This Day in Comic Book History — September 19, 2026
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Epic Panels Presents
This Day in Comic Book History
Saturday, September 19, 2026 — Today in Comics: September 19
Spotlight
Stan Lee Becomes Publisher of Marvel Comics
Stan Lee, 1975 · Wikimedia Commons
Marvel1972
On September 19, 1972, Stan Lee formally stepped up to become publisher of Marvel Comics, succeeding longtime owner and founder Martin Goodman at the top of the company. It capped a busy year of transition: that July, Lee had scripted his final regular issue of The Amazing Spider-Man (#110), handing the monthly writing chores on Marvel's flagship titles to a rising bench of writer-editors, with Roy Thomas stepping in as editor-in-chief.
The move didn't take Lee out of comics — far from it. As publisher, he became Marvel's roving ambassador, pitching the company to Hollywood, licensors, and the wider public in the decades that followed, a role that would eventually help turn a scrappy New York comic shop into the foundation of a global media empire. It's one of the quieter turning points in Marvel history, but arguably one of the most consequential: the moment "the man" behind Marvel's 1960s creative explosion traded a typewriter for a corner office.
More From This Date
Michel Vaillant Revs Up "Cauchemar" in Le Journal de Tintin
Michel Vaillant logo · Wikimedia Commons
Franco-Belgian1972
The same week Stan Lee was settling into Marvel's publisher's chair, French cartoonist Jean Graton began serializing "Cauchemar" ("Nightmare"), the 24th album-length adventure of his racing-driver hero Michel Vaillant, in the pages of Le Journal de Tintin (issue 38 of 1972). Since its 1957 debut, the globe-trotting motorsport strip had become one of the best-selling Franco-Belgian series of all time, mixing real racetrack detail with family melodrama; this arc ran through issue 48 before being collected as a hardcover album in 1973.
Funny-Animal Artist Cecil Surry Dies at 49
Original illustration — swap for licensed art
1956
Animator-turned-comics-artist Cecil Surry, whose pen work appeared in Disney comics, Tom and Jerry funnies, and other Dell Comics staples through the 1940s and '50s, died on this date at age 49. He never became a marquee name, but journeymen artists like Surry kept the era's massive funny-animal newsstand pipeline running, issue after issue, for publishers like Dell and Western.
Batman Day Lands on September 19 (2020)
Bat-signal silhouette · Wikimedia Commons
DC2020
DC Comics' annual Batman Day fan celebration — usually tied to a September date near Batman's 1939 debut in Detective Comics #27 — fell on September 19 in 2020. With comic shops navigating pandemic restrictions, DC leaned into free digital comics, virtual creator signings, and at-home activities to keep the Dark Knight's birthday party going for fans stuck at home that year.
First Issues, Debuts & Premieres
Thundra Crashes Into Fantastic Four #129
Thundra cosplay · Wikimedia Commons
MarvelFirst Appearance · 1972
Fantastic Four #129 went on sale September 19, 1972, according to Marvel's own history archives, introducing Thundra — a towering warrior-champion from a matriarchal future Earth — created by writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema. Thomas has said he conceived her partly as commentary on early-'70s women's-liberation politics, right down to Buscema's design choice of a bandolier in place of a traditional costume accent. Thundra strode onto the page swinging a length of chain and picking a fight with Ben Grimm, and she's remained one of Marvel's enduring "strongest woman alive" characters ever since — later even passing along Hulk-derived DNA to her own daughter, Lyra.
Panel of the Day
Two comics industries, one calendar date: while Stan Lee was trading his typewriter for a publisher's office in New York on September 19, 1972, Michel Vaillant was screeching onto newsstands three thousand miles away in Belgium, and Ben Grimm was about to get decked by a chain-wielding warrior from the future. Not a bad day's work for the medium, on either side of the Atlantic.
