marvel books
the announcement covers only licensed children’s books; marvel’s extensive comic book and graphic novel publishing program remains separate from dpw .
here you' ll find the marvel premiere edition hardcovers (and a few other hardcovers) that don' t fall into the marvel universe category. this includes licensed properties such as stephen king, george r. r. martin, laura k. hamilton and halo books, marvel illustrated classics, the european soleil comics, the creator - owned icon line, and other books that exist separately from normal marvel - produced books .
it' s an illuminating article on the business of selling comic books in the mid 80s .
sample lcsh: comic books, strips, etc. —united states—history and criticism cartoons and comics heroes popular culture—united states
i' ve never seen an ad rate before. i wonder how much
a [ n ad ] page in all the marvel books for that month
costs now .
examples: i love lucy comics (comics box 161) has the subject “women comedians—comic books, strips, etc. —periodicals. ” the sole subject heading for romance trail (comics box 312) is “western comic books, strips, etc. ”
marvel masterworks: marvel masterworks: golden age usa comics vol. 2 golden age usa comics volume 2 (hardback )
the largest collection of comics books in the united states is housed in the serial and government publications division. the collection includes u. s. and foreign comic books—over 5, 000 titles in all, totaling more than 100, 000 issues. primarily composed of the original print books, the collection includes color microfiche of a handful of the early comic books (such as wonder woman, superman, and action comics) and special reprints. although the collection is most comprehensive from 1950, scattered issues from numerous titles date back to the 1930s. a small number of comic books make up the underground comic book collection of titles “recommended for mature readers. ”
prime members enjoy free two - day shipping and exclusive access to music, movies, tv shows, original audio series, and kindle books .
to be able to create limited - edition versions of the comic books we grew up on is a dream come true. this line is going to be something special. we plan on going to great lengths to create the kind of books that will be the absolute treasure of any fan’s collection. we’re going to work with the biggest names, and make sure we deliver an absolutely top - notch line of books. – greg goldstein, idw president ,
although marvel had continued to handle book publishing activities based on its characters since the acquisition, the move comes as no surprise. disney and marvel characters already share several licensees, including random house, bendon and publications international. as recently as early may, marvel had signed little, brown for iron man and super hero squad children’s books and expanded an existing deal with bendon to include additional formats .
while television shows based on comic books have been successful over the years, it is the film industry that has made characters like superman and spider - man world renowned .
star wars: darth vader vol. 1 (star wars (marvel) )
spider - man vs. the vulture in 2 minutes - marvel tl; dr
marvel fans young and old will have hours of web - slingi ...
official handbook of the marvel universe a to z vol. 6 (hardback )
comic books are circulated for use in the newspaper and current periodical room for those doing research of a specific nature, leading toward a publicly available work such as a publication, thesis, or dissertation; a radio, film, or television production; or a public performance. self - service photocopying of comic books is prohibited. in some cases photocopies may be obtained through the photoduplication service of the library of congress. when researching comic books, collectors are usually interested in price and condition, whereas women' s studies scholars may look on them as an art form, a popular culture medium, or a historical artifact. unfortunately, many periodicals that focus on comic books are not indexed in abstracting and indexing services .
is there anything cooler than giant mechs? how about giant mechs based on an ultra - popular japanese toy line stomping around the marvel universe? for two years, marvel fans got to experience shogun warriors as a legitimate part of the marvel universe proper .
sign up now to be the first to get in on idw limited’s marvel collection .
these aren' t trade paperbacks that marvel has licensed, but rather collections of titles that marvel licensed and published in the seventies and eighties. the license on these properties, such as conan, star wars, and g. i. joe, have been acquired by other publishers (e. g. dark horse, idw) who have released collections of the classic marvel series. here is your one stop shop for these books .
since 2009, the walt disney company has had ownership of marvel entertainment and all of its subsidiaries. disney, however, is a distinct brand separate from the marvel properties .
in november 2012, marvel began a more gradual relaunch of their own, although the marvel now! initiative was not a reboot of existing continuity, nor was it linewide. it was more of a new - reader - friendly reshuffling of creative teams on their top books, complete with some new perspectives on classic concepts. we thought the fresh start was a good reason for another storefront page, so here you' ll find all of the marvel now! collections, both hardcover and trade paperback. marvel now! has been replaced by other publishing initiatives, but we will continue making available contemporary marvel material right here, right now !
unbeatable squirrel girl vol 1, marvel’s cleverest comedy series, where the story all began .
marvel' s a. k. a. jessica jones: season one (hardback )
i' m experiencing technical issues with the marvel unlimited app. what should i do ?
marvel' s agents of s. h. i. e. l. d .
comic books, once associated with geeky adolescent boys and low - budget entertainment, now are linked to celebrities and big money. what’s changed since the dawn of the concept in the 1930s? movies !
i' m also a marvel unlimited subscriber. can i access my subscription via the app ?
this series features your favorite marvel superheroes in these all - new, cutting - edge chapter books! they have just the right amount of action in the story to keep even the most discouraged reader interested! the stories feature full - color images and character dialogue on select pages, similar to a comic book. add all of this into a chapter book story, and your mighty marvel fans will be hooked !
a series of posts is coming up regarding the sale of marvel to new world and related stuff .
if you have a problem with a marvel game, please contact the product' s manufacturer directly .
disney currently owns the muppets. marvel is reprinting former license holder boom! studios' muppet comics .
like the softcover masterworks line, the essentials have become extinct due to the epic collections. marvel was seriously pushing the limits of the term
essential
by the end anyway. the thick, black and white, and inexpensive books (sometimes referred to as
phone books
by its deriders) reprint various series from the beginning, and marvel produced dozens and dozens of volumes. while black and white may not be the best way to experience super hero comics, there are several horror volumes that look perfectly nice in this fomat. the essentials are going out of print fast, but some are still plenty affordable on the back market .
the marvel shop offers a variety of merchandise such as clothing, toys, dvds and more for purchase. to visit this shop, please go here. for customer service inquiries relating to the marvel shop only, please visit the customer service section that is located at the bottom of the marvel shop homepage. if you have a question or concern about a marvel shop product, please use the contact form here .
in september 2005, marvel studios came into its own when it announced a us $ 525 million credit facility that would allow it to finance its own production of up to 10 films based on marvel characters .
re: the sale of marvel to perelman: i was the only other bidder. my team, the
marvel acquisition partners ,
bid $ 81 million. the full story, all questions answered later .
marvel, one of the original comic book producers, has since 1939 created almost 8, 000 characters .
rom’s war with the wraiths brought more than one major marvel character into the battle and rom was even summoned to the first contest of champions. even though he didn' t participate, his inclusion in marvel’s first event book shows how important rom was to the tapestry of the marvel universe in his day. the spaceknights and the dire wraiths are still part of the marvel universe, while rom has moved on to idw .
here is how this page works: below is a list of portals for each category (or brand) of collected edition. clicking on the link will open a pop - up window to the sales page where you will find the full list of books, with contents for each volume and links to shop for each individual item at amazon or tales of wonder. it is also noted whether books are out - of - print and / or sold out .
comic books can be found on all subjects. they present beauty pageants, as does miss america (comics box 239b), or real and imagined movie stars, such as dale evans (comics box 82a) and katy keene (comics box 181a). some, like nyoka, the jungle girl (comics box 264), show exotic locales. more recent acquisitions reflect the comic book industry' s affiliation with horror, fantasy, and computer games—from elvira, mistress of the dark (aka cassandra peterson) (comics box 606), and elfquest, created by husband and wife team wendy and richard pini (comics box 95c and 501a), to anne rice' s vampire lestat (comics box 17b). underground comic books such as love and rockets (comics box 559) and wimmen' s comics (comics box 521) represent the extreme in the industry. there are even comic books that satirize other comic books—just as not brand echh (comics box 263a), illustrated by marie severin, plays off other marvel comics .
two useful, but unindexed, journals are comics journal and comic book checklist & price guide (pn6714. c655). current awareness publications, each includes articles reviewing past and present comic books, character development, artists, and history .
32. when todd mcfarlane, jim lee, rob liefeld, and four other major marvel artists left the company to form image comics in 1992, marvel' s stock price immediately dropped more than $ 11 per share .
31. marvel are basically required to publish comics featuring someone, anyone, called captain marvel in order to hold on to the trademark. the first captain marvel was introduced in the late' 60s when marvel learned that dc was planning to revive fawcett' s captain marvel from the' 40s, and could only hold on to the copyright if they were publishing a character with the name. when dc brought the character back, they ended up calling comics featuring him shazam, since they couldn' t use captain marvel as a title. (when dc rebooted its line of comics in 2011, they decided to just change the character' s name to shazam. )
back in 1983, marvel published crystar, a concept they had developed specifically to sell the license to a toy manufacturer. remco was wowed by the world marvel had created and produced one line of figures in 1982. marvel then followed the toys up with a comic written by mary jo duffy with absolutely stunning covers by the great michael golden .
subject headings for comic book research tend to be very general (comic books and comic strips are considered together in library of congress subject headings) but lead to some surprisingly specific sources. for example, the subject heading “women—comic books, strips, etc. ” includes the title the poison maiden and the great bitch: female stereotypes in marvel superhero comics by susan wood (san bernardino, calif. : r. reginald / borgo press, 1989; pn6725. w66 1989) and trina robbins' s the great women superheroes (northampton, mass. : kitchen sink press, c1996; pn6725. r59 1996) .
fans of the marvel omnibus library, also known by the pet name
omniboo
, have come to enjoy the fat - packed hardcovers that reprint hundreds and hundreds of pages of marvel' s most popular runs. from classics to, well, modern classics, the material in the omniboo is almost always the cream of marvel' s vast crop .
within a month of its release, marvel’s the avengers grossed over us $ 1. 3 billion in box office revenue worldwide to become the highest ever overseas gross for a comic book adaptation. (photo: marvel worldwide, inc. )
on the heels of the walt disney company’s acquisition of marvel, which was announced in august 2009 and completed last december, disney publishing worldwide said yesterday that it is now managing the global children’s licensed book publishing business formerly overseen by marvel entertainment .
marvel’s robust ip assets have without a doubt enabled it to reap enormous benefits from its licensing activities. its low - risk movie - licensing strategy has meant that film studios carry all the financial risk in developing the film, while creating multiple marketing opportunities for marvel. even where a film, such as ang lee’s hulk, disappointed at the box office, marvel enjoyed significant revenue from film - related merchandise sales and an upsurge of interest in its comic books. sales of the role play toys known as “hulk hands” (a pair of large costume gloves), for example, have been valued at us $ 100 million. moreover, marvel’s astute business strategy has enabled it to further leverage the commercial value of its characters by striking licensing deals across multiple media platforms .
disney said it will create new content and work with licensees to bring marvel’s brands and characters into a range of formats for worldwide distribution. upcoming marvel programs will focus on the feature films thor and captain america: the first avenger in 2011, as well as classic characters such as spider - man and iron man and multicharacter brands such as marvel heroes and super hero squad .
i have redeemed my free copy on urltoken but it' s not on the marvel comics app. what do i do ?
although the showcase presents line appears to be another dying line, it can retire proud. following on the heels of marvel' s essential line, the showcase books evolved into a great way for readers to get their hands on material that would be unlikely to get reprinted but for the inexpensive format. volumes like men of war, atomic knights, and even captain carrot were the norm by what seems like the end of the line in earlyl 2015. then again, maybe that' s what killed it? in any case, another thing these books have in common with the essentials is that they are going out of print for good. grab' em here while you can !
i don' t know if you' ve heard, but in 2015 marvel started publishing star wars comics again. once disney bought both marvel comics and lucasfilm it was only a matter of time, and after over two decades at dark horse, the star wars publishing rights moved back to their original home. marvel wasted no time, and star wars immediately became the most popular comic book property in the industry. the collected edition department went to town as well, issuing omnibuses of the classic marvel series and epic collections of dark horse material. on our star wars page you' ll find all of marvel' s star wars collected editions .
25. loki' s first appearance in the marvel universe predates that of his brother thor' s first appearance by 13 years .
in 2009, as part of their 70th anniversary observance, marvel at long last began offering their masterworks line in softcover format. the quality is nice and they are half the cost of their hardcover counterparts. just like the hardcover masterworks, these softcovers are available in
regular
editions as well as the limited, numbered editions. alas, december of 2014 brought us the final edition of this line of books .
and now a word about our sponsors: tales of wonder and amazon. both sites offer great prices and service, and i encourage purchases from them. i shop at both these sites, too! there are lots of books out there to read and enjoy – so happy shopping !
marvel' s oversized hardcovers are where it' s at! the line began as a way of giving contemporary titles a nice oversize format, with books like daredevil, punisher, and the ultimate line getting the treatment. while newer material still dominates the format, some classic material gets in there as well, notably nice chunks of eighties and nineties x - men material that don' t quite make the omnibus grade .
21. when nick fury was recreated for marvel' s
ultimate universe
in 2000, creators mark millar and bryan hitch deliberately modeled the traditionally white character on samuel l. jackson. this led to jackson eventually getting cast as fury in the marvel cinematic universe .
the article refers to a spider - man / dallas cowboys team - up comic for a dallas paper. jim has been credited with writing this marvel team - up # 126 story which was originally for another newspaper supplement. i don' t understand the purpose of such supplements. were such inserts supposed to introduce new readers to marvel? i wonder why marvel and dc don' t do such things anymore .
17. michael jackson looked into buying marvel comics in the late' 90s because he wanted to play spider - man in a movie .
33. game of thrones author george r. r. martin regularly wrote in to marvel' s letter columns in the' 60s .
35. marvel continued to use godzilla in the mid -' 80s even though their license to publish comics featuing the character had expired .
marvel’s had a pretty epic 2016. civil war ii, black panther, gwenpool and unbeatable squirrel girl are just the tip of the galactus - sized iceberg. so will the comics monolith live up to fanboy expectations in the year 2017? call us psychics if you want, but we’ve got good reason to believe early 2017 may be packed with a few books worth losing mjölnir over. so without further adieu, let’s take a look .
dc' s omnibuses are often not as large as marvel' s, covering shorter runs. it took six volumes to cover the entire 81 - issue run of starman, for instance. there are some big books in there though: the new 52 omnibus has, well, 52 issues in it! this is the format in which you' ll find dc' s classic kirby and ditko reprints. that alone is worth the click !
finding women characters in comics is relatively easy using encyclopedias and histories of comic books such as crawford' s encyclopedia of comic books (middle village, n. y. : jonathan david publishers, 1978; pn6725. c7 n & cpr) and mike benton' s the comic book in america: an illustrated history (dallas, tex. : taylor publishing, 1989; pn6725. b38 1989 n & cpr). comic book scholarship is accessible through indexes such as women studies abstracts (z962. w65 mrr alc), mla international bibliography (z7006. m64 mrr alc; oclc firstsearch), and america, history and life (z1236. a488 n & cpr, abc - clio database). much more difficult to research are women illustrators and writers who worked on women' s comic books or on the male superhero issues. these women are often unidentified even in the fine print of the comic book .
marvel' s agents of s. h. i. e. l. d. : the art of the series slipcase (hardback )
after disney comics shut down in 1993, walt disney relicensed the older properties to gladstone publishing and the newer ones were licensed to marvel comics .
spider - man, a more recent addition to the avengers as portrayed in the comic books, is peter parker, a high school boy who was bitten by a radioactive spider and endowed with spider - like powers. driven by the death of his uncle, spider - man fights evil and lives by the trademarked phrase, “with great power comes great responsibility”. introduced to the marvel universe in 1962, spider - man remains one of the most famous superheroes .
the artist select series will be available in a three different tiers of increasingly rare and collectible editions. the red label edition, will feature signed, hand - numbered plates, and black and blue label editions, will add even more deluxe touches such as original, hand - drawn artwork from the talent involved with the series, portfolio pieces, and more. all books in the artist select series will feature exclusive covers and hand - built tray cases available solely through this release. the books will be available direct - to - consumer through the idw limited website, with the red label editions also being offered through the comic market .
as a company based almost entirely on creative assets, it is no surprise that intellectual property (ip) plays a key role in marvel’s fortunes .
comics may also be protected under trademark law. trademarks are used to protect the names and likenesses of marvel’s comic book superheroes. this protection has been key to enabling marvel to build and secure sizeable revenue from character merchandizing, an activity that has been further boosted by the company’s movie licensing strategy .
30. marvel got around a law that increases taxes on toys that resemble humans by claiming that x - men figures were mutants, not humans .
thanks. the term byrne and others have used on his online forum is
faithful fifty .
maybe the number went up after he left marvel .
darth vader vol 1, the triumphant return of star wars comics to marvel, shedding light on the post - a new hope adventures of anakin skywalker .
16. marvel comics owned the rights to the word
zombie
from 1975 through 1996, when they realized it was impossible to enforce the trademark .
[ dropcap ] idw [ / dropcap ] publishing and marvel close nycc 2014 with the last of their four joint announcements as they reveal a project that will celebrate the most iconic marvel characters and fan - favorite story lines in an all - new, deluxe, limited - edition format produced by idw limited .
it was only a matter of time before comics publishers figured out that they were sitting on a wealth of material that is a natural for the
adult coloring book
craze. sure enough, marvel, dc, idw, and image have all jumped on the bandwagon. they are going to keep making them as long as people buy them, and why not? speaking of buying them, we' ve made it easy with a page that includes these books across all publishers !
once again, marvel incorporated mantlo’s micronauts into the marvel universe as the heroic team consisting of acroyear, bug, commander rann, biotron, princess mari, and prince argon, took on established marvel villains plant man, psycho mann, dr. doom, molecule man, and hydra agents fixer and mentallo, plus their own adversary baron karza. the ‘nauts even teamed with the x - men in an early' 80s mini - series that was quite a big deal at the time. the book featured complex characters that often flipped sides between good and evil and firmly established the team as important parts of the marvel universe .
the down side, however, is that now that marvel studios is a fully - fledged filmmaker, it is still bound by pre - existing movie licensing agreements and therefore cannot readily use all of its top - tier superheroes to reenact some of marvel universe’s hallmark epic comic book battles. however, its rich stable of characters along with a degree of serendipity have made it possible to pull together a superhero cast in marvel’s the avengers that is sufficiently mesmerizing to keep fans happy .
it seems that marvel still holds the right to crystar as the character made a cameo appearance in one of the six milliona marvel zombies series. the property might be obscure, but as far as toy / comic tie ins go, crystar was a (i shouldn’t) diamond in the rough (i did) .
but those original dc books remain some of the most beloved toy comics of all time as dc really fleshed out a back story that would become the inspiration for cartoons, films, and future comics. dc was the first to give life to mattel’s enduring line of heroes, warriors, monsters, wizards, and whatever the heck an orko is .
they got out of the production business in 1991, a couple of years after selling marvel. their history looks like a mess of sales, mergers and acquisitions .
when asked whether marvel studios was considering ways to bring film - licensed characters back home in an interview with heyuguys, kevin feige, marvel studios’ president said, “the contracts are all very specific, and if there is ever a time for them to revert, they will. but right now they are safely at those studios… the truth is… there are almost 8, 000 characters in the marvel library… and not all of them would make a movie, but a lot of them will. ”
23. marvel comics was prohibited from featuring werewolves in comics by the comics code authority from 1954 through 1971. this pushed marvel creators to be more imaginative, and resulted in the creation of sauron, a character that' s basically a were - pterodactyl with vampiric powers, in the pages of x - men in 1969 .
event that altered the landscape of the marvel universe. coming out of that, marvel launched a new initiative reflecting the changes that they called all - new all - different marvel. while not a reboot, several pieces were shuffled around, with new creators and new status quos nearly across the board. it therefore seems like a good idea to start an all - new all - different storefront page! like our other contemporary storefront pages, you' ll find anad collected editions of all formats .
help your child explore the wonderful world of marvel at dk with best - selling comics featuring characters like black panther, iron man, captain america, thor, star - lord, groot, hulk, dr. strange, fantastic four and more. take them on an unforgettable adventure to the marvel universe with sticker boo ...
27. avengers writer steve englehart made a point of portraying beast as a stoner in the' 70s, though he was not allowed to make direct references to drugs. englehart had the character portrayed reading carlos castaneda books and listening to stevie wonder, which was meant to convey that he was a
young, intellectual guy who' d gotten hip .
8. marvel comics founder martin goodman was meant to be aboard the hindenberg on the day the ship famously crashed, but changed his travel plans at the last minute .
10. neal tennant, the lead singer of the pet shop boys, was an editor at marvel' s u. k. office in the late' 70s .
without fanfare, the online bookseller has slashed prices on more than 2, 000 marvel collected editions. the discounted prices are available for kindle - ready editions of the books, as well as editions available through comixology, an amazon subsidiary and the biggest digital comics retailer out there. as just one example, god loves, man kills, the seminal x - men story arc that inspired much of the x - men film franchise, will set you back $ 4 on comixology, and $ 10 if you want it in hardcover .
6. marvel published the first issue of their adaptation of star wars in march 1977 with a july cover date, about two months before the movie was released in theaters .
like many other marvel licensed properties, the transformers started as part of the marvel universe, with guest appearences by spider - man and death’s head (who first appeared in transformers) but the autobots and decepticons were soon shunted off to their own reality. dreamwave and idw continue the legacy in many different forms and iterations feeding multiple generations of transformers fanatics .
things took an odd turn in shogun warriors # 16, when the warriors’ human handlers were slaughtered by the villainous primal one creating an odd last few issues that were kind of ponderously depressing. marvel’s shogun warriors had an ignominious end, as all three warriors were destroyed off panel by the samurai destroyer in the pages of f antastic four once marvel lost the license .
7. bill sarnoff, the head of dc comics' parent company warner communications, approached marvel comics editor - in - chief jim shooter in 1984 about licensing the publishing rights to the entire dc universe. sarnoff figured that marvel, who dominated the market at the time, were better suited to making successful comics featuring batman, superman, and the justice league. marvel' s publisher at the time, jim galton, declined sarnoff' s offer, thinking that those comics weren' t selling well because the characters weren' t very good .
while it lasted, the shogun warriors was an entertaining book that really displayed the talents of trimpe, a man born to draw' 70 eras japanese robots, and featured luminary guest stars reed richards and tony stark. the oddity of marvel destroying an in - continuity property to explain a lapsed license makes marvel’s shogun warriors a great point of curiosity of the bronze age .
5. marvel had a rule in the mid -' 70s that wolverine did not have arm hair while in costume, but could have arm hair when he was in regular clothing .
in 2005 marvel was able to claw back movie rights to iron man from new line cinema, whose film option had expired after several years of unsuccessful development. this paved the way for the successful release of the movies iron man and iron man 2, in 2008 and 2010. similarly, marvel regained film rights to the hulk from universal studios, thanks to a clause whereby rights revert to marvel if principal photography (the part of filming with actors on camera) or significant payments towards filming are not initiated by a specified date after the first film’s release .
in the early 1980s, comic book fans associated the term “superhero” and its variations so closely with characters featured in marvel’s storylines and those of its rival dc comics, that the two companies were able to co - register the name “super heroes” as a mark for use on toys (us reg. no. 1140452 - oct. 14, 1980) and comic books (us reg. no. 1179067 – nov. 24, 1981). these registrations are still active, although many comic book fans and legal professionals question the appropriateness of granting such rights over what is arguably a descriptive generic term .
sometimes comic books aren' t enough and you want to curl up with a good comic strip collection. the last few years have been an incredible time for classic comic strip reprints, with companies like idw, hermes press, fantagraphics, and others bringing us some terrific high - end collections. now we present them all in one place in what is likely the most thorough resource for archival comic strip volumes .
the library acquires comic books published and distributed in the united states almost exclusively through copyright deposit. titles are added to the collection on the basis of quality of text and graphic depiction; significance of the artist, writer, or publisher; originality of story or main character; the title' s popularity as reflected in circulation statistics or media attention; representation of new ideas or social trends; or availability through copyright .
the eccentric genius, billionaire playboy and philanthropist tony stark, played by robert downey jr. , is also the armored superhero known as iron man. (photos: marvel worldwide, inc. )
this is what we' re all here for! these wonderful hardcover reprints of marvelous, masterful mayhem and merriment: the marvel masterworks! the marvel age as rendered by kirby and ditko, lee and lieber, big john buscema, heck, colan and jazzy john! (and claremont and byrne !) dozens and dozens of volumes for now... . buy' em all !
the ultimates are back after doing the impossible; turning galactus, the former devourer of worlds into the lifebringer, an entity of resurrection and life incarnate. the team itself may be one of the most powerful and equally intelligent marvel lineups since the illuminati. the roster includes black panther, captain marvel, monica rambeau / spector, ms. america chavez and blue marvel. in their previous run the gang was disbanded, but as issue # 1 shows, that won’t be for long. if you’re looking for a diverse team of heavy hitters, look no further. the ultimates is on stands now !
14. similarly, the backstory for transformers and most of the original characters including optimus prime and megatron, were created by marvel editors jim shooter and denny o' neil along with writer bob budiansky .
dc' s vertigo and (the late) wildstorm imprints have brought us some of the most original, innovative, and influential comic book stories of the last thirty - plus (!) years. here you' ll find hardcover collections featuring seminal works by visionary writers like neil gaiman, garth ennis, warren ellis, and brian k. vaughan. included here are books from alan moore' s fabulous america' s best comics line !
search tips: the comic book collection can be searched by individual title in the library' s online catalog. subject headings are used sparingly to describe individual titles, and many are given the general heading of “comic books, strips, etc. ” in cases where a single character is the focus of a comic book, the name of the character is the subject heading, e. g. , “wonder woman (fictitious character). ”
jayjay here. jim’s away and… well, i’m not a mouse, but i’ll play anyway. here’s something i thought you might enjoy. when i found my old marvel tryout book to scan the pages for yesterday’s blog there were some long forgotten newspaper articles stuck into it. here’s one from new york city business, february 1985, about the marvel secret wars and dc crisis on infinite earths rivalry among other things .
34. marvel had cyclops and jean grey get married in the comics because they found out that the producers of x - men: the animated series intended to have them wed in the show' s second season .
the marvel artist select series will feature stories hand - picked by the featured artist and packaged in deluxe, oversize tray cases containing many extras, including signed plates, hand - drawn original artwork, and much more. each volume will focus on one marvel character with the first four chosen being spider - man, daredevil, hulk, and iron man and many of the top creators that are so closely associated with these iconic heroes .
unlike their oversized brethren, this line of marvel hardcovers is in the standard - size comic format and typically compiles more modest runs of comics. it gets you marvel' s current and most popular series out to you faster than the ohcs but in a hardcover format that precedes a later trade paperback edition. while the format used to cover seemingly half or more of the publisher' s line, in recent years only 1 - 3 titles a month get released .
marvel, one of the original comic book producers, has since 1939 created almost 8, 000 characters, including iron man, spider - man, the hulk, blade, thor, the x - men and the fantastic four. acquired by the walt disney company in 2009, marvel often outperforms its rival, dc comics (owned by time warner) – which produces batman, superman and wonder woman – in the volume and dollar value of its monthly comic sales .
we don’t know why, and we don’t know how (ok, we have some guesses) but you can grab a shockingly large number of digital marvel comics from amazon on the cheap today, most of them for under five dollars .
the highpoint of s. h. i. e. l. d.' s comic book incarnation is undoubtedly the short run of writer / artist jim steranko. these days enjoying a renaissance as twitter - based raconteur, the steranko who took over the series with 1967' s strange tales # 155 – continuing through # 168, before the strip continued in its own series (steranko created # 1 - 3 and # 5 of that series, as well) – brought a cinematic sleekness to mainstream superhero comics that the genre hadn' t seen before, and a contemporary attitude miles away from the soap operatic bombast of other books in marvel' s line. sexy, smart and unlike anything else on the stands at the time, it managed to end nick fury' s days as a leading man for almost two decades, with s. h. i. e. l. d. returning to the background of the marvel universe and an existence as generic government goons with great outfits .
i had no idea that cadence closed shop and sold off all it' s divisions, with marvel (publishing and productions) sold for $ 46 million to new world in 1986. was that cheap? was there any interest from disney, lucasfilms or a publishing house? if not, why not? who were new world? is there a future blog on this? so many questions. to think that 23 years later, marvel was sold to disney for $ 4 billion .
marvel' s agents of s. h. i. e. l. d. , then, is a strange thing indeed for comic fans. how will it translate to the small screen? tune in tonight and judge for yourself .
many kids who grew to love comics in the' 80s owe this love to g. i. joe. marvel even went so far as to advertise each new issue on television bringing in droves of new fans to the newsstands and into the comic shops with each animated advertisement. the g. i. joe comic legacy continues today with multiple titles by idw, but the original marvel series shaped a generation of comic book lovers, making it the most important toy to comic adaptation ever published .
the marvel premiere edition classic line of hardcovers is a counterpoint to masterworks. like masterworks, they are in a standard - sized hc format but they cherrypick across a wide spectrum of classic storylines from marvel' s rich past. they come in a regular edition and a variant edition that has a common library numbering system like the variant masterworks. this is unfortunately another defunct line, ending in 2013. it' s a real shame, but what a library. do you have them all yet ?
transformers is one of those toy properties that lives in perfect symbiosis with the world of comics. the comics, first published by marvel for a good nine years, than dreamwave and idw, all fueled the stories and histories of hasbro’s robots in disguise .
24. she - hulk was created after marvel learned of a plan to introduce a female hulk in the popular incredible hulk tv series. they rushed the first issue of the savage she - hulk into production so they could hold the copyright and trademark .
not only did dc do a fantastic job archiving their own comic properties, but they actively sought out other great comics from beyond their walls to showcase in the luxurious archives format! among them are will eisner' s spirit, elfquest, t. h. u. n. d. e. r. agents, the joe kubert library: tor and mad magazine. like the dc universe archives, it seems doubtful they will be returning to this line. but we' ll always have the spirit books, for which we should all be grateful .
marvel studios has only recently been able to regain the film rights to enough of its top - tier characters to make up the team of iconic superheroes featuring in its box office hit, marvel’s the avengers. the film recounts the story of how nick fury of s. h. i. e. l. d. brings together a team of superheroes – captain america, iron man, the hulk, thor, black widow and hawkeye – to form the avengers to help save the earth from loki and his army .
the popularity of dc' s absolute editions, extra oversize slipcased hardcovers, opened the floodgates for the major publishers to start regularly putting out hundred dollar and up prestige books. the program dates back to the early part of the decade, with only a few releases a year. absolutes have presented material from dc proper, as well as vertigo and the defunct wildstorm imprint. in addition to the absolutes, this page includes the recent addition to dc' s reprint line, the gallery editions. these are dc' s version of idw' s artist editions .
here is the place to find classic collections from many of the other fine publishers. idw' s amazing artist editions, possibly the finest reprint line in existence, are all here. the publisher' s other hardcovers are also available here, including the yoe books line, a personal favorite. but wait, there' s more! how about all of fantagraphics classic material hardcovers, titan' s simon and kirby line, and canton street press? you' ll not find a better place to see a listing of all of these lines in one place, and you can order them !
you might think that robots that disguise themselves and vehicles would be hard to justify in any sensible plot, but one would be wrong. writers, particularly simon furman for marvel, fleshed out their world in the pages of the transformers comics, and gave each transformer human motivations and personalities that went hand in glove with the toys kids were consuming at an unheard of rate. as transformers remains a huge part of the cultural consciousness, the stories and characterization of the robots continue to be fed and informed by the work marvel did for so many years .
i notice that cadence industries wasn' t a listed company any more and the marvel subsidiary was responsible for 50% of the turnover and 66% of the profits. i did some research (via wikipedia) and found this archived business story from the new york times in 1988 .
15. george romero, the director of night of the living dead, worked with marvel for two years on a project that would' ve debuted as a comic and movie simultaneously, but plans were dropped after romero' s sequel, day of the dead, flopped in 1985 .
26. rob liefeld placed an ad for a comic called executioners in the comic buyers guide. it was a blatant rip - off of his own work on x - force, which prompted marvel to threaten legal action. liefeld dropped the project entirely and ended up doing youngblood instead .
the story of crystar was pretty simple: the good agents of order, the crystal warriors, faced off against the agents of chaos, the magma people, led by crystar’s brother, moltar (because what else would you named the leader of the magma people ?). the world of the comic was well built and functioned within the parameters of the toys and still holds up pretty well today. marvel must have wanted the book and toy line to succeed because there were frequent marvel universe guest stars in the crystar comic including dr. strange, nightcrawler, and alpha flight .
jim said ,
we' d never cancel someone like captain america — that would be like cancelling the constitution .
did he ever imagine that marvel would publish the
death
of captain america? (and i don' t mean the steranko classic that was reprinted when jim was eic! )
28. the x - men character dazzler was actually created to serve as a multi - media cross - promotion between casablanca records and marvel comics. she was originally planned to have a real life equivalent with a record and a movie, but both ideas were dropped when disco started falling out of fashion .
3. marvel comics and dc comics have co - owned the trademark for the phrase
super hero
since 1981. they pursued this action because the toy company mego, which made licensed toys of dc characters, had beat them to it. mego gave up the trademark when the two companies threatened legal action .
“legion quest” serves as a prologue to the epic age of apocalypse event of the mid - 90s. age of apocalypse is still considered one of marvel' s most successful events, a grand what - if story into a dystopian world, and it all started when legion tried to take matters into his own hands .
i did my first professional comics work at the age of thirteen, selling a legion of super - heroes story to dc comics and going on to write superboy, the legion of super - heroes, superman and other titles. in 1978, i accepted the position of editor in chief of marvel comics under the condition that i would be allowed to improve things for marvel’s creators. i introduced royalties and a spectrum of other incentives, rights and benefits, attracting a who’s who of talent. later, i founded valiant, defiant and broadway comics and was the principal creator of their characters and universes. today, i’m the editor in chief of illustrated media, a custom comics company .
welcome to your internet storefront for a huge collection of hardcovers from marvel and dc, as well as other publishers, making this is an easy and accessible way for you to shop for your masterworks, archives, omnibus and other collections. all links are to site sponsors tales of wonder and amazon us, amazon uk, and amazon canada .
here is where you' ll find those big ol' trade paperbacks, with large chunks of issues. first up is the epic collections, which will ultimately comprise the entire run of some of marvel' s longest running titles (published our of chronological order to get some material that' s never reprinted out there). the marvel ultimate collections, later re - christened
complete collections
are a line of trades that consolidate longer runs of comics than a typical trade paperback, sometimes conforming to the contents of previously published ohc collections. often but not always collecting material from more recent series, they are typically meant to replace single trades that are allowed to go out of print .
according to legend, one christmas, the son of comic book great bill mantlo opened his christmas presents, and lo and behold, micronauts! as mantlo watched his son open his toys, the writer supposedly began constructing a backstory for the little metal men. at mantlo’s request, then marvel got the micronauts license from mego and the rest is history.
marvel books refers to prose books licensed by marvel entertainment or its division in the 1980s that published coloring books and sticker books . marvel publishing/worldwide also twice launched twice its marvel press prose novel imprint , in 2004 and in 2011 . 
marvel books refers to prose books licensed by marvel entertainment or its division in the 1980s that published coloring books and sticker books. marvel publishing/worldwide also twice launched twice its marvel press prose novel imprint, in 2004 and in 2011.
marvel books refers to prose books licensed by marvel entertainment or its division in the 1980s that published coloring books and sticker books. marvel publishing/worldwide also twice launched twice its marvel press prose novel imprint, in 2004 and in 2011.