both previously worked at Centaur Publications and followed Jacquet to his new venture. Everett's Sub-Mariner story had actually been drafted earlier that same year for an aborted movie-theater promotional giveaway called Motion Picture Funnies Weekly; when that project collapsed, Everett expanded the original eight-page story by four pages and delivered it to Funnies, Inc. for use in Marvel Comics #1. The cover — depicting a flaming, elf-like figure over a city skyline — was painted by veteran science-fiction pulp artist Frank R. Paul and bore no resemblance to Burgos's interior Human Torch, a discrepancy that has puzzled collectors for decades. The first printing carried an October 1939 cover date and sold out its entire 80,000-copy run; Goodman promptly issued a second printing, identifiable by a blacked-out October date replaced with November 1939, which sold approximately 800,000 copies and confirmed the superhero format as commercially viable.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published on August 31, 1939 (on-sale date), with an October 1939 cover date, by Timely Publications — the predecessor to Marvel Comics.
• First appearance of the android Human Torch (later named Jim Hammond), written and drawn by Carl Burgos (born Max Finkelstein); the character is considered the first Marvel superhero and later served as the physical template for the Avenger the Vision.
• First broadly circulated appearance of Namor the Sub-Mariner, created by Bill Everett; Namor had previously appeared only in the uncirculated promotional comic Motion Picture Funnies Weekly, and Everett expanded that original 8-page story to 12 pages for this issue.
• Namor has been described by comics historians as the first comic book antihero — in his debut he is an enemy of the surface world, motivated by the destruction of his Atlantean people.
• Also includes the first appearances of Paul Gustavson's costumed detective the Angel and Al Anders's Western hero the Masked Raider, plus a comics adaptation of the Ka-Zar pulp prose character (a separate character from the later Marvel hero Kevin Plunder who shares the name).
• The cover painting is by science-fiction pulp illustrator Frank R. Paul; it depicts the Human Torch in a style markedly different from Burgos's interior art.
• The title ran for only this single issue under the name Marvel Comics before being retitled Marvel Mystery Comics with issue #2 (December 1939), a run that continued for 92 issues through June 1949.
• The issue has been reprinted multiple times, including a 50th Anniversary Edition (1990), a 70th Anniversary Edition (2009, with recoloring), an 80th Anniversary Edition (2019), and in the Golden Age Marvel Comics Omnibus Vol. 1 (2009) and Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Marvel Comics Vol. 1 (2011).

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