November 1963: Thrills Times Three

A year’s subscription to Magnus, Dr. Solar AND The Phantom for only five lousy quarters? That’s my definition of a bargain.

The Phantom's coer painting pinup

And with the exception of the Phantom, they were also something new. This subscription offer appeared in Turok, Son of Stone 36 (Nov. 1963) simultaneously with the sixth issue of Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom (and only his second issue in costume) and the fourth issue of Magnus, Robot Fighter (in which Gold Key’s Tarzan of the Robots battled an undersea Think-Rob).

Although the Ghost Who Walks had been around since 1936, his fifth Gold Key issue had appeared only the month before. In it, the Phantom protected the jungle from the piratical Swamp Rats, a menace he’d defeated previously in Lee Falk’s comic strip in 1959.

Appearing two years to the month after Marvel debuted the Fantastic Four, this ad illustrates that superheroes were the coming thing in the early 1960s. Dell Comics, the forerunner of Gold Key/Western Publishing, had seemed more comfortable spotlighting the licensed high jinks of cartoon characters such as Little Lulu, Daffy Duck and Walt Disney’s Donald Duck or movie and TV features like Wagon Train, Sea Hunt and Lassie.

Solar's cover painting pinup

But after splitting off from Dell, Gold Key “...began introducing occasional original series of its own, such as Mighty Samson and The Close Shaves of Pauline Peril,” observed comic historian Don Markstein. “The first of them was Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom, who debuted as part of Gold Key's first set of releases, cover-dated October 1962.”

Radiation — a topic then even more trendy than superheroes — empowered Solar as well as the FF and Charlton’s Captain Atom.

“Solar didn’t immediately go the gaudy outfit, spiffy name route of most superheroes, however,” Markstein noted. “At first, he performed his super deeds while wearing a regular suit, with a lab coat on top, with only a little coloration to indicate his super-status (when he used his powers, his skin turned green).”

Gold Key comics cover-dated November 1963 (actually on sale that August)