Happy Birthday Fantastic Four.

Fifty years ago today the Marvel Universe was born. On August 8 1961, Fantastic Four number one, Marvel's first superhero title of the silver age, hit the newsstands. At the time the company that would become marvel comics was foundering a bit, making excellent if not overly impressive "monster books" and editor Stan Lee was (as the legend goes this is Stan so g.o.s.) was getting fed up with being a comic writer. He and artist extraordinaire Jack Kirby had been wanting to get superheroes going again. Since Stan was going to leave, he decided to go for it. Fantastic Four was a big hit pretty early on and led to the creation of many more comics by "Stan and Jack". And these comics later would come to comprise the Marvel Universe, arguably the most famous lineup of superhero characters ever created.
If you have never read Fantastic Four number one, the most shocking thing about it is how unlike a superhero comic it is. The story goes that the publisher didn't want any costumes and there had to be a monster on the cover. And the story with the exception of Superpowers has more in common with the Sci-fi and monster books. With renegade, astronauts getting powers, and a Mole Man and his subterranean creatures. With a hit on their hands Fantastic Four would continue and gain more of the characteristics of a Superhero book. But the Sci-fi Angle would remain to this day.
The Fantastic Four is also attributed as the forerunner of the "Marvel Method". Since Marvel had such talented artists. It was decided to merely give them an outline of the story and let (usually) Jack Kirby get on with drawing it. After the art was done Stan Lee (or a staff writer) would put in the dialogue. This arrangement gave marvel it's distinct edge, for the first time the art was allowed to be the star as much as the writing. This arrangement would last for the rest of the decade for 102 plus one unfinished issues, one of the longest runs for one creative team in mainstream comics.
So if your a fan of Marvel comics know that this is the 50th birthday of your beloved universe and that it all started with "The worlds Greatest Comics Magazine"

Art by Jack Kirby Fantastic Four (c) & TM Marvel Comics