feature of Action Comics #1-propelled Goodman to contract with the newly formed comic book packager, Funnies, Inc. 19 Funnies, Inc., and sales agent Frank Torpey, made a deal for Goodman to publish strips for a new comic book anthology: Marvel Comics #1, which featured the first appearances of two characters who would become associated with the Marvel brand: the android Human Torch and Namor, the Sub-Mariner. 20 The issue sold 80,000 copies on its first printing in September 1939, and a massive 800,000 copies on its second printing, which was better than the sale of an average DC Comics title for the time. 21 From then on a cohesive "Marvel" universe began to coalesce. A key development was the release of Marvel Mystery Comics #7-Marvel Comics' new title instituted by Goodman with its second issue-which hinted that the characters Namor and the Human Torch existed within the same fictional universe. 22 In 1940, Marvel Mystery Comics #8 and #9 featured as its headline character Namor, who was shown attacking renowned monuments from the Empire State Building to the Bronx Zoo, thus establishing the cohesion of Marvel Comics as a fictional universe with a grounding in the "real world." 23 Further successful productions from Marvel Comics soon followed, such as Captain America. Created by Jack Kirby, born Jacob Kurtzberg, and Joe Simon, Captain America followed the lead of earlier Marvel Comics heroes existing in the "real world" by combatting the real-life villains of World War II; on December 20, 1940 Captain America #1-featuring Captain America punching Adolf Hitler-hit the newsstands and sold nearly a million copies, exceeding everyone's expectations. 24 It was also during this period, before Captain America #1 went to press, when Stan Lee, born