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(Reflections On the Best of Marvel's "Split Books" of the 60's)
The "split book" phenomenon was Marvel's own peculiar response to the ages-old dilemma of comics publishers since time immemorial: "How do you keep a comics character regularly in the public eye, when you aren't yet quite certain he/she can hold down their own monthly solo title...?"
Generally, the Marvel "split books" were the (then-) standard twenty page affairs of the day, with ten pages devoted to Character "A," and the other ten allocated to Character "B." Marvel published three of these during the 60's: STRANGE TALES (The Human Torch, and the Thing; Dr. Strange; and Nick Fury); TALES TO ASTONISH (Ant-Man/Giant Man; the Sub-Mariner; and the Hulk); and -- best of all -- TALES OF SUSPENSE: featuring none other than Captain America, and the invincible Iron Man.
The earlySUSPENSE tales involving Iron Man were -- at least, initially -- rather formulaic affairs, with artwork careening all over the qualitative map; from the sublime (Jack Kirby) to the ridiculous (Don Heck, whose forte -- beautiful women -- didn't readily lend itself to the adventures of a man in bulky, red-and-gold armor).
As his series evolved and progressed, however -- and concurrent with the "Cold War" sentiments of the day -- Iron Man began to find a "niche" within the Marvel universe as a sort of quasi-right wing "wish fulfilment" sort of character. (No disrespect meant to anyone's political persuasions, on either side of the ideological fence; the stories were top-rate, overall. Just making a candid observation.) Frequently, his foemen ended up beingeither the agents of foreign despots from studiously unnamed countries (such as the gargantuan "Crusher"), or else out-and-out card-carrying Communist agents (the Black Widow; the Titanium Man; the Crimson Dynamo).
This, naturally, meant that the later addition of the patriotic Captain America to the storytelling "mix" was synchronicity at its finest (and most fortuitous). The two characters worked as admirably "side by side" (as it were) within accompanying monthly solo sorties as they did, in tandem, in the pages of the AVENGERS.
Inevitably -- being the stronger character, conceptually; and benefiting (as he did) from the massive artistic talents of relentless comics innovator, Jack Kirby -- the Captain's own strip began to outpace his armored predecessor's, both in quality and fan acclaim. He gradually commanded the cover of SUSPENSE more and more frequently (standard operating procedure for the marvel "split books," at the time, was for the two stars to alternate covers, month by month), and was the first of the "split" characters to generate an organized letter-writing campaign on the part of the fans for his own ongoing solo monthly title.
(For a particularly
nice example, by the way, of just what it was that the aformentioned Mr.
Kirby was doing, at the time, that had the readership lustily stamping
its collective feat and wolf-whistling in chorus... see the accompanying
cover, below.)
None of this, of course, is meant to make it seem as if Iron Man was the comics equivalent of a shirt-tail relative or weak sister, sales support-wise; once the imaginative Gene Colan signed on to provide his typically luscious brand of penciling lyricism to the proceedings, IM's own series underwent something of a minor renaaissance, itself. The cloak-and-dagger doings of the strip -- rendered, now, by comics' reigning master of facial expressions and shadowplay -- finally seemed to "suit" the Armored Avenger. There was an epic, three-issue battle to the (near-)death against the Sub-Mariner; the introduction of long-time Iron Man arch-foe, Whiplash (see cover, accompanying); and a lengthy espionage multi-parter involving practically every espionage-oriented character within the Marvel universe, at the time (see cover, below).
.
Given the inarguable artistic success of the 60's "split books," in general -- and of SUSPENSE, in particular -- one wonders why Marvel (or -- for all of that -- DC Comics) hasn't attempted to revive the concept, in the present day.
After all: when one considers just how depressingly many "new series"
are launched nowadays -- only to end up being cancelled before their respective
twelth issues -- the track record certainly couldn't end up being any worse.
And such a scheme could very well end up sparing both the erstwhile creators
and the readership a great deal of needless suffering... albeit of
two entirely different stripes. 
OTHER SIGNIFICANT MARVEL TITLES of
the Silver Age
PAGE FIVE: Iron Man (Part One)
The Silver Age CAPTAIN AMERICA
PAGE ONE
PAGE TWO
PAGE THREE
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