Better Than A No-Prize!!

Let's travel back to 1962, where we discover what may be the very first attempt of a reader to catch a Marvel comic making an error, in Fantastic Four #4:

Wait a minute!?!? 5 bucks?!? That's much better than a No-Prize!! (Not to mention roughly $35 in 2010 dollars!) You could buy 41 12¢ comic books with 5 bucks, and have change left over!! (Sad fact--$35 bucks would only get you 11 2011 comics, and that's if they were all $2.99...)

Well, Stan came through, and kept the promise (at least to one reader), as we see in the letter column of Fantastic Four #6:



For the record, the Michael Snell listed first there is no relation to me (although that is my father's name...). Still, I embrace the coincidence as a meaningful portent of my love for the FF...

With that kind of response, no wonder they switched from cash to No-Prizes.

(And no, before you ask, at that early point Sue had not yet manifested the power to make objects and other persons invisible. So no, that wasn't the "correct" answer, and no, you ain't getting 5 bucks...)

Of course, these days Marvel--and even Disney--would be bankrupt if they had to shell out $5 every time Marvel made an error...