PAUL KUPPERBERG | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Sep05

PAUL KUPPERBERG: Memories of 1966’s MARVEL SUPER HEROES Cartoon Show

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Sep 5, 2026

PAUL KUPPERBERG: Memories of 1966’s MARVEL SUPER HEROES Cartoon Show

A 1966 WEEK PRELUDE: The rigidly animated cult-favorite debuted 60 YEARS AGO… — The Marvel Super Heroes, the House of Ideas’ first foray into screendom, premiered Sept. 5, 1966, so this serves as a prelude to our next big theme event — 1966 WEEK, a 60th anniversary celebration of an extraordinary, landmark year in popular culture. Starting Sunday, we’ll be bringing you a whole host of features on everything from Star Trek, to Batman, to the Beatles, and much, much more. Get ready for it! Far out. — Dan — By PAUL KUPPERBERG And a-one and a-two and a-three… Meet the sulky over-bulky kinda’ hulky superhero Optimistic and electrically transistored superhero An exotically neurotic and aquatic superhero The Marvel Super Heroes have arrived! Super powered from the forehead to the toes Watch them change their very shape before your nose See a cane-striking superhero change to Viking superhero A humdingin’ real swinging shield flinging superhero They’re the latest they’re the greatest ultimatest superheroes The Marvel Super Heroes have arrived! Marvel house ads had alerted fans that the Marvel Super Heroes were on the way, and on September 5, 1966, they arrived on TV screens across the country. The syndicated animated series ran on New York’s Channel 9, WOR-TV, and while they were broadcast in color, I originally saw them on our black-and-white set. It didn’t matter. Because 1966 was shaping up to be a great year for comic book fans! The live-action Batman premiered on ABC-TV on January 12, then we got The Marvel Super Heroes and, five days later, Filmation’s animated New Adventures of Superman on CBS Saturday mornings. Like most Saturday morning fare, The New Adventures of Superman was produced in limited animation, which is a technique that reduces the amount of new artwork and movement in a scene to speed up production and lower costs. The Marvel Super Heroes — produced by Grantray-Lawrence and featuring segments starring Captain America, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and Sub-Mariner — took the idea of limited animation to the extreme. Instead of fully animating newly drawn characters, Grantray-Lawrence photographed or traced panels and artwork directly from the comics and moved individual elements, i.e. an arm or Captain America’s shield hurtling through the air, over stationary backgrounds. The animation was stiff and kind of strange, because unlike anything before or since,...

Aug31

PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite Things About MARVEL COMICS #1

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Aug 31, 2026

PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite Things About MARVEL COMICS #1

The celebrated Mr. K takes a peek inside the landmark comic, which was released 87 years ago on Aug. 31, 1939… — UPDATED 8/31/26: Marvel Comics #1 debuted 87 years ago, on Aug. 31, 1939! Perfect time to reprint this anniversary piece from 2023. Swell! — Dan — By PAUL KUPPERBERG Everybody’s always all, like, “Ohh! Ahh! Oh, Action Comics #1, you’re soooo cool and historically significant!” Meanwhile, there’s Marvel Comics #1, like, standing off in a corner by itself, resentfully muttering, “Action Comics, Schmaction Comics! Big deal! Big shot! I’m historically significant too, ya car tossing showoff!” So, yeah, DC’s Action Comics may have birthed the comic book superhero boom in April 1938, but Timely Publications’ Marvel Comics — which was released roughly a year and a half later, on Aug, 31, 1939 — introduced the first of a new universe of superheroes that would, decades later, take comics and film by storm. It was 87 years ago that schlock pulp publisher Martin Goodman took his first step into the new business of comic books with Marvel Comics #1. Goodman didn’t know he was making history. He was just a guy who followed publishing trends; when Westerns were selling, he put out Western pulps. When romance was hot, he’d did that. Now these new comic books were racking up sales, so it was time to throw his hat into the four-color ring. Goodman turned to comic book packager Lloyd Jacquet’s Funnies, Inc. for the contents of Marvel Comics #1. Funnies, Inc. packaged comics for a lot of the new companies springing up to get in on the craze, including Centaur, Hillman, and Fox, but it was Timely that was on the receiving end of the two best characters to come out of that shop, superheroes who would prove to be both popular and enduring. With a few name changes — first to Marvel Mystery Comics (#2-92) then Marvel Tales when the title shifted from superhero action to horror tales, the book would run 159 issues, until April 1957. Here then, MY 13 FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT MARVEL COMICS #1: — The Cover by Frank Paul. Popular pulp illustrator Frank Paul was tapped to introduce the world to the very first Timely/Marvel hero, the “synthetic man” known as the Human Torch! — “Carl Burgos’ Hot Idea.” A text “interview” with Carl...

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