| abstract | - The No Prize is a reward given out to fans who get a letter printed in a Marvel comic, which points out a mistake within a series and comes up with a clever excuse for it being printed. Stan Lee would print the letter in a later edition and tell the reader they "valiantly won a No Prize", which was nothing. The No Prize originally started out in 1964 as a joke from the staff to the readers. In Fantastic Four #26, Lee ran a contest asking readers to send in their definition of what The Marvel Age of Comics really meant. As part of the letter, Lee wrote "there will be no prizes, and therefore, no losers." The term soon stuck about the same time the Merry Marvel Marching Society started, and so Lee started giving away No Prizes to letter writers. At first, Lee would start up contests for No Prizes, asking readers questions and requesting their creative responses. One example asked readers for proof of whether the Sub-Mariner is a mutant or not. Winners would have their letters printed along with Lee congratulating them on getting a No Prize. Later, Lee would give No Prizes out to whomever he felt deserved them in his Stan's Soapbox column, using the phrase "meritorious service to the cause of Marveldom" as justification. But some fans would write in literally demanding a No Prize for no real reason. Lee decided to take on a new approach. Other comic companies had given out prizes in the past for pointing out oversights and continuity errors in their books. So Lee started doing the same thing, and awarded No Prizes to people who found errors in the books. Which at the time was quite a feat since Marvel was well known for its continuity.
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