Not Brand Echh #1

Superhero satire had appeared previously in comic books, notably in occasional stories in EC's 1950s Mad comic book, prior to its becoming a black-and-white magazine. Later issues would parody films and TV shows (including Bonnie and Clyde and the 1960s The Green Hornet) as well as comics. Typical stories and name transpositions included Ironed Man (Iron Man) vs. Magnut, Robot Biter (Gold Key Comics' Magnus, Robot Fighter); "Best Side Story", with Dr. Deranged (Dr. Strange in West Side Story pastiche); "The Origin of...Stuporman", a Superman takeoff recalling Wally Wood's influential "Superduperman" in Mad #4 (April-May 1952); The Ecchs-Men in "If Magneat-O Should Clobber Us", parodying not only the X-Men and Magneto but also the high melodrama of 1960s Marvel titles; and Marvel characters visually standing-in for the baseball-player protagonists of the otherwise faithfully rendered famous poem "Casey at the Bat". In a more topical reference of the time, Gary Friedrich, writer of Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, and cartoonist/Marvel production manager John Verpoorten contributed a Marvel-character version of the Beatles' famed Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band record album art. Events took place in the "Marble Universe", a play on the Marvel Universe. Not Brand Echh gave rein to creators not normally associated with humor, and offered rare teams of penciler and inker. Cartoony artist Tom Sutton — who along with Marie Severin was the series' most ubiquitous illustrator — might ink the grand, polar-opposite pencils of Jack Kirby, over even Marie Severin pencils over Kirby layouts, a combination seen nowhere else. Writer Friedrich did layouts completed by artist Herb Trimpe. Warren Publishing editor Bill DuBay drew and co-wrote one story in his only Marvel appearance.

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