Long before Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and other Marvel Comics creators revolutionized the comic book industry with their superhero creations, they drew and wrote a very different type of comic book: monsters.
Martin Goodman, the owner of Atlas Comics (now Marvel Comics) had one philosophy when it came to comic books: make them fast, cheap and follow popular trends.
Editor Stan Lee just that. He wrote Westerns, Crime, Romance, War and whatever other genre was popular with the public for years.
When the country was caught up with the “Red Threat’ of communism Hollywood churned out a plethora of monsters and creatures from outer space movies-a metaphor for the threat of annihilation and paranoia.
Stan Lee, along with his artists: Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Don Heck and a smattering of others churned out monster comic books by the dozens.
Comic book collectors look back with fondness at the pre-Marvel monsters.
Favorites are Fing-Fang-Foom, The Hulk, Groot and many more.
In the Monster Masterworks trade paperback reprint of the classic tales Marvel Comics has compiled the various monster menaces into different categories from space to mystical.
Fans are sure to get a kick out of the crazy names and the stories and early art work from Kirby, Ditko, et al.
Walt Simonson provides the wraparound cover.
Psalm 107:20 (KJV) “He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.”
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