Marvel Publishing, Inc. is an American comic book/magazine publishing firm, best known under the name Marvel Comics. Currently owned by the Walt Disney Company, Marvel began life in 1939 under the title Timely Publications and was founded by publisher Martin Goodman. It's first publication under the Timely Comics imprint was Marvel Comics #1, cover date October, 1939, which introduced the Golden-Age character, the Human Torch. Early luminaries of the industry include Human Torch creator Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, creator of the Sub-Mariner, as well as Paul Gustavson, Al Anders, Tohm Dixon and Ray Gill. One of the assistants working for Timely at the time was an eager and ambitious sixteen-year-old named Stanley Martin Lieber. No one at the time realized that this young man would one day become one of the most iconic comic book figureheads of all time. He is known to most by the shortened name, Stan Lee.
Horror[]
Although Marvel had been printing horror stories for years, they had yet to truly carve a definitive niche into the genre. It wasn't until the early 1970s that Marvel began serializing horror-themed titles with recurring characters. 1972 saw the introduction of Marvel's version of the infamous vampire Dracula in the pages of his own magazine Tomb of Dracula, cover-dated April, 1972. Dracula's actual first appearance however was in the seventh story in Suspense #7 entitled "Dracula Lives". This issue was published in March, 1951. Dracula's appearance in Suspense #7 is now considered part of Marvel mainstream continuity as indicated in his profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Horror, 2005. Tomb of Dracula proved to be quite successfull and spawned two black and white magazine spinoffs published by Curtis Magazines entitled Tomb of Dracula and Dracula Lives!. Tomb of Dracula was also revived as a four-issue squarebound deluxe series in 1991 and a standard edition four-issue series in 2004.
Also in 1972, Marvel was publishing an anthology tryout series called Marvel Spotlight. Issue #2 introduced a character named Jack Russell, an eighteen-year-old boy who suffered from the curse of lycanthropy and transformed into a werewolf on the nights of the full moon. Jack Russell was Marvel's answer to Larry Talbot, the infamous Wolf Man of Universal Pictures' fame. Jack's story was serialized in issues #2-4 of Marvel Spotlight, before launching off into his own series later that year, Werewolf by Night.
Immediately following the Jack Russell story-arc in Marvel Spotlight, the series introduced another character who would go on to become one of the most iconic and popular characters in Marvel's horror stable - the Ghost Rider. Ghost Rider was the story of motorcycle stunt performer Johnny Blaze who, in order to save the life of a loved one, makes a deal with the devil - a deal that ultimately yields traumatic consequences for Blaze. Bound to a demon from the pits of Hell, Johnny Blaze tranformed into the Ghost Rider, a nightmarish being with a flaming skull for a head and a motorcycle comprised out of Hellfire. As with Werewolf by Night, the Ghost Rider went on to star in his own comic book series, which ran for 81 issues from 1973 to 1981. The Ghost Rider title was revived in 1990 and introduced a new Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch. This version of the character proved excedingly popular as well and appeared in many horror-based titles as well as guest appearances in dozens of mainstream superhero titles. He even appeared in the short-lived Fantastic Four animated series from the 1990s. This comic series ran for 93 issues from 1990 to 1998. Johnny Blaze was brought back into continuity and shared the spotlight with his successor in the spinoff series Ghost Rider & Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance. Johnny Blaze would eventually resume the mantle of the Ghost Rider himself and was featured in several one-shot specials, miniseries and ongoing titles throughout the 2000s.
The first issue of Ghost Rider's inaugeral title also introduced a character who would become quite well-known in his own right - Daimon Hellstrom, aka, the Son of Satan. Literally, the son of the devil, Daimon Hellstrom rebelled against his demonic nature and tried to use his powers for good. Following his brief, cameo appearances in Ghost Rider, Daimon was the featured character in 14 issues of Marvel Spotlight and had his own short-lived comic book series in the mid-1970s. The Son of Satan would later go on to become a member of the Defenders and was given a new series in the early 1990s under the title Hellstorm.
There were three more important horror figures that came out of the 1970s. In January, 1973, writer Gary Friedrich took on the chores of adapting Mary Shelly's infamous Frankenstein Monster. The Marvel version of the character had actually been introduced in the pages of Uncanny X-Men with issue #40, but Friedrich and genre artist Mike Ploog decided that Shelly's tortured monster deserved the Marvel touch and he was given his own series. The series began life under the title The Monster of Frankenstein, but was changed to The Frankenstein Monster with issue #6. The Frankenstein Monster did not enjoy the longevity of his contemporaries such as Dracula, Werewolf by Night and Ghost Rider however and was discontinued after only eighteen issues. The eponymous Frankenstein Monster however, went on to make sporadic appearances in various Marvel titles including Monsters Unleashed, Marvel Team-Up and Bloodstone.
Marvel's final iconic monster was a character unique to the Marvel Universe and was not inspired by any previous literary works - the Man-Thing. The Man-Thing was originally a scientist named Doctor Ted Sallis, who through an accident of scientist, is transformed into a mindless muck monster, forced to roam the swamps of South Florida. The Man-Thing was created by writers Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway and first brought to artistic life by Gray Morrow in the third story in Savage Tales #1. The Man-Thing served as Marvel's answer to DC's Swamp Thing, which was created by Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson in 1971 in House of Secrets #91. Following Savage Tales, the Man-Thing was given his own serial in the pages of Adventure Into Fear, before spinning-out into his own title. A second Man-Thing title began publication in 1979 and ran for only eleven issues. In the late 1980s, the Man-Thing was against featured in serial format, this time in the weekly anthology series Marvel Comics Presents. Another Man-Thing title was published from 1997-1998 and ran for only eight issues. This spun off into Strange Tales, Volume 3 in which the Man-Thing (affectionately known as "Manny") shared the spotlight with fellow monster Werewolf by Night, late of his own short-lived second volume. Unfortunately, sales proved poor and Strange Tales was cancelled after only two issues.