Tales of Syzpense #61
Two new editions of Origins of Marvel Comics debut this week, The Feeding FOC, Les Mort Giant-Syz, Lore 3 and Self Help 5 head to print, and a Spinner Rack so bright, you've got to wear shades...
The Origin of Origins of Marvel Comics
Whenever I finish a book I love now, I have the same conversation in my head — is this something I’ll re-read, and therefore want to keep on a bookshelf — or am I unlikely to revisit it for anything longer than a cursory glance, in which case I should donate it?
What I’ve found is, like I’ve always done, I keep the books I love, even if I’m unlikely to give them a full re-read. Unfortunately, since I largely only buy books I’m pre-disposed to like, or maybe I just like too much of everything, I hang onto far more books than is reasonable (well, it seems reasonable to me, anyway).
The larger conversation, about re-reading books, never used to be in my head. As a kid, in part because there were fewer options, and certainly far fewer chances to actually procure new books, I re-read everything. Which is how so many hundreds (thousands, most likely) of comics have become lodged in my cranium for most of my life. We had fewer ways to re-watch things, we had very few nearby comic- or bookstores, we had far few funds. Whatever the reason — usually a combination of all of those factors — anything I owned, I consumed. The books I loved, I gorged on.
And the book I read more times than anything was The Origins of Marvel Comics. As it turned out, this book, and the companion volumes that followed it, were put out by Simon & Schuster’s Fireside Books imprint. As a kid, I had no idea that Marvel Comics didn’t used to be available in mass-market bookstores like they are now. Outside of the very rare collection like Jules Feiffer’s The Great Comic Book Heroes, comics were relegated to drugstores and the like. Bookstores were for books.
The Origins of Marvel Comics changed all of that. Finally, the many parents who watched in dismay as their kids read comic books instead of visual-free book (a sure indicator of intelligence, they thought) could see comic book material racked in their local B. Dalton Booksellers alongside, I don’t know, Danielle Steele novels and books like Jonathan Livingston Seagull. If nothing else, The Origins of Marvel Comics’ presence in bookstores gave adults something under which to hide the copy of The Joy of Sex they were looking to purchase.
Anyway, the point is, everyone won by having this material in bookstores and libraries at long last. Me most of all.
Because not only did my parents gift me a book that I happily devoured in silence, but finally I could read the origin stories and early issues of my favorite Marvel characters in one affordable volume. And while the text pieces that the book’s author, Stan Lee, provided have become controversial among those looking to parse which creator created what and took credit for what, I neither knew nor cared about any of that. The fun, lively, introductions that Stan provided were conversational and winning to the kids who read them; they brought us into the Marvel clubhouse, and they emphasized one of Lee’s other key strengths, his ability to hype a title or a character (or himself) in an engagingly cheery way.
And from this book’s initial release, an entire new category of comics was born. Now, it’s hard to fathom a time that comic-book content wouldn’t be available in its own section in any bookstore the world over. But for a time, that was the reality. That was our “we had to walk a mile uphill in the snow to read that comic” story, only there was no comic material at all at the top of that hill, not til Origins came around.
The book and its sequels had their day, and then the day passed and the books disappeared into the corners of comic conventions. Much like the comics they re-presented, these books shot up in value. Marvel re-released the books in 1997, albeit with different covers that were both more modern and let lacking that certain period charm of the beautifully painted John Romita covers of the original books. And those copies also disappeared, along with the Fireside line.
Owing to various reasons, legal and otherwise, the books stayed out of print for the next couple of decades. And now, in time to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first volume’s original release, Simon & Schuster has brought them back.
Tomorrow, in fact. The Origins of Marvel Comics is being released on Tuesday, October 1, in two formats: a straight softcover replica edition, and also the deluxe hardcover edition that I edited. The one that not only features an all-new Alex Ross painted cover on its dustjacket, but it also includes dozens of pages of new material, all designed by Ian Chalgren.
Among the contributors to this expanded edition are Ross, who not only created the new cover but also offered up his recollections about the book and the creative process, and a special behind-the-scenes section that details the stages in his creation of the cover as well. Alex was a great partner and sounding board on this one; also contributing compelling new pieces were Marvel VP/Executive Editor Tom Brevoort, a conversation with original Fireside editor Linda Sunshine, a sweet piece by Larry Lieber about working on early titles like Thor’s origin story alongside his brother, Stan; and an old LA Times review of the original book by science-fiction author Ray Bradbury. Along with a plethora of original ads and cover sketches, original art, and full biographies of all the involved creators.
And I’m trying not to gush about what a strange but complete thrill it is to not only see my name under Stan Lee’s name on the cover of the book—not to mention to see us both pictured as authors on the dustjacket flap—but especially on this book that meant so much to me as a kid. It’s not hyperbolic to state that The Origins of Marvel Comics is one of the books that has led me to where I am today, and so to be able to help bring it back into print after all this time is an utter thrill.
I got a copy of both new editions of the book a week ago and it’s pretty surreal to hold it in my hands and stack the new book along alongside my original childhood copy, too.
Anyway, not that all of you aren’t pretty well familiar with the origins of these characters by now but still, this book itself is pretty special, in either format. I hope you’ll give it a look. And if you happen to be at the New York Comic Con in three weeks, I’ll be doing my first official signing for the book at Simon & Schuster’s convention booth on Friday ay 4pm. I’m told one of the walls of the S&S booth will be the book’s cover, so, you know, come by for the photo op if nothing else. But I’d also love to scribble on your copy of the book, too. Happy reading… and re-reading!
Dreading the Holidays
Reminder that Syzygy/Image’s one-shot holiday horror anthology is up for pre-order now! You can read and see much more via the Dread the Halls solicitations and covers at Bleeding Cool.
In other Syzygy release news, our special non-holiday horror one-shot, The Feeding, releases a week ahead of Halloween but, more important to today, has its order cut-off with retailers today. So if you’ve not put in for a copy yet, feel free to print out the below visual or just otherwise contact your local comic shop and let them know you want a copy.
And we got a few more issues sent off to print this past week:
Self Help 05, the concluding chapter of the series’ first storyline:
Lore 03:
And Les Mort 13 Giant-Syz Special. Not bad output for a team of two…
The Mighty Marvel Calendar Book: A Visual Commercial
Restoration expert David Banks, who provided all the considerable scanning and clean-up work on my Abrams ComicArts release (The Mighty Marvel Calendar Book: A Visual History, available in two weeks!) loved the look and feel of the book so much that he and his grandson made a charming little promo video for the book! It’s not an authorized commercial or anything like that but it’s a fun and nicely made bit of hype for the coming book!
Spinner Rack
The Spinner Rack’s future is so bright, well, it’s got to wear shades. And so do these characters*:
*thanks once again to Jordan Hart for this theme
I got a kick out of seeing Stan had a pinball machine in his office.
Another great read.