It’s no secret that the “Bullpen Bulletins,” written by Stan Lee for decades in the back pages of comic books, were filled with more hype than reality of the inner workings of the offices of Marvel Comics. Still, it stings a little for this fan to learn just how far from Lee’s rosey-tinted sunglasses things actually were.
Sean Howe’s insightful and detailed 2012 book, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, is and exhaustive look at the creation of the Marvel empire from its inception by struggling magazine publisher Martin Goodman in the late 1930s to the owner of global recognized characters shortly after the cinematic release of The Avengers in 2012. The thoroughly researched 432 page volume (plus another 50 or so reference pages) tells Marvel’s narrative chronologically so readers can easily visualize a small, independent staff scraping by over the years, building into a corporation with nondescript comic book outsiders calling the shots and watching the bottom line more than what was between the covers. Although the creative zenith of the 1960s to the 1980s might be the most interesting for fans because of the memorable creators and the lesser known stories (or fights) behind the ideas, but it’s all fascinating.
This would be a fun and a hard-to-put down book for comic book readers, or anyone who grew up with Marvel’s characters, whether they read their stories or just enjoyed the cartoons, TV shows, movie or toys over the years. Howe packs loads of details about a prolific publishing company over 75 years old. He generally finds the right balance of devoting the right amount of space to important creators, storylines and industry moments with enough info to educate the casual fan, while also hooking someone who has read these stories and knows the names behind the characters. Not an easy task. It all feels very fluid as behind the scenes storylines and creator anecdotes move forward as he revisits them to confirm the relevance.
This is also not some sort of official Marvel history propaganda piece either. There is dirt in here. Howe lists over 150 comic book professionals he went on the record with for interviews.In addition to interviews, Howe pieced together stories and anecdotes from numerous sources.
Sections are devoted to rough decades of creativity and publishing: the early years (Sub Mariner, Original Human Torch and Captain America) of the late 30s and early 40s; the struggling 1950s as superhero comics fell out of favor and Marvel nearly went under; the Golden Age with rebirth of costumed adventures from the minds of iconic names like Lee, Kirby, Ditko, Romita, and Thomas, and the start of dynamic characters (Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, Avengers, Daredevil, and Dr. Strange); a new creative era as the old guard steps back and a drug-aided new set of creators emerge tackling issues of the day in the experimental 1970s era of Man-Thing, Ghost Rider, Howard The Duck, and Adam Warlock; Jim Shooter’s Secret Wars and New Universe failed launch; the rise of Image founders and the spread of gimmicky comic book covers and multi-part crossovers as Marvel chases dollar signs; and the slow scrawl out of bankruptcy after long sought movie deals pay off.
Howe’s work not only illuminates Marvel’s rise to prominence and pop-culture icon status, but the book also shows how the comic book industry evolved: targeted to boys under 14, college students strengthen and solidify market, attempts to reach minorities and women (laughable), tackling social and philosophical issues, the struggle and evolution of creators to maintain control of the their work, the rise in the importance of licensing, the prominence of multi-part crossovers and enhanced covers, the changes in distribution and importance of the direct market (comic book stores), and the birth of the Hollywood boom of the last 15 years.
There’s a lot to take away from Howe’s narrative. One thing that sticks with me is that its the House of Ideas, but it wasn’t always a happy house. While writer/editor Stan Lee, Marvel’s greatest pitchman, was developing so my iconic characters in the early days of Marvel, he was helping to build the brand and hype the importance of the creators, himself included, with fun nicknames and off-beat marketing blurbs in the issues. Lee, who started at Marvel when he was just a teenager (and got a job because his mother was a cousin of the owner), painted a picture of hard-working, but goofy adults having fun rolling out each issue in the same office in New York. There was some truth in Lee’s description, but not entirely.
Artist Jack Kirby, the other crucial component of Marvel’s resurgence of the 1960s, is portrayed as having little interest in nicknames, hyping the brand and even working in the same offices as the rest of the team after awhile. The prolific Kirby, who Marvel instructed its artists to draw like, eventually worked out of his home, and eventually moved across the country to California. Communication between Lee and Kirby, who also co-created Captain America with Joe Simon in 1941 (Lee was apparently hired when Captain America #1 was at the printers) started to break down it seems. Kirby, who died in 1994 and seemed to have a strained relationship with Marvel and Lee over the years, seemed to be tired of getting little or no credit for story ideas and plotting. How much of each story was thought of by each man will never be known at this point. He also seemed to want to go in different directions than Lee with characters after several years. Kirby also seemed at peace with his relationship with Marvel since it was steady work, and he knew the characters belonged to Marvel. Marvel did wrongfully withhold old a few thousand pieces of valuable artwork over the years (but didn’t release them all to Kirby’s estate and family several years after his death.)
Lee is portrayed as someone who wanted to make people happy and not rock the boat with his stories. If a social issue came up in a story Lee was writing or editing, he did everything to play the middle to appease everyone. Lee comes off as a decent guy. Lee’s name became a household name because of his own salesmanship and his path from writer to editor to vice president allowed him to keep his name out there as he aged. Kirby eventually got his chance to write his own characters at Marvel and at rival DC Comics, but they never quite captured the public’s attention like his collaborations with Lee. The Lee-Kirby partnership gets incredibly sour as the years go by without a definitive breaking point. Was Kirby jealous of Lee’s fame and financial security?
Lee was and is not someone who would generally badmouth someone, even when things got spiteful between him and Kirby in the late 1980s over credit of creating the Marvel Universe. By then, Marvel was raking in money so its hard not think that Kirby felt he was being unappreciated. Marvel also still held onto lots of his old artwork. That’s one of the saddest aspects of the book: The downfall of the Lee-Kirby relationship. After not-speaking for years, Lee attended Kirby’s funeral after checking first with Kirby’s widow.
In a book about comic books, there’s only one piece of art. A small photo of a non-mustached, balding Lee with a jovial Kirby from happy days in 1965. I love that image. It would make a great T-shirt with no words.
Kirby wasn’t the only artist who’s relationship with Lee went south after creative heights. Steve Ditko, the co-creator of Spider-Man, eventually stopped speaking with Lee while they were still working on The Amazing Spider-Man issues. Ditko, who is still alive and not one to seek publicity or generally give many interviews, did not speak with Howe for the book. Ditko should probably get more acknowledgement for pushing Peter Parker into more of a outcast and unpopular kid at school. Ditko eventually plotted and penciled stories on his own (Lee commonly filled in dialog for numerous books he was trying to write/edit/plot), but dropped off his work at the Marvel offices without speaking to Lee. Again, not a distinct breaking point, but it’s not hard to imagine the out-going, rah rah style of Lee not agreeing with the serious Ditko. Lee also had made some small jokes at Ditko’s expense in the Bullpen Bulletins editorials.
For the record, Lee’s relationship with any other comic book professional is not in question. He is just as beloved within the industry, as he is outside it.
The fight of creator’s rights plays also plays a central role in the book, particularly over the 70s sensation Howard The Duck and Steve Gerber. For someone who associates Howard The Duck firstly with a terrible and widely panned Hollywood flop it’s kind of baffling to read about how popular character once was.
Other prominent creators feature include: Roy Thomas, arguably the second most important writer in Marvel’s vast history behind Lee; John Romita, the next most prolific and influential artist behind Kirby, editor Jim Shooter and his big ideas, Steve Engleheart, Gerry Conway, Gene Colan, John Buscema, editor Tom DeFalco, Jim Starlin, longtime X-Men writer Chris Claremont, fan favorites Frank Miller and John Byrne, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Rob Liefield, who does not come off well, Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, Grant Morrison, and Joe Quesada. Plus several more recognizable names.
While lots and lots of money is at stake with licensing fees, this book does a great job of showing that the majority of the creators involved really care passionately about the characters and the stories involved.After hammering home so many stories about creators fighting to maintain control of their work and creations, the book also slips an interesting point near the end about how many of the recent crop of creators to play in the Marvel Universe are at piece with since they built their names in other media or with other titles. With Marvel, they know they will get paid, so there’s no reason to rock the boat for character/creator rights.
Other notable and juicy tidbits include:
- Marvel’s pursuit of Hollywood movie deals (Lee seemed to be spearheading the effort for a long time — officially and unofficially) is well documented in the book, and although they get mentioned occasionally, Marvel’s TV (Hulk, Spider-Man) and animated efforts aren’t well chronicled for some reason. I thought the Hulk TV production in particular would get more space devoted to it.
- Numerous creators like Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman and Jim Shooter began writing for Marvel in their late teens or prominant roles in their early 20s, and nearly all were editor in chiefs before 30, with a few under 25 when they were in charge.
- One of the forgettable suits who purchased Marvel in the late 90s thought he had bought the company that had Superman.
- Wolverine’s creation is mentioned and properly attributed to Len Wein, but for such an iconic and popular character there really wasn’t much of a story mentioned except that in an effort to reach a more international audience new X-men characters with ties around the world were created.
- The challenging efforts to get Spider-Man’s story on the big screen is documented through out the book. It’s interesting to imagine what director James Cameron, who was attached to the project following Terminator 2, would’ve have done with the Wall-Crawler.
- Because of hard to believe publishing rules and arrangements of the 1960s, Marvel was only able to produce eight titles per month while DC was able to produce several more.
- Blade was a surprise hit of 1998, taking in over $70 million domestically with a budget a quarter of the size for Howard the Duck from 15 years earlier. The real crazy part is that Marvel only earned $25,000 from Blade’s box office. A reason for such a small piece of the pie isn’t directly given, but a pattern of lousy contracts drawn up by people unfamiliar with Hollywood and the fact that many of the movie years were made 15-20 years earlier with small studios, but handcuffed Marvel from renegotiating with different studios.
