Here's a story I promised a few days ago. Fantastic Four #128 was an unusual comic book. It had the usual 32 pages plus cover but it also had a four-page "pin-up" section on glossy paper stapled into the center — the only comic Marvel ever published like that. Why would they do such a thing? Here's why…
This issue was published not long after Marvel had upped the price of their comics from 15 cents to 20. There was a wage-price freeze on in this country — this was 1972 — and you couldn't raise the price of a product unless you could show that you were giving more for the money. A fan wrote to the appropriate commission and complained that Marvel had upped the cost of comic books like Fantastic Four.
This led to some government functionary writing to Marvel…and I guess the guy didn't understand that they'd increased the cost of all their comics, not just F.F. But his letter demanded that Marvel demonstrate that Fantastic Four had made some change to justify the increase. In response, the company quickly added the four page section to the next issue. Once it was off the press, they sent a copy to the government functionary along with a fifteen-cent issue that lacked the extra pages…and he was apparently satisfied, even though it was just one issue of one of their comics.
End of problem…and another great example of Your Tax Dollars At Work.
The four page section was pencilled by John Buscema and inked by John Verpoorten. It was done at the time when Buscema had managed, for good or ill, to turn his style into a reasonable facsimile of Jack Kirby. Marvel has used these drawings many times since on merchandise. In fact, the Sub-Mariner illustration is on one of the upcoming Marvel Postal Stamps, which may turn out to be very appropriate.
The U.S. Postal Service is seeking a rate increase that would drive the price of a first class letter up to 42 cents in Spring of 2007, which would probably mean the Marvel stamps would carry it. So a drawing done to avoid a government ban on price increases would appear on a stamp with a government price increase…or something like that. Anyway, you can figure out why it would be appropriate. It just would be, that's all.