Fantastic Four Volume 1 1-100

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Fantastic Four Volume 1 1-100

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Legend has it that in 1961, longtime magazine and comic book publisher Martin Goodman was playing golf with rival publisher Jack Liebowitz of DC Comics, a.k.a. National Periodical Publications. Liebowitz, according to the story, bragged about DC's success with the superhero team the Justice League of America, which had debuted in The Brave and the Bold #28 (Feb. 1960) before going on to its own hit title (premiere cover-date: Nov. 1960). Whether or not this mythic meeting actually occurred, Goodman, a publishing trend-follower aware of the JLA's strong sales, directed his comics editor, Stan Lee, to begin publishing a comic-book series about a team of superheroes.

"Martin mentioned that he had noticed one of the titles published by National Comics seemed to be selling better than most", recalled Lee in 1974. "It was a book called The [sic] Justice League of America and it was composed of a team of superheroes. … ' If the Justice League is selling ', spake he, ' why don't we put out a comic book that features a team of superheroes?' "1

Lee, who'd served as editor-in-chief and art director of Marvel and its predecessor companies, Timely Comics and Atlas Comics, for two decades, had by now found the medium restrictive. "[My wife] Joan was commenting about the fact that after 20 years of producing comics I was still writing television material, advertising copy and newspaper features in my spare time. She wondered why I didn't put as much effort and creativity into the comics as I seemed to be putting into my other freelance endeavors. …[H]er little dissertation made me suddenly realize that it was time to start concentrating on what I was doing — to carve a real career for myself in the nowhere world of comic books