Hulk #1: Signed Canvas and Personal Reply Letter

In the gallery of World of Superheroes HQ hangs the huge framed box canvas reproduction of the cover of HULK comic #1 signed by his creator, Stan Lee.

The Incredible Hulk is, along with Spider-Man, Marvels most popular hero after scene stealing appearances and one liners in the Avengers movies, but this wasn’t always the case. When the comic was released with a small print run in 1962, it ran for only 6 issues before being cancelled due to poor sales.

As I was writing this piece, our archivist recalled that the owner of the Sterling Collection had kindly donated to the archive this hand written reply from 1963 by Stan Lee himself to a fan in Yorkshire asking why he couldn’t buy Issue #7. Even the address side of this is fascinating, containing Marvels address and the New York postage stamp. As well as being an important Historical document, this modest piece of blue card goes a long way to explaining the success of Marvel Comics in the early days. The fact that the creator and editor would go to the trouble of sending a handwritten note to someone half way around the world shows how much Stan valued his customers and understood the importance of the personal touch. It’s a philosophy that all the staff here at World of Superheroes will try to embrace.

By the way, if any of you are wondering why the Hulk is grey in Issue #1, then green forever after, the answer is that the printers had a real problem creating a consistent grey so ever the pragmatist, Stan said,
“No problem, just make him green.”