Alan Weiss' Sub-Mariner

A beautiful little back-up now from Alan Weiss, that yet again, makes me wish someone had given him a series to do in the Bronze Age. Any series. Hell, I'd've bought Ironjaw if Weiss had drawn it.
Maybe he just took too long on a page to make deadlines, or maybe it just didn't pay enough in those days. Here's part of an interview Alan did with Jon B. Cooke for Comic Book Artist that touches on that, and this particular story:
It's the first Marvel job I get to both pencil and ink, and it is the Sub-Mariner, my favourite character.
I am trying to really express my vision of him and make him look real, but more than real, because I loved the John Buscema Sub-Mariner.
So that day, I'm in this little cubicle with Herb Trimpe and John Romita. Gil Kane is in the office that day. Now Gil has some pointed opinions about the younger artists and what he considers their overuse of rendering, and I get a talking to from Gil Kane, a lecture.
He's pacing back and forth, orating about masturbatory rendering. Here. we want to be illustrators, and we are trying to utilize the rendering for the sake of a hyper-reality. But what they are saying is "This just takes too long! That's the main reason we don't do it! It costs money!"...
So I'm sitting there - and here's one of my three favourite artists telling me I'm doing it wrong! Oh, shit! He's saying, "Well, m'boy..." and proceeds to list all the things I shouldn't be doing.
Then John Romita chimes in with his story - "Yeah, once I did this romance job for Stan, and I put in the feathering" - they have different words for feathering, sometimes if  they are denigrating it, they call it "hay" - "and I did all this illustrative linework, and when I came in all the other artists collared me in the elevator saying, "Are you out of your mind? Now he's going to want us all to do that! How are we going to make a living?"
So they were all pissed off at John, because it was going to cost them time and money. So Romita's telling me this story, further discouragement, and I'm thinking, "I can't, I'm not going to open my mouth to Gil Kane," not at that time - I was 21, 22 years old!
Here's Herb Trimpe, the guy with this relatively cartoony style, right? The least amount of rendering, just nice, big, thick Marvel lines, right?
And I didn't know Herb, but his certainly wasn't the style of artwork I was trying to do... Herb is the one guy who has an encouraging word, and he says, simply this: "I don't know, I think you ought to just do it the way you want to do it!"
Just like that. It was the best thing that could've happened, you know? It was just so right! It was really wonderful, it lifted my spirits, and I've been grateful to Herb ever since.
Let me tell ya, if I hadn't been the biggest Herb Trimpe fan before that day, I sure as hell have been ever since!

Sub-Mariner vs The Thing: In The Rage Of Battle!

Here's a tale from Subby's solo series that's stuck with me since I first read it in this Treasury Edition:

For the previous few issues, Namor had been bugged by a Donald Trump wannabe named Destiny who with his ( hem hem ) Helmet Of Power had brainwashed the American people into voting him in as dictator for life, before ( in a last page turnaround that screams ' Whoops, we've only got one page left to wrap this up' ) falling to his death off a skyscraper roof.
As we pick up this issue, everybody wants said helmet and you'll never guess what, neither Benjy or Subby are prepared to discuss any kind of compromise.
Big John's art shows why it should always be printed treasury size, but it's not the fight that's interesting, it's the subplot, as continuity boy Roy Thomas re-introduces a long lost Golden Age character back into Namor's life.
That last panel will break your heart.

Titans Three Vs. The Avengers

So here we go with the 2nd part of the first appearance of the nascent Defenders, The Titans Three. And this one is even better than it's predecessor as Subby, Hulk & The Surfer take on Thor, Iron Man & Goliath, for no other reason than it's fun and we want them to.
Our Pal Sal & Gentleman Jim Mooney still make a perfect art team, and Rascally Roy gets to indulge his love for Shakespearean style speechifying and pop culture referencing every 2nd panel or so, as well as making everything seem much more important by putting it all in capitals and reversing the title.
Titans Three? Power Cosmic? D'you think Roy orders his breakfast as a Coffee Black and a Muffin Toasted? I'm betting he does.
And it's interesting that, amidst all the macho bluster, it's actually Lady Dorma who saves the day. Rascally should really have called this one '...And A Woman Shall Lead Them!' or something.
That cover seems a bit of a mish-mash though, Greenskin looking like he's been photoshopped in from somewhere else and all. Pay attention, Hulkie, that's The Avengers up there.

The ( Sort Of ) First Appearance Of The Defenders

Here's part 1 of a two-parter that convinced Stan & Roy there might be legs in putting together a group of Marvel's less easy to get along with characters, an idea that, a little while later, was to give birth to The Defenders.
Here we have champion moper The Silver Surfer being all Zsa Zsa Gabor and wanting to be left alone, The Hulk just happy he's got something to hit, and Subby actually behaving himself and being quite calm and reasonable, for him.
The plot's kind of irrelevant, as the fun is obviously in watching these three grumpmeisters arguing and threatening to beat each other up every third panel, something everybody else enjoyed at the time as well, as the fan mail demanding a regular book like this deluged the Marvel offices.
So in quick order, the Titans Three got themselves their own book, and a combination therapist / social worker in the form of Doc Strange, who they all hated, and all was fine and dandy.
Until Subby, Surfer and Greenskin repeatedly went off in a huff 'cos they never wanted to be in The Defenders anyway. So there and, indeed, Nur Nuckee Nur Nur.