(Introduction by LL

When I decided to do this survey of serial stories, I knew I’d need to include comic books. As far as printed media goes, they carry the torch. I remembered back when comics consisted largely of eight-page stories, and, vaguely, when Marvel started to do two-parters, then three-parters, and cross-overs. But I knew I didn’t know enough to actually write the piece; I got rid of my Marvels ages ago. So I asked Tom Mason, of Comix411 and comic and animation professional,  if he would root around and summarize the notion of the continued story in comic books. Did I say I didn’t know enough to write the piece? Turns out, I knew even less than that! Tom reached back to the very earliest days of comics, and then….well, experience his meticulous attention to detail for yourself. It is so thorough that I had to break it into two parts, because there is evidently a limit to how many words can be in a WordPress blog. But believe me, if Jeopardy ever has a Continued Stories in Comic Books category, you’re gonna be able to run the board. And it even makes me want to go back and read comic books again, which is a superheroic feat in itself.)

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By Tom K. Mason

To be or not to be continued! That is the question that’s dominated comics for more than 60 years.

Comic books essentially began as a way to repackage newspaper comic strips, many of which were serialized to begin with. But comics quickly evolved as companies began producing original material and pushing the reprints off the page.

National Allied Publications, the company that would eventually become DC Comics, got the ball rolling in 1935 with the publication of New Fun #1. There were several continued strips in the early issues of the title, including “Don Nogales, Cattle Rustler,” “The Gavonian Affair” and an adaptation of Sir Walter Scott’s public domain classic novel “Ivanhoe.”

New Fun Comics became More Fun Comics with issue #9 (1936). Subsequent issues featured a variety of continued features based around adventure themes straight out of the pulps: stories about cops, pilots, crime-fighters, cowboys, explorers, pirates and ubiquitous “men of adventure.” Features had two-fisted names like Wing Brady, The Buccaneer, Cal n’ Alec, Marg’ry Daw, Lt. Bob Neal, and Biff Bronson.
DC can lay claim to the first two-part super-hero story in comic books, since it took place with the very first appearance of Superman by creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in Action Comics #1 (June 1938). According to Comics Historian Robert Greenberger (author of The Essential Batman Encyclopedia and the upcoming The Essential Superman Encyclopedia), “That’s because the Superman story in Action #1 was really just the repurposed comic strip that Siegel and Shuster had been pitching and it was too long for one issue.”

In those days, Greenberger adds, “no feature ran more than 10-15 pages” in what were then 64-page comics. The story in Action #1 ends with Superman and the man he’s carrying appearing to fall from the air. The story promises to continue in the next issue.

Action Comics #1 also had two other continued stories: a western adventure featuring Chuck Dawson and The Adventures of Marco Polo.
The next two-parter for Superman came a little later with the Ultra-Humanite in a series of stories from Action #13-14 and then again in #19-21 although, according to Greenberger, “they were more a series of encounters” than a classic two-part story. Greenberger says, “The Ultra-Humanite was quickly dropped when Lex Luthor was introduced” in Action Comics #23 (April 1940).

Greenberger also points out that Superman’s counterpart, Batman, who debuted in Detective Comics #27 (May 1939), “had his first two-part adventure fairly early as well. In Detective Comics #31-32 (September-October 1939), writer Gardner Fox had Batman fight the vampiric Monk.” Issue #31 was also the first appearance of both the Batgyro and the Batarang.

DC’s spookiest character, The Spectre, was spooky because he was dead. He debuted in More Fun Comics #52 (February 1940). Written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and illustrated by Bernard Baily, it was a two-part story that concluded in #53.

DC’s All-Star Comics debuted in Summer 1940 and in All-Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940-41), the Justice Society of America debuted with their own version of a continued story. According to Diamond Galleries’ Mike Wilbur, most comic books of the era were 64-page anthologies that featured 6-8 smaller stories, each with different and unrelated characters.

“What All-Star did was alter that formula,” Wilbur says. “The first story was a set-up (menace introduced, team meets to strategize), then the 4-6 stories in the middle involved subdivisions of the team with each pursuing different aspects of the menace, and the final installment bringing all the subplots and the team together for the big finale.” They were “continued stories” in the literal sense, but everything was still wrapped up in one issue.

However, in All-Star Comics #8 (December/January 1941-1942) DC Comics tried its hand with a continued story featuring their newest character, Wonder Woman, the Amazon warrior, created by the infamous bondage fan William Moulton Marston and illustrated by Harry Peter. Wonder Woman’s origin was a continued story that also could be considered groundbreaking at the time: the two parts appeared in two different titles.
Wonder Woman was introduced in All-Star Comics #8 in a back-up story that kicks off when Steve Trevor’s plane crash-lands on the Amazonian homeland, Paradise Island. Princess Diana learns of Steve’s role in fighting the Nazis (the comic book uber-villains of the 1940s), and puts on the Wonder Woman costume because “American Liberty and Freedom must be preserved.” Diana is chosen to return the unconscious Trevor to the U.S.

The story concluded the following month in Sensation Comics #1 (January 1942) where Wonder Woman does indeed bring back Steve and starts pursuing not just the usual 1940s assortment of bank robbers, Nazis and fascists, but also the earnest Trevor. Unfortunately, Trevor much prefers the costumed super-heroine over her plain secret identity of Diana Prince, a twist that would dominate super-hero comics for decades: normal men and women loving the costumed heroes in their town while ignoring the humans inside who long to be loved. Wonder Woman’s debut, however, looks more like a marketing attempt to launch a new character in a new title, rather than a concerted effort to start telling continued stories.

In 1940, Timely Publications (the company that would eventually evolve into Marvel Comics) got into the act with a title actually called Marvel Comics. Since Marvel Comics #1 (October 1939), the monthly comic (which became Marvel Mystery Comics with the second issue in December) had featured separate and unconnected stories starring Namor, The Sub-Mariner by Bill Everett and The Human Torch by Carl Burgos.

In an effort to drive sales, the two creators and publisher Martin Goodman created one of the major marketing tools of the modern comic book industry: the crossover. It was also a continued story. The Namor and Human Torch event also set the groundwork for what would become the Marvel Universe by declaring that the two characters (who existed previously in separate stories) actually were part of the same universe. The story began in Marvel Mystery Comics #8 (June 1940), plotted by Everett and Burgos and scripted by John Compton and Hank Chapman. Namor and The Human Torch not only appeared together, and fought each other, but the story was spread out over three consecutive issues. Unfortunately, for anyone wagering on the slugfest, the battle ended in a tie. Writing in his book “Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics,” Les Daniels claims that Timely was afraid of angering fans of the loser by declaring a winner.

In April 1943, Timely was at it again with a two-part Captain America story, “The Princess of the Atom” by Ray Cummings and artist Syd Shores. It ran in Captain America #25-26.

In 1941, Lev Gleason Publications weighed in with a 5-part story in Silver Streak Comics #7-11 (January-June 1941). Written and illustrated by the legendary Jack Cole (creator of Plastic Man) and later by Don Rico, “Daredevil Battles The Claw” pitted one of Gleason’s best-known heroes against one of its best-known villains.

Despite the success of the multi-part battle of Timely’s two stars, and the occasional two-parter from DC, continued stories did not really catch on like they had in the pulps or the movie serials.

In his book “Marvel,” Daniels theorizes that “the serial story that took months to tell was perhaps too leisurely for the hectic pace of a world at war.” By 1940, Adolf Hitler had the German army rampaging through Europe and by 1941, America would be fighting both the Germans and the Japanese.

That sounds a little too literary of an explanation for the kind of factory work that produced the comics of that era. Comic book publishers and creators fully embraced the war effort. The Germans and the Japanese were major villains for a lot of the comics published during the war years. Lev Gleason famously introduced Daredevil #1 (July 1941) with ‘Daredevil Battles Hitler’ screaming across the front cover. On the cover of Captain America #1 (April 1941), Joe Simon and Jack Kirby famously showed Captain America delivering a right cross to der Fuhrer’s face.

Greenberger offers an alternative theory for the lack of continuing continued stories. He lays it squarely at the assembly-line production of the standard 64-page comic book of the time. “Everything was produced on the fly and the seat-of-your-pants,” Greenberger says. Comic books were produced almost factory-like in the 1940s and 1950s “and stories could be slotted for publication as soon as they were available.”

It was a very interchangeable process, and since there was no comic book press at the time, the audience never knew how or why their favorite character got bumped until the next issue. Greenberger adds, “Studios churned out material as fast as publishers needed it so planning a multiple-part story was just not something called for by the editors or planned by the publishers.”

Writing in the magazine Comic Book Marketplace, Pierre Comtois in “The Four Fantastic Phases of Silver Age Marvel,” blames spotty newsstand distribution for the scarcity of continued stories. “Before the rise of the comic book specialty shop and the direct market in the late 1970s, magazine distribution was a haphazard affair, especially for comic books.” So a fan might not be able to find the issue that concludes a storyline, leaving the reader, according to Comtois, “forever wondering how Thor managed to get his hammer back from the Cobra and Mr. Hyde, or how Iron Man escaped from the clutches of the Mandarin.”

A combination of both Greenberger’s and Comtois’ statements makes the most sense: publishers anxious to get the work out as quickly as possible so they can start seeing a return on their investment and since publishers had no real market research about their audience other than sales figures and a belief that it was mostly children, it’s understandable why publishers would want to avoid alienating them.

In fact, only one major publisher in the 1940s was utilizing a variety of strategies that are still in use in 21st century comic books: Fawcett Publications.

Seemingly unconcerned about alienating its fans who might miss an issue or the effect of war on the audience’s mood or the spotty newsstand distribution, Fawcett seemed more interested in creating a connected universe of related characters, team-ups, cross-title appearances and multi-part stories.

The company actually broke new ground with the idea of multi-part continuing storylines and put both Marvel and DC to shame. If Fawcett didn’t invent many of the storytelling and marketing tricks still used today in modern comics, they at least perfected them and created what is arguably the first true super-hero universe.

They got the ball rolling in Whiz Comics Vol. 1, #2 (February, 1940), which was the first published issue of Whiz and had the first appearance of Captain Marvel, created by Bill Parker and artist C.C. Beck. It also sold a reported 500,000 copies when it was released in late 1939.

There are two continued stories in the issue, though neither one features the good Captain. The first is Ibis The Invincible, where Ibis comes back to life from his mummified form and with the help of his Ibistick (greatest name for a super-hero accessory ever) goes searching for his lost love of 4000 years earlier. But when a common thief sees the power of the Ibistick, he grabs it with all the skill of a purse-snatcher and takes off with Ibis in pursuit and readers waiting until the next issue. The second continued story is Scoop Smith, an intrepid newspaper reporter. He solves the mystery of an evil doctor, but on the last page picks up his next assignment and jets off to the South Pole to get his next story.

But the gang at Fawcett would soon embark on a series large-scale storylines that other publishers of the day would not do. In Whiz Comics #15 (March 1941), Fawcett launched a multi-part story that turned the hero, Spy Smasher, temporarily evil and had him fight Captain Marvel. The story ran until issue #17, with two parts appearing in most issues.

At the end of 1941, Fawcett expanded the Captain Marvel universe by creating Captain Marvel, Jr. When young Billy Batson turned into Captain Marvel, the Captain was a full-grown adult. Twisting that origin slightly for their new hero, when crippled Freddy Freeman turned into Captain Marvel, Jr., he remained a teenager. CMJ’s origin by Ed Herron and Mac Raboy was a three-part story that ran across three issues of two different titles. Part I appeared in Master Comics #21 (December 1941), Part II (the first actual appearance of Captain Marvel, Jr.) appeared in Whiz Comics #25 (December 1941), and Part III appeared in Master Comics #22 (January 1942). The storyline featured both Captain Marvel and another Fawcett stalwart, Bulletman, and their battle against Hitler’s favorite super-hero, Captain Nazi. The origin of Captain Marvel, Jr. was collateral damage from the slugfest.

Also in 1941, Captain Marvel debuted on the big screen in a live-action Republic Pictures’ 12-part serial, The Adventures of Captain Marvel. He was the first super-hero to make that leap and the serial’s success may have led Fawcett to consider expanding their storylines even more.

In 1943, long before Jim Shooter developed Marvel’s Secret Wars and Marv Wolfman envisioned DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths, Fawcett had The Monster Society of Evil. Starting in Captain Marvel Adventures #22 (March 1943) and continuing for two years until issue #46, Captain Marvel would battle a long-running plot by his nemesis Mister Mind – a 2-inch talking worm – to rule the world.

In the epic, Mister Mind assembled a Rogue’s Gallery of villains from across the Fawcett universe, many of whom had done battle with Captain Marvel in the past. It was the first super-villain team and the longest-running continued story in the Golden Age of comics.

Fawcett was at it again in Captain Marvel Adventures #61 in the summer of 1946. “The Cult Of The Curse” was a 6-part story by Otto Binder and Pete Costanza pitting Captain Marvel against Oggar and culminating in The Battle of the Century in issue #66 (October 1946).

It was this kind of editorial and creative decision-making that kept Captain Marvel and the related Marvel Family titles at the top of the sales charts and put a sales beat down on rival super-hero publisher DC Comics. Hard numbers are difficult to come by for 1940s comic books. Fawcett boasted that Captain Marvel Adventures was “Largest Circulation of Any Comic Magazine,” and reported sales of over 1 million copies per issue.

According to John Jackson Miller, whose website The Comics Chronicles is a valuable resource for comic-book circulation data, “Captain Marvel Adventures was shipped every three weeks in 1942-43, so you have to feel that Fawcett’s distributors were pretty big on it at a time when Superman was still bimonthly.” Fawcett was publishing 17 issues of CMA per year to DC Comics’ 6 issues of Superman. Sales figures might not be available, but the numbers are impressive.

Fawcett had crossovers, spin-off characters and titles, guest appearances, and a universe of heroes who appeared in different books but all knew each other – Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel, Jr., Uncle Marvel, The Lieutenant Marvels and many others. Fawcett was clearly onto something and fans kept coming back. Fawcett’s approach to comic book storytelling was similar to what Marvel Comics would later adopt for itself.

Rather than be inspired by Fawcett’s success and imitate them or even come up with something new, DC did what all corporations do when they can’t or won’t compete: they called in the lawyers. Having already sued Fox Feature Syndicate in 1939 for Wonder Man, and Fawcett in 1940 for Master Man, DC sued Fawcett again in 1941, this time claiming that Captain Marvel was a rip-off of Superman, despite the fact that there were still dozens of Superman-like heroes from many other publishers.

DC lost that court battle in 1948, the same year that DC won its court battle against Superman’s creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster over ownership of the Man of Steel. DC lost another court battle with Fawcett in 1951 but kept at it. In 1953, however, with sales declining industry-wide Fawcett gave up the fight and stopped publishing super-hero comics altogether. One of the most innovative comics publishers in the industry was gone.

(In an ironic footnote, DC began publishing under license new Captain Marvel adventures in 1972 under the title Shazam! DC eventually acquired all rights to the Fawcett super-heroes in 1991.)

The 1950s were pretty much a dead zone for continued stories, thanks in large part to a dwindling number of super-hero comics. Horror comics were the new favorite, especially gruesome ones with shock endings like those published by William Gaines’ E.C. Comics. The comic book industry spent a lot of the decade fighting mostly the U.S. government and increasingly-vocal critics like Fredric Wertham. The chief concern was juvenile delinquency and the idea that perhaps reading comics could lead to a life of crime.

Timely Publications had become Atlas and in 1953 publisher Martin Goodman tried to revive interest in his old Timely super-heroes the Human Torch and Sub-Mariner by converting Young Men into a super-hero comic with issue #24 (December 1953). The Torch story was a two-parter that concluded in Young Men #25 (February 1954). It didn’t stick, though, and the title was cancelled with #28.

By 1960, Timely Publications which had become Atlas had now become Marvel Comics and was on a downward spiral. A lot of the staff had been laid off and Stan Lee – the nephew of owner Martin Goodman – was running the place more or less on his own. But in November 1961, editor and writer Lee and artist Jack Kirby launched The Fantastic Four and forever changed the nature of continued stories in comics.

The genius of Lee and his two main artists, Kirby and Steve Ditko was in making their super-hero comics more personal, making the heroes more human (despite their fantastic powers) and trying to stick to the phrase “with great power comes great responsibility” as often as possible.

In Fantastic Four, in addition to fighting the usual array of super-villains, the FF – Reed Richards, his girlfriend Sue Storm, her hot-headed brother Johnny Storm and Reed’s old chum Benjamin Grimm – had a variety of interpersonal problems and issues that created ongoing soap opera elements and romantic entanglements. These would continue throughout each issue, regardless of who the incoming villain might be.

In a very basic two-parter that feels like two creators checking out the ground under their feet, Lee and Kirby had the Fantastic Four fight Doctor Doom for the first time in Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962). In issue #6 (September 1962), Doom is back and this time he enlists Namor, the Sub-Mariner to help him. Namor was a revamped version of the old Timely hero.

Only now, Lee and Kirby reveal that the impending slugfest is going to be awkward: Namor and Sue Storm are mutually attracted to each other (Sue keeps a photo of Namor – where did she get that, by the way? – squirreled away in a book, even though she’s engaged to Reed Richards).

That’s the very essence of a Marvel storyline and a textbook example of how Lee and his artists would create the idea that regardless of whether or not the main story of hero v. villain was two-three-or-twenty parts, the ongoing secondary stories – almost always character-and-relationship-based were going to keep the reader coming back for more.

Far from feeling angry at the publisher if you missed an issue, Marvel succeeded in creating a sense of urgency about their titles: you simply had to have the next issue, and if you couldn’t find it, it was almost your fault, not theirs. You wanted to be a “True Believer,” didn’t you, because that’s what members of Marvel’s 1964 fan club, the Merry Marvel Marching Society, were called. You wanted to fit in and all the cool kids were reading Marvel Comics.

Lee and Kirby also did a great job of establishing a universe feel for the Fantastic Four. In the first 17 issues of The Fantastic Four, either Doctor Doom or Namor appear in 9 of them, and they appear together in issue #6 (September 1962). Doctor Doom gets his own 2-parter in Fantastic Four #16-17 (July-August 1963).

Lee and Kirby continued to weave personal and interpersonal stories into the book, bringing back prior villains, and expanding the cast of the series so that there were dozens of supporting characters they could call on at any time, including characters who either had or would soon have their own titles. Better still, the villains held grudges and wanted revenge: it was beyond just committing crimes or conquering the world. Villains were now returning because they wanted to get even for past injustices. Far more than just slugfests, epic battles and locked room mysteries, Lee and his artists were creating long-running storylines of friendship, betrayal, victory and defeat.

In an interview with Sam Weller at Playboy.com, Stan Lee said, “I did The Fantastic Four, and I tried to play up their relationships and make it more three-dimensional — and it worked.”

Indeed it did.

Unlike Batman and Superman who seemed to barely recall that they’d ever fought the same villain before, the Marvel characters recalled prior encounters with each other and with villains in great detail (helpful editor’s notes would steer the reader to specific back issues).
Lee told Weller, “People are always bad-mouthing soap operas, but basically they are fascinating because you care about the characters. And today the equivalent are things like ‘Desperate Housewives’ or ‘Lost.’”

It also helped make Marvel’s comics collectible. Since all the stories were part of the same universe and the characters were connected to one another, you never knew when you’d have to dig through your collection to find the back issue referenced in the current issue. Marvel also had a policy that DC didn’t: reprints. Marvel published several titles that reprinted their older stories, so if you came late to the party you could still get appetizers and dessert.

In addition to the use of soap opera elements, Marvel would still engage in very specific multi-part stories. In Tales to Astonish #50-51 (December-January 1963-64), there was a two-part Giant-Man adventure. This could almost be considered a three-part story since in Tales to Astonish #49 (November 1963), Ant Man became Giant-Man and #50-51 pick up where that left off with his first new adventure with “Gi” in front of his name.
In a very Fawcett-like experiment, Lee and Kirby offered an early peek into the universe that they were creating both for their characters and the readers. This epic saga began at the end of The Avengers #2 (November 1963). According to Comtois, the storyline presents the “possibilities inherent in a shared universe,” because it not only runs through several Marvel titles, but includes almost all of their major characters at the time: the Fantastic Four, The Avengers, Thor, Hulk, Sub-Mariner, and, more importantly, the return of Simon and Kirby’s Captain America (in Avengers #4) who had been literally frozen in ice since his last appearance, in a Timely comic.

The saga continued in Avengers #3 (January 1964), then on to Avengers #4 (March 1964), a huge two-parter in Fantastic Four #25 (April 1964) and #26 (May 1964), before concluding in Avengers #5 (May 1964). Several months later, in Journey Into Mystery #112 (January 1965), there was a flashback to the story with added details. It was not the last time that the story in a current issue of a Marvel comic would fit snugly into the chronology of a previous storyline. It was a risky venture, but it was at a time when you could buy the entire Marvel line of books for under $2.00.

Comtois poses a very interesting question about the multi-part epic: “Was it a continued story within a continued story or the first multi-title crossover in comics’ history?” My vote is for the first multi-title crossover.

Lee and Kirby continued with specific multi-part stories in Fantastic Four. Issue #39-40 (June-July 1965) was a two-parter with Doctor Doom and Daredevil, not the 1940s Lev Gleason one, but the new Marvel Universe version.

Then Marvel pulled another Fawcett-based stunt based around two super-heroes getting married. Fantastic Four #43 (October 1965) was the start of a two-part story that concluded in that year’s Fantastic Four Annual #3: “The Wedding of Sue and Reed.” From then on, the Fantastic Four became a giant tableau of ongoing storylines.

One of the best and most famous continued stories followed early the next year. “The Galactus Trilogy” was a 3-part epic that started in Fantastic Four #48 (March 1966) and ended in issue #50 (May 1966). The story introduced Galactus, the cosmic planet-eater and the Silver Surfer, his herald.

In four years, the FF had gone from fighting a fairly generic monster right out of the 1950s to a cosmic storyline with a villain powerful enough to destroy the entire planet.

Lee and artist/co-plotter Steve Ditko were working similar story tricks in Amazing Spider-Man. From Spider-Man’s last-gasp-throw-it-on-the-newsstand-and-see-if-it-sticks debut in Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962), the duo was doing much the same thing with Spider-Man that Lee and Kirby had been doing in Fantastic Four: they were creating a large supporting cast with personal stories that would continue in ongoing storylines through each issue. Peter Parker (Spider-Man’s secret identity) had money problems, work issues, family problems with his frail Aunt May, guilt about his Uncle Ben’s death, personal problems with his friends and girl trouble with Betty Brant, Gwen Stacy and later Mary Jane Watson. For all of his moping about, Parker was the one Marvel character who hooked-up the most and fretted about it obsessively.

Despite the debut of a veritable Rogue’s Gallery of super-villains for Spider-Man to tackle in single-issue stories, Lee and Ditko introduced one of Spider-Man’s first major villains in Amazing Spider-Man #3 (July 1963): Doctor Octopus, aka Doc Ock. The other Marvel “Doctor,” Doctor Doom, showed up in Amazing Spider-Man #5 (October 1963), further tying Spider-Man directly into not just the Fantastic Four, but other Marvel titles.
Ock appears again in Amazing Spider-Man #11 (April 1964) in a two-parter that set the stage for all classic Spider-Man stories. By issue #12 (May 1964), Spider-Man had defeated his nemesis, but he lost the girl.

Doc Ock made a return appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #31 (December 1965) for a 3-part story by Lee and Ditko that ended in issue #33 (February 1966).

Ditko left the title after Amazing Spider-Man #38 and artist John Romita took over. Lee and Romita kicked off with a bang by bringing back a previous villain, the Green Goblin, in a two-parter in Amazing Spider-Man #39-40 (August-September 1966). More multi-part stories would follow. Doctor Octopus was responsible for killing Gwen Stacy’s father in Amazing Spider-Man #89-90 (October-November 1970) by Lee and artist Gil Kane. In Amazing Spider-Man#97-99 (June-August 1971), Harry Osborn (the son of Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin) becomes addicted to drugs. In Amazing Spider-Man #121-122 (June-July 1973), writer Gerry Conway shook the foundation of the Marvel Universe by having the Green Goblin kill Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker’s girlfriend, thus ensuring decades of breathless fan outrage and clearing the field for Mary Jane.

The Marvel Universe would continue along this path, using team-ups, crossovers, continued stories, recurring heroes and villains, past-referencing, editorial footnotes, and more to give the appearance of a cohesive whole where thousands of characters lived and breathed in the same world.
Other writers would come on board at Marvel as Lee cut back on his writing and moved up the corporate ladder. Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Marv Wolfman, Len Wein and others would all adhere to the basic formula developed by Lee, Kirby and Ditko. One writer who would seize the Marvel method and not only run with it, but push it to its creative limits was Chris Claremont who wrote Uncanny X-Men from 1975-1991. Working in conjunction with artists Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, Paul Smith and John Romita, Jr. (among others), he revived the flagging X-Men franchise and expanded it with additional characters, dozens of plot threads, and wildly imaginative storylines.

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