In the first issue of The Incredible Hulk, writer Stan Lee chose grey because he wanted a color that did not suggest any particular ethnic group, but colorist Stan Goldberg had problems with the grey coloring, resulting in different shades of grey, and even green, in the same issue. After seeing the first published issue, Lee decided to change Hulk's skin color to green.

The Hulk's original series was canceled with issue #6 (March 1963). Lee had written each story, with Jack Kirby penciling the first five issues and Steve Ditko penciling and inking the sixth.

Lee gave the Hulk's alter ego the alliterative name "Bruce Banner" because he found he had less difficulty remembering alliterative names. Despite this, in later stories he misremembered the character's name, referring to him as "Bob Banner", an error which readers quickly picked up on. The discrepancy was resolved by giving the character the official full name "Robert Bruce Banner."

A gamma ray is a penetrating electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. It consists of the shortest wavelength electromagnetic waves and so imparts the highest photon energy.

During the experimental detonation of a gamma bomb, scientist Robert Bruce Banner saves teenager Rick Jones who has driven onto the testing field. Banner pushes Jones into a trench to save him, but is hit with the blast, absorbing massive amounts of gamma radiation.

Given the ability to transform into Red Hulk by the organizations A.I.M. and the Intelligencia in order to better fight the original Hulk, United States Army General Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" Ross, the father-in-law and longtime nemesis of Bruce Banner, became the very thing he hated most.

Originally, it was believed that Banner's transformations into the Hulk were caused by sunset and undone at sunrise, but later, after Rick witnessed Banner turn into Hulk following a daytime confrontation with General Ross' men, it was discovered to be caused by stress.

A year and a half after the series was canceled, the Hulk became one of two features in Tales to Astonish, beginning in issue #60 (Oct. 1964). The hulk feature was so popular that beginning with issue #102 (April 1968) the book was retitled The Incredible Hulk vol. 2, which ran for more than thirty years until Marvel rebooted the series with the shorter-titled Hulk #1 (Apr. 1999).

Betty Ross, the daughter of General Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" Ross, was an on-and-off again supporting character in the Hulk's various series for decades, serving as his longest running love interest.

Jennifer Walters received an emergency blood transfusion from her cousin, Bruce Banner, and acquired a milder version of his Hulk condition. As such, Walters becomes a large, powerful green-hued version of herself. However, unlike Banner, she still largely retains her own personality.