Cover prices are raised from $.12 to $.15. At least you "don't have to fumble around with pennies," says Stan.

Also this year (announced in the October Bullpen Bulletins) , the decision is made to abandon the policy of continued stories. All stories will now be contained in a single issue, with the exception of some currently ongoing stories and those rare ocassions where a two parter is absolutely necessary. Stan says that fan opinion on continued stories was about 50/50 and he's decided to now favor the other 50. I believe one factor was that in these days before comic book shops, it wasn't always guaranteed that you'd be able to find a given issue. While this makes chronological placement easier, it also results in less complex stories and hurt the quality of the line.

Spider-Man continues to bet the best comic of the line by leaps and bounds. This is due to a large cast of well developed non-super powered characters and the willingness to focus more, or at least equally, on the character side of Peter Parker than the action side of Spider-Man. Stan's writing isn't perfect, but it's much more down to earth and realistic here than the writing on any other book. When other books attempt to address social issues, it feels really clunky. Here, it almost works. If Romita was able to do full pencils instead of just breakdowns, this era would be remembered as truly classic.

Jack Kirby's workload shrinks further as he leaves Captain America. He is doing just Thor and Fantastic Four now. Jim Steranko does a few issues of Cap which are awesome but then he's gone as well. Neal Adams has a short but great run on the X-Men prior to the cancellation of that series.

There's a neat alliance between Egghead, the Mad Thinker, and the Puppet Master that had the makings of an unofficial crossover across a few books but it never actually goes anywhere.

Important events this year:

• The insane marriage of Henry Pym and Janet Van Dyne
• Galactus fights Ego the Living Planet!
• Rick Jones becomes Bucky and becomes Captain America's sidekick for a while
• Dr. Strange starts dressing like a super-hero.
• Adamantium is invented
• Captain Marvel changes his costume and powers, and Rick Jones becomes his sidekick

Amazing Spider-Man #68-69  
Sub-Mariner #9-11  
Iron Man #9  
Avengers #60 Marriage of Janet Van Dyne & Henry Pym 
Silver Surfer #4  
Thor #160-161  
Amazing Spider-Man #70  
Dr. Strange #177-178 New Dr. Strange costume 
Avengers #61  
Avengers #62 1st Man-Ape 
Amazing Spider-Man #71  
Thor #162  
Captain America #111-113  
Hulk #111-115  
Sub-Mariner #12-13  
Avengers #63 Hawkeye becomes Goliath 
Silver Surfer #5  
Iron Man #12-13 1st Controller 
Sub-Mariner #14  
Avengers #64  
Fantastic Four #82-83  
Thor #164  
Fantastic Four #84-87  
Silver Surfer #6  
Captain America #114-119 1st Falcon 
Captain Marvel #15-17 Captain Marvel gets his classic costume. Rick Jones becomes bound to Mar-vell. 
Amazing Spider-Man #73 1st Man-Mountain Marko, Silvermane 
Avengers #65  
Hulk #116-117  
Uncanny X-Men #57-63 1st Sauron, 1st Savage Land Mutates 
Amazing Spider-Man #74-75  
Avengers #66-68 1st adamantium 
Fantastic Four #88-89  
Thor #167  
Silver Surfer #7  
Iron Man #16  
Hulk #118  
Silver Surfer #8-9  
Hulk #119-120  
Captain America #120  
Fantastic Four #90-93  
Amazing Spider-Man #76-77  
Dr. Strange #182  
Thor #168-169  
Galactus: The Origin  
Avengers #69-71 1st Grandmaster. 1st Squadron Sinister (incl. Nighthawk). 
Silver Surfer #10-11  
Sub-Mariner #19 1st Sting-Ray 
Amazing Spider-Man #78-79 1st Prowler 
Captain Marvel #18  
Dr. Strange #183  
Hulk #122-123