Saturday Solutions - Marvel Xword Trip

I usually wind up creating new images for the answers to most puzzles of this nature, but i liked the original enough to just try to clean it up to a usable level. The reason being that nice logo they plopped into the Hulk's space -

This week's puzzle came to us from the very first issue of F.O.O.M., back in 1973.
My apologies for not providing time frame for the puzzle yesterday when you were working on it.

puzzle & answers from FOOM # 1 (1973)

Revenge Of The Tooth

Still only marginally functional with half face swollen. So here's some quickies from the sort bin.

Toothache feels like it was drawn by Sienkiewicz (this only works if you know what Asterix typically looks like):

From Buster Crabbe #1's back cover, Frazetta helps stave off juvenile delinquency in 1951:

FOOM #19 had a wrap cover featuring the Defenders. Could you have picked which two would wind up (in hero identity) in the TV version?

This is actually a little old now.

Okay, into the cue and off to severely self medicate.

Sunday Morning Funnies (King Kirby 048)

The worst thing* about no newspaper these days is no Sunday morning funnies! It's Sunday morning (here), so let's have some Jack Kirby related funnies! Wow! I really seem to be excited about that.
Way back in the first issue of FOOM, Marvel's members only fanzine, they ran a star studded parody of the Fantastic Four:

The following month, the quartet returned to play with another familiar Kirby character:

That was the last we saw from the Frantic Four on the parody front. But soon, another would step up. You may remember Charley Parker from The Origin Of King Kirby which we pulled from FOOM #11. In FOOM #4, this ominously appeared:

It wasn't until issue #8 that the Doctor made his true debut:

Dr. FOOM returned in #9...

...and in #10, we got not only Dr. FOOM And Captain Applepie, but the Eggsmen, too:

The following issue was the big Kirby Returns celebration with the Origin story we already looked at. After that, i never saw Charley Parker again that i recall. I wonder where he went? A mystery for another day...

Meanwhile, here's the grooviest parody of a Kirby character that i remember coming out of FOOM:

My favorite Kirby comedy comics, however, are of a decidedly different vein. And both come from the same person, Roger Langridge -

I wonder if he's done more?

To wrap up our Sunday Morning Funnies, let's go back to Marvel.  After Not Brand Echh went under, Marvel eventually realized that they were competing against black & white newstand magazines, so maybe they should try that instead - and so Crazy was born. (Crazy was the next synonym on the list after Mad and Cracked, you see) In #82 in '82, Jack Kirby parodied by Jack Kirby, with poor Mark Bilgrey begging the man not to take revenge upon him:

various comics by Roy Thomas, Len Brown, Gil Kane, Wally Wood, Charley Parker, Roger Langridge, Marc Bilgrey, and Jack Kirby with Steve Ditko(sweet!) from FOOM #s 1,2,4,8,9, & 10, Internet, and Crazy #82 (1973-5,????,1982)

===
*(Y'know - aside from that whole collapse of local news and absorption into conglomerate structures undermining basic functions needed for the survival of a healthy republic, leading to the diminishment and eventual destruction of a free society thing.)

FOOM Tube (King Kirby 020)

Let's look back once again at FOOM #11. It's 1975 and The King has returned to Marvel. For Marvel fans, there could be no better reason to rejoice.
And so issue #11 of Marvel's members-only fan magazine was dedicated to celebrating the fact that-

"Jack" Byrne, of course, is John Byrne aping Jack Kirby for this special cover, with long time Kirby embellisher Joe Sinnott on inks. We previously looked at Charley Parker's Origin Of King Kirby from this issue. This time, let's hear from Jack Kirby himself. Here's the lead interview from FOOM #11 in full page layout format to show the way they played with word balloons for the article quotes:

cover & article from FOOM #11 (1975)

The Origin Of King Kirby v.F11 (King Kirby 003)

 The year was 1975. Jack Kirby had just won the Academy of Comic Book Arts Hall of Fame Award and was returning to Marvel comics. Marvelites rejoiced, and the members only fan magazine FOOM dedicated an issue to celebrate the Return of  The King. FOOM #11 featured a John Byrne aping Jack Kirby cover (with Joe Sinnott's inks) that we'll come back to take a look at, along with other parts of the issue.
Right now, let's just concern ourselves with beginnings. Here's Charley Parker's behind-the-scenes secrets-revealed Origin of King Kirby:

And now you know.

The Origin of King Kirby by Charley Parker from FOOM #11 (1975)

Marvelite Memories Maximus, Son

Back in the very first issue of FOOM (the official Marvel members-only fanzine) they initiated a new feature, though they had yet to name it Bullpen Bios. I present that page here in full that you may enjoy Stan Lee's bombastic hyperbole in his bio, and for us old geezers, a bit of what John Buscema was doing before he burst onto the late 60s Marvel comics scene. (It was the late 60s - of course it was a 'scene'!)
While reading that introductory word balloon, keep in mind - this is the very first issue.

Notice that to inaugurate this feature, they chose what they thought were the most important figures to introduce - the guys writing & drawing the Fantastic Four - emphasized by using the FF to introduce the feature. They are, after all, the First Family of Marvel Comics. Their adventures form the very core of that universe, both on and off planet Earth.

They are obviously the most important part of the Marvel Comics Universe.

Sure wish the decision makers at Marvel Comics could get their diapers changed and remember that.

(Yeah, yeah. I know. Imitating Snell again. But when the man's right, he's right!)

Page 3 boys from FOOM #1 (1973)

Friday Fun & Games #001

I decided that some regular features will likely help build & maintain my dedication to posting on some sort of regular basis, and not sure i'm cut out for the Friday Night Fights circuit. What to do... what to do?

Well, you probably figured out before this point that Friday Fun & Games is the answer for now. Old bits of silliness from ancient* comics & magazines. There's lots of things to pull from - crosswords, word searches, mazes (they LOVED mazes), jumbles, anacrostics, silly games, and things with no names. Puzzles & Games ran in FOOM, in Amazing World Of DC Comics, in genre magazines and specialty publications of all sorts. The original artwork for today's logo comes from the cover of Marvel Superhero Puzzles And Games from General Mills (Free when you buy any two of Trix, Lucky Charms, Boo Berry, Count Chocula, Franken Berry, or Cocoa Puffs)
Even Marvel got into the game, publishing their own Fun & Games Magazine back in '79 that ran for at least a year, according to my stacks. I know there's lots of material, so time to start mining.

Today's will be real simple since the notion just bloomed and not a lot of prep time if i want to keep the name. A lot of those old puzzles are going to need some serious cleaning. Especially since i was an egotistical little bastard and tended to do puzzles with a ball point pen. We're going to go with a F.O.O.M. for our first, in keeping with yesterday's cover. There's a nice Hulk crossword puzzle in #1 that's going to need major cleaning, so we'll jump to FOOM #3 (1973) and pull a bit silly little monitor destroying Fill-In Puzzle:

For those of you who don't wish to take a marker to your monitors, another new feature is in the offing:
Saturday Solutions!



*(In an age of internet time scales, ancient becomes a rather fluid term. I'm splashing here.)

Greatest Covers You've Never Seen #001

A publication that covers comics and media ought to start with a cover, no?
I say, "Yes!"
I say. "Let's steal a feature from the guy who inspired me to start this thing! If Snell can keep going with Slay, Monstrobot of the Deep! for 10 damn years, maybe i can manage a post now and then." (Yeah, my ambitions bar has been set pretty low these days)
And so the title to this post, lifted directly from the Kalamazoo Kid. We'll call it an homage. A tribute. (no lie)

And for our first entry, a cover most never had the chance to see - from FOOM #17 (1977).
F.O.O.M., for you younger critters, was the primordial spawning ground of Marvel Zombies. A secret cult (well advertised secret cult, mind you) of hidden information, arcane knowledge, and peeks at the wizard behind the curtain. 40 years ago. long before the internet stepped up to sub for the UFP Civilian Database, FOOM was there. (Don't start on the MMMS, tweren't the same)
F.O.O.M. - Friends Of Old Marvel. after 4 decades and change, it's probably okay to let other take a look, right? I don't have to worry about hordes of A.I.M.* swarming in the night to carry me off to some secret lab any more. I hope not. It would screw with my current laboratory subject schedule...

*(Aggressive Idealist Marvelites)

Hmmm-what?
Stop babbling and show the damn cover?
Fair 'nuf:

This beauty was painted by Arnold Sawyer back in 1977 (76?), apparently referencing advertising photos from Stan's book, Origins Of Marvel Comics. It may have been a decade and more after i started reading comics, but THIS is the Stan Lee making all those cameos in my head. And, y'know ... it even could be used to support that Watcher theory.

In theory, you can click for that prettier view. But this is the first post, and the Universe loves to laugh.

(Bonus points if you can identify the hat when picking out all the characters used in this Composite TheMan painting.)