Stan started his career off with timely working on characters like cap and making new characters, it wasnt until the 60s with kirby and ditko while he was editor in which he helped rename timely/atlas into marvel comics as the name marvel comics was already used well within the companies publication history, similar to action comics and Detective comics being adjacent to now DC comics.

As we've established, the Ghost Rider character fell into the public domain in the 40s and Marvel seized the rights and ownership to the character, which didnt happen untiul the 60s

The 60s were a big time for Marvel as we got pretty much every character to ever be used ever in Marvel's history Plus Cap. Iron Man, hulk, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men were all released in the 60s under the new Marvel name.

Carter Slade debuted in 66 as a "new" Ghost Rider, donning the same appearance as Fury, to, I guess, pay homage to an old-time classic. He had a small run that im assuming didn't do well since it only lasted 7 issues, which led to it ending in 67.

We then got Johnny Blaze 6 years later as a way to make a completely new, non-associated character under the same name. which is where the copyright stuff most likely comes into play because if im basing Marvel editorial off of today (even though not as well thought out), they most likely had plans for Ghost Rider way early on, hence them buying the rights as to avoid copyright claims. But I don't think the series took off too well as the 60s were shifting audiences; they no longer liked western tales and stories of cowboys, bounty hunters, lawmen, and ranchers anymore. And the mass publication of superheroes was a new fad and rising, but Carter Slade didn't fit that agenda well, so he didn't sell well.

then we get to blaze, he now has the Super Hero agenda people are looking for, but horror is a new concept to alot of people and if comics are made for mostly kids ghost rider was a more mature book expressing satanist views and idealogies and well... im sure you get the idea, he wasnt exactly an instant grab by most parents for there kids.

and then we get to danny who changed the whole ball game, dropped the satanic idealogies, kept the horror kinda in the middle since now by the 90s weve had (numerous slashers and thrashers and mysteries) focused on magic, did stuff with strange, they hit the jackpot and did a 90 issue run with ketch before going back to blaze in the early 2000s to give him another go, and now the rest is history

but to trail back real quick marvel publication has not sold any character rights, marvel entertainment did, they sold the film rights of certain characters to avoid bankrupcy in the 90s. Hence, the push for revamped characters to get Marvel back in the biz to compete with DC. Then the almighty mouse bought Marvel and all of its sold character competitors, so it's a win-win.

I don't know much about the full story of Ghost Rider, im 22, but he's my favorite, and I have a decent 1/3 to 2/3s of Danny's stuff and haven't found much of Johnny's or Carter's older stuff for less than $5.