Scans of Bill Everett Sub-Mariner B&W origin story

We hope you'll join us for the Bill Everett Book Launch on Wednesday February 29 inToronto for Amazing Mysteries: The Bill Everett Archives v1. We'll be featuringsome dazzling early work by Everett in my brand new slideshow on theSub-Mariner creator, as well as on Steve Ditko. (Mysterious Traveler: The Steve Ditko Archives v3 went to theprinters last week! Out in Q2!)

Perhaps the most dazzling piece of Everett artwork fromthe early Golden Age of Comics (Everett produced work during this period from1938-1942 before going to war; he started up again in 1946) is the originalorigin story for the Sub-Mariner. Most people remember the 12-page story incolor from Marvel Comics #1 in 1939but, prior to owner Martin Goodman commissioning that first book, Everett hadalready worked up the original 8-page version for a movie theatre promotional giveawaycalled Motion Picture Funnies Weekly.It was produced by the Funnies Inc. shop (i.e., a studio of comic-book creatorsthat packaged comics for publishers unwilling in these early days to have theirown stable of paid employees) that Everett had formed with his editor at Centaur Publications, Lloyd Jacquet (where Everett started in 1938 doing comicsthat we feature in the Everett Archives). Copies of MPFW only surfaced in the 1970swhen Jacquet passed away.
Motion PictureFunnies Weekly #1 had a color cover, but the interior was B&W, and ledoff with Everett's Sub-Mariner origin story. Click HEREto view scans of the entire issue (thanks to author Sean Howe for the link), including the back cover drawn by Everett promoting Funnies Inc.'s desire to encourage similar business for the shop.Read through the message board thread and you'll learn a lot about the historyof this key comic book (which we discuss in great length in my Fire & WaterBill Everett biography). When the story was "reprinted" in Marvel Comics #1, Everett expanded it by four pages (the originalart to page 12 is featured in the Everett Archives v1) and attempted a coloringprocess that, in print, didn't yield the desired results. Seeing the story inB&W only highlights Everett's place in the absolute top tier of creators duringthe Golden Age of Comics. (Creators, notjust pencilers, since Everett was a five-tool player, to use a baseball analogy).
My favorite panels from the story include that stunningbottom panel on pg 2 (the first shot of the diver underwater) and I've alwaysbeen in love with the "grace" of the final 4 panels of the followingpage. Page four features the Sub-Mariner crushing the head of the diver -hardly the plain jane origins of a garden variety superhero! On page 6, I lovethe way he portrays the Sub-Mariner, his mother and the Emperor; such fluidityin that line work. Once Everett gets down to the business of pumping out the strip, andhis other work for Funnies Inc., on a monthly basis, we don't see theSub-Mariner portrayed in this fashion again. And, of course, we get to seehistory clarified in that last panel on pg. 8 - April 1939 and "continuednext week", removed for the expanded version (12 pgs) in Marvel Comics #1. The historical importance of MPFW can never be underestimated, in terms of writing the history of Marvel Comics, the company.
As we point out in the Everett Archives v1, Bill's stylein 1938-39 is very raw and dynamic, compared to this first Sub-Mariner story,until 1940 when that "polish" for which he became famous kicks into high gear onstrips like Hydroman. But you can clearly see from these scans why Everett wasconsidered a prodigy. He had artistic talent in spades before he entered comicbooks and it shines through in the original origin story of the Sub-Mariner in B&W.