Chad wrote: ...The END of 1961. November to be exact....

Which, going by how the dates were put on comics at that time, meant the book was probably actually published in August of 1961. Usually, the cover dates were about four months ahead of the actual month the book was published.

So DC decides to change things and try to catch up after Marvel was peaking. DP still comes out fairly early as a direct response to Marvel in general, not X-Men in particular.

DC Mole:  My guess is Carmine Infantino! 

Ketchup claps for those of you who know why!

Chad wrote: ...DP still comes out fairly early as a direct response to Marvel in general, not X-Men in particular...

I'm pretty sure that was the same point I was making. I said "The Doom Patrol" was, to me, obviously inspired by "The Fantastic Four."

Fantastic Four-inspired or not, I've always thought the Doom Patrol was DC's answer to Marvel Comics in general.

I've always thought those DC Ditko creations of the late-1960's to be Marvel-esque as well.

I don't think Jack Kirby wrote that HoM story and thus created that particular Negative Man.  Editor Jack Schiff tended to rely on writers like Dave Wood, Ed Herron and Arnold Drake.

I also don't think the early Doom Patrol stories were a specific response to anything but the re-emerging market for superhero comics.  Yes, there are points of similarity, but most of the characters had other antecedents, and the story reads (to me, at least) like earlier work by Drake, who was a pretty creative guy with his own track record of innovation.  I think the title became more Marvel-like as the Marvel style coalesced and became an industry force, but I think those first issues are examples of parallel thinking (c.f., Batman and the Black Bat, decades earlier).  DC Editorial's disdain for the early Marvels is legendary, after all.

Here ya go, George Peter:

http://www.byrnerobotics.com/FAQ/listing.asp?ID=7&T1=Mis cellaneous+Questions#96