MARVEL COMICS: THE UNTOLD STORY
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"A WILD-RIDE ACCOUNT" —The Hollywood Reporter
"EPIC" —The New York Times
"INDISPENSABLE" —Los Angeles Times
"DEFINITIVE" —The Wall Street Journal
"SCINTILLATING" —Publishers Weekly
“FASCINATING” —GQ
"AUTHORITATIVE" —Kirkus Reviews
"GRIPPING" —Rolling Stone
"PRICELESS" —Booklist
"A MUST FOR ANY SUPERHERO OR POP-CULTURE FAN" —NY Post
"ESSENTIAL" —The Daily Beast
"A SUPERPOWERED MUST-READ" —USA Today
"REVELATORY" —The Miami Herald
"AS FULL OF COLORFUL CHARACTERS, TRAGIC REVERSALS AND UNLIKELY PLOT TWISTS AS ANY BOOK IN THE MARVEL CANON" —Newsday
twitter.com/seanhowe:
Editor Bobbie Chase on the portrayal of women in comic books:
Comics in general have taken a lot of heat for not representing female characters fairly. As a successful female industry professional, what are your thoughts on this?
I think in many worst-case scenarios the heat is absolutely valid. In those cases women are drawn and written from a fantasy perspective.
What changes should be implemented to turn that fact around?
The most obvious would be anatomy. A more realistic anatomy and more realistic posing of female characters would be an immense improvement. Also, too many women characters are written as helpless victims. Although some stories might call for that type of character, because of the fact that there are too few role models for women in comics, I think it’s important that writers stay away from that.
Would it be fair to say that the anatomy element applies to male characters as well? That much muscle is also the stuff of fantasies.
True, but I still strongly believe it’s worse for females for the simple reason that the male characters celebrate physical power in their stature whereas the female figures celebrate sexual presence.
—interviewed by Robert Piotrowski in 1998.
“I wonder what’ll be wrong with the NEXT girl I meet?”
Spider-Man comic strip by Stan Lee & Fred Kida, December 29, 1982.
Why did Marvel’s attempts to capture a female audience in the early 1970s fail?
“We have learned that the female comic-book market cannot be reached by a few titles displayed at random among the wealth of boys’ magazines. Should we ever again attempt to reach the female market in the future, we’ll use a different size and/or format…”
Ah, lesson learned.
For much, much more on Marvel’s attempts to reach a female audience, see this book excerpt.
“Sexist Hulk Must Go!” From Hulk #142, August 1971. Art by Herb Trimpe and John Severin. Words by Roy Thomas. Lettering by Artie Simek.
“What If…Celebrities Ran for President?” from SPOOF #3, January 1973. Art by Marie Severin; Words by Marv Wolfman.
“Romance.”
From Secret Story Romances #17, November 1955. Art by Tom Scheuer.
