November 1961

November is the month that is traditionally celebrated as the birthday of Marvel Comics because Fantastic Four #1 is cover-dated November 1961. Never mind that most comics and magazines with a November cover date actually came out in August or September back then! Today, though, I'm looking at them from a more historical perspective by seeing what would have shared space on the newsstands alongside FF #1. How would (or wouldn't) the comic stand out to a child viewing the assortment of periodicals that s/he could spend their dime on?

Now, odds are, these didn't all actually share the same newsstand space at the exact same time (distribution being inconsistent back then -- see my post about how FF #1 did NOT come out on August 8!) but I think it is fairly indicative of what a child would've seen in August/September 1961. I've pulled a number of covers from that time period, but I'm sure I've missed quite a few that also came out at that time.

Looking at this grouping in hindsight, I think it's phenomenal that Fantastic Four sold at all. I count no less than 14 covers that feature some kind of giant monster theme. Even Pep here features some space aliens! Granted, Jack Kirby's cover to FF #1 seems to be the most inspired of the monster covers, but even then he's competing with himself on the various monster books that he also drew at the same time: Tales to Astonish, Amazing Adventures, etc.

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