I can't express how much I love old Marvel. You had the feeling that they weren't this indistructible international empire, but rather a comic book printer.
Does the old Marvel opening song live rent free in anyone else's head? It regularly bubbles up to the surface for me and I used to often sing the "he's a sulky, over-bulky, kinda hulky superhero..." line to my aging dog :D
I get a 49-cent coupon?! Sign me right the f_&% up! Those FOOM magazines really are sharp-looking though. I thoroughly enjoyed this -- so stand a little straighter, walk a little prouder; I'll be right here being exotically neurotic and perhaps aquatic too. ;) Thanks millions, Mr. SBP sir.
My fav line about the voices of marvel comes from Kirby: "The scene was followed by a theme song, “The Merry Marvel Marching Song,” performed by a marching band and choir. Notably absent from the record was Ditko, who declined to participate-as Kirby put it in his recounting of the incident, “Steve was much smarter than we were about those things.” " -True Believer: Andrew Rileman
It probably was Kirby's typical cynicism, as he seemed to find a lot of fan behavior overwhelming, meanwhile Lee seemed to enjoy fan behavior, as according to Bill Griffith, He was proud of the fact that superhero stories were popular. Meanwhile Ditko didn't seem to see the point in it, he seemed to be someone who enjoyed his privacy too much, which is a contrast not only to Lee but also Kirby, as Jack was known to enjoy attention and praise, just not in the same way as Stan.
In One Piece Eiichiro Oda that while on a very smaller scale has the same feeling. It called The SBS which in english is called I’m Taking Questions it has a similar feeling to what these were like.
Lieber was known ti have a far slower writing process in comparison. This is known because unlike Lee or other Marvel writers and artists, Larry wrote full scripts. It's possible Larry was working on a script at the moment and he probably wanted to finish it.
Born in 76, a child squarely of the 80s, the Marvel my father grew up with fascinated me. He had a few small boxes of all Marvel’s first books (I sold X-men number one to a local shop for less than 100 dollars for money to buy new books in the early 90s…one of my life’s greatest regrets still) some Marching Society gear and 3-4 black light posters. I think what hooked me was the vision Stan crafted…the lore around the office itself. Feeling some proto-parasocial relationship with Flo Steinberg was just a bit left of center for a kid in my neck of the South at the time. When other kids were playing ball (take your pick) I could usually be found nearby waiting for my friends to finish reading Sgt Fury, or one of the great 2 hero splits of the 60s like Tales to Astonish. The smell of the old paper was intoxicating. My dad eventually found me with his books and was pretty gracious considering the value of them even at the time. I was the one who, after all, put them in bags and boards…even if I shoved them into old binders and carried them around in the steam of the late Louisiana summer. He tried to ween me off his old stash and onto newer book. Stans’ publishing propaganda sold me squarely on the silver, and later, golden age of books, due to my exposure to his era of the hobby at the critical moments when I was learning to read and use a pencil. I remain hooked on them still. (And admittedly an aggravating alliterative tick has been hard to kick out of my own personal writing.). -MMM!JDC.
This was a wonderful look at a bygone era. I'm a sucker for everything behind the scenes of Marvel and DC, so this was right in my wheelhouse. The recordings were the perfect icing on the cake for this video. Keep up the good work.
The Marvel Fandom is a really interesting topic, as it could easily be argued that it helped promoting Superhero Comics as a medium. Without it, i think there wouldn't be that many superhero fans nowadays. Great Video as always.
Nice video - some great visual designs you've put together. Dumb comment: I've never heard "decal" pronounced as you do it. I've always thought it was more like two words, "dee cal" with the "cal" sounding like the one in "low cal" salad dressing rather than smushed up together like "fecal."
I wonder if it's a regional thing. Because, in my life I've only heard it pronounced as I do in the video. However, on TV or other videos I've heard dee-cal. I just went with how I've always heard, even though I'm aware there's another pronunciation.
@@StrangeBrainParts It's definitely not a situation where I feel so confident of the way I do it as to say anyone else is wrong... I can't remember the last time I've spoken with anyone about them!
This is one of your best yet. As someone who would've been too young to experience this as it happened, this is a wonderful piece of history. Thank you SBP!
I wonder if anyone has ever been to "CAPTAIN AMERICA'S" in Ireland? It's a legitimately licenced restaurant since the 70's, even bands like U2 performed there when they first started out. There's 2 in Dublin, the original on Grafften ST, one in Talllagh, and one in Cork.
I've been there once or twice actually. As a kid I was confused as to why there was a Captain America themed restaurant in Ireland before that character had broken into the mainstream. Didn't know it's been around that long.
FOOM ended just as a young 7 year old Owl was getting into Marvel Comics but I did subscribe to Marvel Age for a while in the 80s. That was nothing more than an expanded Bullpen Bulletins but it was fun. Thanks for including copies of the old records. They are a great time capsule to an exciting time in comic book history
From Fantastic Four to Stripperella it's amazing how time... It's a stark reminder of how an artist can go from being way ahead of their time to far behind it. Few escape this, with Salman Rushdie Tom Waits Johnny Cash Leonard Cohen and John Irving being the few I can think of off the top of my head
The Fantastic Four was Jack Kirby’s continuation of his Challengers of the Unknown. Part of the package he spent 1959 - 1961 trying to convince Martin Goodman to bring back superheroes. Lee was in the building.
It was pretty short-lived, but another attempt at corporate-sponsored Marvel fandom was Wild Agents of Marvel (WAM!) from 1991 or so. I've seen som eof the stuff they offered at conventions.
The end of FOOM and the beginning of the Shooter era felt like the end of the “classic” Marvel. Don’t get me wrong, loved the Shooter years, but you could definitely feel a tonal shift happening.
I never cared for Jim Shooter's edict to minimize continued stories at Marvel, where each issue related to a previous issue; that was the big tonal shift in the monthly titles. Shooter wanted to follow the DC model of a stand-alone story, believing it made the comic more accessible to a new reader.
@@StrangeBrainParts Hi Strange. I have an interesting idea for a video. I found out that Joe Simon claimed a lot of times he was the one created Captain America completely on his own and contradicting Kirby's statements. Comic Book Historian Daniel Best has an article on the topic on his substack account. I think it would be an interesting topic for an eternal debate video, as the Simon/Kirby relationship is usually ignored by many and I feel it's an underrated topic.
Great vid/mini doc! I had heard of FOOM before but I never even thought of what it stood for. I picked up that Marvel Age 1 when that came out in the 80's.
Well, whatever you can say about Stan, he was a good showman and promoter, and he was legitimately promoting comic books in general as was specifically Marvel comics. And Face Front True Believers, because Stan was including you! Anyway, DC did some similar things from time to time, including a short-lived club, The DC Super-Stars Society, and the fairly well produced Amazing World of DC Comics zine. It would be interesting to see what you came come up with on those. And for that matter, the Charlton Bullseye fanzine was pretty well done, too.
I love that you point out that Stan has good points and his bad points. I loved the guy but I hate hypocrisy. When he hosted "Who wants to be a superhero?' on syfy he dressed down Major Victory for having been a stripogram guy, while sitting in front of a framed picture of Stripperella. Then on Season 2 he busts on one of the guys for connecting with kid in a classroom for having a name that makes people laugh. The actors last name was Stork. Huge spiel about maintaining your secret ID. As I watched I ad libbed back to the screen " But I had lunch with Reed, Sue and Ben and they didn't think it was that big a deal." Then of course Iron Man debuted on big screens a few years later. :)
As a kid I never understood who the hyped-up creators at Marvel were. Stan's Soapbox was a confusing, stream of conscious ramble that gave each "personality" a colorful nickname but not much else. Seems I should have sprung for a subscription to FOOM.
Jack Kirby did the same thing too. He claimed he came up with the idea of the Hulk after seeing a case of hysterical strenght, which is a lie because the Hulk only transformed at night at first and the first time he transformed out of rage was in a story made By Stan Lee and Dick Ayers. Kirby also claimed he was the one who came up with the idea of the X-men but there was an Amazing Adult Fantasy story made a year earlier by Lee and Ditko that was clearly an X-men prototype, as the story is about a young mutany who discovers his powers, is discriminated because of it and is guided to a safe heaven by a telephatic mutant teacher who dreams that one day humanity and mutants will live together in peace.
In regards to Martin Goodman, I have surmised and deduced (with absolutely no research) the Ditko and Kirby left because there were promises of profit sharing that never materialized. Ditko left earlier because of his Ayn Rand influences.
I always viewed him like a boss , new one same as the old one…I had heard that song by then too, I came in a couple years before Image but I knew he wasn’t anyone to associate with just from those campy how-to videos before his biggest stars ditched him and his company’s shystie ways. His life’s end speaks volumes.
Stan definitely had a touch of that P.T. Barnum-type showmanship. He was one of those great personalities who helped shape 20th Century pop culture; guys like William Gaines, Al Feldstein, Forrest Ackerman, William Castle, etc...
I can't express how much I love old Marvel. You had the feeling that they weren't this indistructible international empire, but rather a comic book printer.
Yep, pre Disney marvel was great. I miss this marvel.
Make my marvel
Face front, true believers!
@@TitularHeroineyes sir
@@TitularHeroine Excelsior!
I know this feeling so much
Proud member of the Mighty Marvel Marching Society right here!
Legend right here
@@amanzeihediohanuff said.
Does the old Marvel opening song live rent free in anyone else's head? It regularly bubbles up to the surface for me and I used to often sing the "he's a sulky, over-bulky, kinda hulky superhero..." line to my aging dog :D
The Merry Marvel Marching Society song is the one that sticks in my head
That Steranko Hulk is beautiful.
That record is a treasure! Thanks so much for tracking it down and uploading it.
Love whenever these topics are covered, sometimes the history is more fascinating, and harder to find, than individual stories.
I get a 49-cent coupon?! Sign me right the f_&% up!
Those FOOM magazines really are sharp-looking though.
I thoroughly enjoyed this -- so stand a little straighter, walk a little prouder; I'll be right here being exotically neurotic and perhaps aquatic too. ;) Thanks millions, Mr. SBP sir.
I think exotically neurotic might have been a better fit than the actual line in the song. :)
@@StrangeBrainParts Ha! Added to the to-do list
My fav line about the voices of marvel comes from Kirby:
"The scene was followed by a theme song, “The Merry Marvel Marching Song,” performed by a marching band and choir. Notably absent from the record was Ditko, who declined to participate-as Kirby put it in his recounting of the incident, “Steve was much smarter than we were about those things.” "
-True Believer: Andrew Rileman
It probably was Kirby's typical cynicism, as he seemed to find a lot of fan behavior overwhelming, meanwhile Lee seemed to enjoy fan behavior, as according to Bill Griffith, He was proud of the fact that superhero stories were popular. Meanwhile Ditko didn't seem to see the point in it, he seemed to be someone who enjoyed his privacy too much, which is a contrast not only to Lee but also Kirby, as Jack was known to enjoy attention and praise, just not in the same way as Stan.
Always take what Kirby said with a grain of salt. You never knew which was truth and which was fictional.
@@vivalarazausarmyvet4453 we know for a fact ditko refused likely because he has consistently hated fandom and fanboys
In One Piece Eiichiro Oda that while on a very smaller scale has the same feeling. It called The SBS which in english is called I’m Taking Questions it has a similar feeling to what these were like.
This is very cool. I was a FOOM member with the subscription back in the 70s. Never heard these recordings tho I'd heard about them!
Love the old New York accents. Reminds me of how people sounded when I was a kid.
I love hearing Jack Kirby, his voice exudes that strength of character and warmth he always projects in his art.
20:17 No Larry Lieber? Guess Stan couldn't talk his brother into appearing on the album.
Lieber was known ti have a far slower writing process in comparison. This is known because unlike Lee or other Marvel writers and artists, Larry wrote full scripts. It's possible Larry was working on a script at the moment and he probably wanted to finish it.
Born in 76, a child squarely of the 80s, the Marvel my father grew up with fascinated me. He had a few small boxes of all Marvel’s first books (I sold X-men number one to a local shop for less than 100 dollars for money to buy new books in the early 90s…one of my life’s greatest regrets still) some Marching Society gear and 3-4 black light posters. I think what hooked me was the vision Stan crafted…the lore around the office itself. Feeling some proto-parasocial relationship with Flo Steinberg was just a bit left of center for a kid in my neck of the South at the time. When other kids were playing ball (take your pick) I could usually be found nearby waiting for my friends to finish reading Sgt Fury, or one of the great 2 hero splits of the 60s like Tales to Astonish. The smell of the old paper was intoxicating. My dad eventually found me with his books and was pretty gracious considering the value of them even at the time. I was the one who, after all, put them in bags and boards…even if I shoved them into old binders and carried them around in the steam of the late Louisiana summer. He tried to ween me off his old stash and onto newer book. Stans’ publishing propaganda sold me squarely on the silver, and later, golden age of books, due to my exposure to his era of the hobby at the critical moments when I was learning to read and use a pencil. I remain hooked on them still. (And admittedly an aggravating alliterative tick has been hard to kick out of my own personal writing.). -MMM!JDC.
This was a wonderful look at a bygone era. I'm a sucker for everything behind the scenes of Marvel and DC, so this was right in my wheelhouse. The recordings were the perfect icing on the cake for this video. Keep up the good work.
The Marvel Fandom is a really interesting topic, as it could easily be argued that it helped promoting Superhero Comics as a medium. Without it, i think there wouldn't be that many superhero fans nowadays. Great Video as always.
Nice video - some great visual designs you've put together. Dumb comment: I've never heard "decal" pronounced as you do it. I've always thought it was more like two words, "dee cal" with the "cal" sounding like the one in "low cal" salad dressing rather than smushed up together like "fecal."
I wonder if it's a regional thing. Because, in my life I've only heard it pronounced as I do in the video. However, on TV or other videos I've heard dee-cal. I just went with how I've always heard, even though I'm aware there's another pronunciation.
Do you pronounce "fecal" like "feckle?"
Nope. And I also don't pronounce bagel like bag-el.
@@StrangeBrainParts It's definitely not a situation where I feel so confident of the way I do it as to say anyone else is wrong... I can't remember the last time I've spoken with anyone about them!
@@StrangeBrainParts 😂😂 🤦♀️
This is one of your best yet. As someone who would've been too young to experience this as it happened, this is a wonderful piece of history.
Thank you SBP!
You're very welcome! Thanks for watching.
I always felt like Flo Steinberg was dreamy.
I've heard that she was the inspiration for Betty Brant
I wonder if anyone has ever been to "CAPTAIN AMERICA'S" in Ireland? It's a legitimately licenced restaurant since the 70's, even bands like U2 performed there when they first started out. There's 2 in Dublin, the original on Grafften ST, one in Talllagh, and one in Cork.
I've been there once or twice actually. As a kid I was confused as to why there was a Captain America themed restaurant in Ireland before that character had broken into the mainstream.
Didn't know it's been around that long.
Very Meta...I always wanted a No Prize.
FOOM ended just as a young 7 year old Owl was getting into Marvel Comics but I did subscribe to Marvel Age for a while in the 80s. That was nothing more than an expanded Bullpen Bulletins but it was fun. Thanks for including copies of the old records. They are a great time capsule to an exciting time in comic book history
From Fantastic Four to Stripperella it's amazing how time... It's a stark reminder of how an artist can go from being way ahead of their time to far behind it.
Few escape this, with Salman Rushdie Tom Waits Johnny Cash Leonard Cohen and John Irving being the few I can think of off the top of my head
The story of Caliban, Sycorax, and Setebos (from The Tempest) still seems incredibly modern to me. I would add Mobius too.
The Fantastic Four was Jack Kirby’s continuation of his Challengers of the Unknown. Part of the package he spent 1959 - 1961 trying to convince Martin Goodman to bring back superheroes. Lee was in the building.
It was pretty short-lived, but another attempt at corporate-sponsored Marvel fandom was Wild Agents of Marvel (WAM!) from 1991 or so. I've seen som eof the stuff they offered at conventions.
The end of FOOM and the beginning of the Shooter era felt like the end of the “classic” Marvel. Don’t get me wrong, loved the Shooter years, but you could definitely feel a tonal shift happening.
I never cared for Jim Shooter's edict to minimize continued stories at Marvel, where each issue related to a previous issue; that was the big tonal shift in the monthly titles.
Shooter wanted to follow the DC model of a stand-alone story, believing it made the comic more accessible to a new reader.
15:45 This is pure gold.
Love your vids, heres a comment for the algorithm
Thank you, muchly!
@@StrangeBrainParts Hi Strange. I have an interesting idea for a video. I found out that Joe Simon claimed a lot of times he was the one created Captain America completely on his own and contradicting Kirby's statements. Comic Book Historian Daniel Best has an article on the topic on his substack account. I think it would be an interesting topic for an eternal debate video, as the Simon/Kirby relationship is usually ignored by many and I feel it's an underrated topic.
I absolutely adore Flo Steinberg and Jack Kirby accents.
Yeah, Flo's voice is so darn cute!
Aa a younger fan stuff like FOOM and all that cute merch feels like a dream
You know what's weird? This is probably the very first time that i have heard Jack kirby and stan lee talking weird, right
I love these types of videos! Exploring the history and evolution of comics and the culture surrounded
Aw darn, the opening got copyright claimed.
Oh, decals.
This was nostalgic bliss!!!
Very good, thanks!
Great work, again! Love this channel.
Great vid/mini doc! I had heard of FOOM before but I never even thought of what it stood for. I picked up that Marvel Age 1 when that came out in the 80's.
Wait, so they basically made podcasts on vinly?!
Well, whatever you can say about Stan, he was a good showman and promoter, and he was legitimately promoting comic books in general as was specifically Marvel comics. And Face Front True Believers, because Stan was including you!
Anyway, DC did some similar things from time to time, including a short-lived club, The DC Super-Stars Society, and the fairly well produced Amazing World of DC Comics zine. It would be interesting to see what you came come up with on those.
And for that matter, the Charlton Bullseye fanzine was pretty well done, too.
I can just imagine a kid in 1965 after listening to the Marvel song asks one of their parents 'what does erotic mean?'
Back when marvel gave an actual damn about fans.
Now. All they do is kill fan favorite characters like hank Mc coy and call it edgy and gritty.
I love that you point out that Stan has good points and his bad points. I loved the guy but I hate hypocrisy. When he hosted "Who wants to be a superhero?' on syfy he dressed down Major Victory for having been a stripogram guy, while sitting in front of a framed picture of Stripperella. Then on Season 2 he busts on one of the guys for connecting with kid in a classroom for having a name that makes people laugh. The actors last name was Stork. Huge spiel about maintaining your secret ID. As I watched I ad libbed back to the screen " But I had lunch with Reed, Sue and Ben and they didn't think it was that big a deal." Then of course Iron Man debuted on big screens a few years later. :)
very interesting video, thanks
As a kid I never understood who the hyped-up creators at Marvel were. Stan's Soapbox was a confusing, stream of conscious ramble that gave each "personality" a colorful nickname but not much else. Seems I should have sprung for a subscription to FOOM.
I’ve just been reading a retrospective about Wally Wood, and it was great to hear his voice. I never think of him as a Marvel artist.
Solid video
5 decals for the algorithm
"Every reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to an excess, that itself will need reforming."
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Stan Lee also excelled at claiming he created everything
Jack Kirby did the same thing too. He claimed he came up with the idea of the Hulk after seeing a case of hysterical strenght, which is a lie because the Hulk only transformed at night at first and the first time he transformed out of rage was in a story made By Stan Lee and Dick Ayers. Kirby also claimed he was the one who came up with the idea of the X-men but there was an Amazing Adult Fantasy story made a year earlier by Lee and Ditko that was clearly an X-men prototype, as the story is about a young mutany who discovers his powers, is discriminated because of it and is guided to a safe heaven by a telephatic mutant teacher who dreams that one day humanity and mutants will live together in peace.
@@RodrigoGarcia-ze5em there is also the claim that the X-men were a copy of Doom Patrol
7:14 That might have been decals ?
In regards to Martin Goodman, I have surmised and deduced (with absolutely no research) the Ditko and Kirby left because there were promises of profit sharing that never materialized. Ditko left earlier because of his Ayn Rand influences.
An apt thumbnail.
Al Gore Rhythm.
What about Wild Agents of Marvel? I still have my WAM kit!
What about Pizazz ? That was only a magazine not persay a Fan club one ?
Good video. Thank you.
Nuff said!
I always viewed him like a boss , new one same as the old one…I had heard that song by then too, I came in a couple years before Image but I knew he wasn’t anyone to associate with just from those campy how-to videos before his biggest stars ditched him and his company’s shystie ways. His life’s end speaks volumes.
What about the MARVEL ZOMBIES - the fan club from the early 1990s?
I love there accents. You don't hear them in media anymore. Or at least I don't.
Oh man. I couldn't make it through the Scream Along at the end. Did the fans enjoy that record when they first listened to that?
Theme to The Marvel Superheroes TV show. Another world.
Now I'm thinking of that song that exploded Martian brains in Mars Attacks😂
Stan definitely had a touch of that P.T. Barnum-type showmanship.
He was one of those great personalities who helped shape 20th Century pop culture; guys like William Gaines, Al Feldstein, Forrest Ackerman, William Castle, etc...
I was a member of FOOM.
I was a member of foom! 😇
The recording is funny at first, and the longer it goes on, it just gets more and more cringe lol
Hail Forbushman
Can anyone count on one hand how many times marvel has been up for sale in the past 60 years before Disney
I think it was twice. Once in 1968 and then again in 1985, or thereabouts.
@@StrangeBrainParts ok thanks
What about Toy Biz? Wasn't that the 90s sale?
Is "deckle" the common Canadian pronunciation for decal?
Yes.
Deckle
What's a dekkle?
What’s with the voice alteration? I much preferred the original, there’s nuance missing. Still well researched and an interesting take though.
Voice alteration? There are no effects.
Dee-cals