Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe

What a great way to end the year, a five-star book! Sean Howe’s history of Marvel Comics, from its early start all the way up to today is a fantastic read. Not only was I interested in the material, but the author wrote effortlessly, pulling me from the first to the last page.

I was most excited about the material covering the mid-to-late 70s and early 80s. I read Marvel books by the dozen back then, and was thrilled to be reintroduced to writers, artists, inkers and colorists who I had committed to memory and had even seen at Creation Conventions in the early 80s. I loved being reminded of the plots of some of my favorite books: X-Men, Fantastic Four and Daredevil. I loved John Byrne doing X-Men and Frank Miller drawing Daredevil. What a rush of nostalgia and fun reading about things that were very important to me when I was growing up. Speaking of my childhood, it was also way cool that my comic book loving friend Rob was mentioned in the book. Yay Rob! He lived our dream and worked for Marvel for awhile.

I also liked reading about the internal struggles, fights and drama that went on behind the scenes. I never knew this part of Marvel and was blown away. I was depressed about how creative people were treated (often not getting ownership of their creations) and incensed about the greed of business people who came in and tried to milk millions for themselves out of Marvel without liking comics or those who read them. Amazingly, some didn’t even look at the products their company made!

This is a great book and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who grew up reading Marvel comics, especially during the 70s and 80s.