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Amazing Fantasy Omnibus

Amazing Fantasy Omnibus

Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko — 2020
At the dawn of the Silver Age, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko - three of comics' greatest talents - had readers crying, "Make mine monsters," with a cadre of ten-ton terrors, from Torr to Manoo to the one and only Monsteroso! Backed up by weird tales of witchcraft, Martians and occult master Dr. Druid, it seemed that these titanic tales could never be topped. And then Lee and Ditko did just that, seamlessly transitioning into an all-new approach featuring aliens, time travel, ghosts and atomic nightmares! With lushly illustrated stories, Ditko set a new standard for comic art, and Lee raised the bar ever higher with his scintillating scripts. And, oh, in the last issue they created some guy named Spider-Man. Experience a lynchpin series in Marvel history! Collecting AMAZING ADVENTURES (1961) #1-6, AMAZING ADULT FANTASY #7-14 and AMAZING FANTASY (1962) #15.
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Reviews

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wasnotwhynot@wasnotwhynot
4 stars
Mar 15, 2025

last running marvel horror comic, the excess they xeroxed into during the pulp horror boom. marvel's editorial approach toward horror (as atlas) is a bit flighty and ironic. this secured a niche between their hollywood inspired contemporaries and the cutting satire of EC comics.

as amazing adventures, this was joint kirby/ditko venture. the ditko stories are highlights, the kirby ones are just great to look at. (though I hate the droom strips...). you can kinda see a difference in plotting. kirby focuses on, well, monsters, and fixed encounters, overwhelming conflict, odds falling into place. ditko tries to make sure to pull the rug out.

kirby gets pulled in favor of (re)launching superheroes and the mag reoriented around ditko's twisty yarns as amazing (adult) fantasy. lee and ditko dispense with allegory and unload what’s bothering them. comics become a locus of control in a world where individual efforts don’t seem to matter and consensus is contradictory. and ditko draws clean machines and the best weirdos, his love for freakish material transmuting worldly disappointment.