Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Fantagraphics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: bill everett, disney

Disney/Marvel Now Restrict Fantagraphics Over Bill Everett Collection

Disney and Marvel now restrict Fantagraphics over the publication of their third Atlas collection, featuring the work of Bill Everett

Published Mon, 01 Sep 2025 08:57:05 -0500

by Rich Johnston

Comments

Article Summary

Disney and Marvel restrict six Bill Everett stories from Fantagraphics' upcoming Atlas Creator Collection volume.
The excluded stories originally appeared in Atlas's Suspense series, once licensed from CBS's radio drama.
Disney will not seek CBS's permission to use Suspense stories, leading to a shorter Everett collection for fans.
Notable Everett Suspense tales like "Hangman’s House" and "Vampire, Beware" are being dropped and won't be replaced.

Archive comic book editor and publisher Michael J. Vassallo has been preparing The Atlas Creator Collection No. 3: Bill Everett Vol. 1: "One Head Too Many!" and Other Weird Horror Stories, to be published by Fantagraphics, licensed from Marvel Comics, for April next year. But it looks like it may now be significantly shorter than planned, as Disney has objected to their plans to publish six stories written by Bill Everett. And it's all down to the stories that originally appeared in the comic book series Suspense in the 1940s. This is how the solicitation reads;

The Atlas Creator Collection No. 3: Bill Everett Vol. 1: "One Head Too Many!" and Other Weird Horror Stories – April 7, 2026 by Bill Everett, Dr. Michael J. Vassallo
The latest volume in our new Fantagraphics Atlas Creator Collection focuses on the feverishly imaginative Bill Everett's brilliant masterpieces of skeletal horror and oozing, creeping dread. Already a Marvel/Timely legend for his creation of the Sub-Mariner in 1939, Bill Everett returned to Marvel during the 1950s to become Atlas' most versatile and effective practitioner of horror-fantasy. Everett's art was a combination of Graham Ingels, Harry Anderson, and Bernie Wrightson, with the slick ink line of Jack Davis, all melded within his own uniquely captivating imagery and in-your-face ghastliness.bFollowing the magnificent Creator Collections of Joe Maneely and Al Williamson, Fantagraphics is proud to present here for the first time all of Bill Everett's Atlas Pre-Code horror stories in one volume! Including: "Spectacles of Doom," "The Evil Eye," "The Pit of Horror!" "Horror in the Moonlight!" "Don't Bury Me Deep," "One Head Too Many!" "Burton's Blood!" Werewolf!" "The Madman," and "The Graymoor Ghost," from titles like Menace, Journey into Unknown Worlds, Strange Tales, Uncanny Tales, Spellbound, Mystic, Suspense, as well as "Zombie!" from Menace #5, featuring a character rebooted as Simon Garth in the black-and-white Marvel Magazine explosion of the 1970s. An introduction by Atlas expert Dr. Michael J. Vassallo puts it all in context. Full-color illustrations throughout

Well, not so fast. Six stories are going to have to be dropped as they originally appeared in the Atlas series Suspense, which was a title licensed from the CBS radio drama series that ran from 1940 to 1962. Disney has told Fantagraphics that they don't have the rights to license those stories to Fantagraphics without getting permission from CBS. And that they aren't going to do that.

Marvel Comics has already reprinted the story The Raving Maniac by Stan Lee and Joseph Maneely from Suspense #29 a number of time, including in Marvel Visionaries: Stan Lee in 2005, Best Marvel Stories by Stan Lee Omnibus in 2022, and licensed it to Fantagraphics for the Atlas Artist Edition HC Vol 1: Joe Meenley in 2024, alongside the Free Comic Book Day 2024: Marvel & Fantagraphics Present The Atlas Comics Library Vol 1 comic book. But it seems no one at Marvel or Disney knew or cared that it was technically a licensed title.

But now, Disney has told Fantagraphics that they can't run anything from Suspense without permission from CBS, and no one who can ask, is going to ask, or even check whether the stories are in the public domain. It is, apparently, not worth the effort, or indeed any fee that might have to be paid, however small. So don't expect a reprint of that story appearing in the Fantagraphics licensed Joe Maneely Artist Edition if it gets a reprint, as that has now also been found against, even though it was actually published. The stories being removed are: