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
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From Giant-Size Defenders #3, 1975. The art in this issue is credited to Jim Starlin (layouts), and Dan Adkins, Don Newton, and Jim Mooney (finishes). Not sure who did this illustration, which accompanies a text feature.
Hulk and She-Hulk by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman, 1984.
Marvel Hits Prime Time
A former Hollywood executive named Dan Goodman bought the television rights for Spider-Man in 1976. As the low-budget pilot was prepared for CBS with independent producer Chuck Fries, Stan Lee found that his input was not encouraged. “I was supposedly the consultant,” he said, “but they really didn’t listen to me very much.”
Shortly afterward, Frank Price, the new head of Universal television, asked his son about the green monster on his sweatshirt, and decided that The Incredible Hulk would make good television. For $12,500, he secured the live-action television rights to twelve Marvel characters of his choice; as both Dan Goodman and Chuck Fries had done, Price pitched CBS, preparing life-sized cardboard cutouts of the characters—including Doctor Strange, Captain America, the Human Torch, Ms. Marvel, and the Sub-Mariner—and arranging them around the network’s conference room. CBS agreed to finance two-hour pilots of eight of them, and in a matter of months The Incredible Hulk went into production. For the first time in a decade, Marvel would be transmitted into American living rooms.
Declassified at last! The Avengers charter!
I totally don’t buy that Hulk signature.
“Sexist Hulk Must Go!” From Hulk #142, August 1971. Art by Herb Trimpe and John Severin. Words by Roy Thomas. Lettering by Artie Simek.
At Slate.com this morning: a piece I wrote about Marvel’s journey to making its own movies, and how, because of rights issues, there was almost an AVENGERS movie that included B-listers like Jack of Hearts instead of Iron Man, the Hulk, or Thor.
The Defenders by John Byrne, 1975. From CPL #12.
In 1985, Jack Kirby’s lawyer broached the subject of copyright claims for Spider-Man, the Hulk, and the Fantastic Four—after a Variety ad announcing Cannon Films’ planned Captain America film credited the character not to Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, but to Stan Lee.
First page of She-Hulk #1, 1979. Art by John Buscema.
According to David Anthony Kraft, who took over the writing of the title from Stan Lee after the first issue, SHE-HULK came about because Universal, which was producing the INCREDIBLE HULK series for CBS, was about to create a spinoff without Marvel’s participation. “The executives at Universal decided they could do a SHE-HULK and somehow get around Marvel,” Kraft said. “Stan had to rather hurriedly create She-Hulk—it was under duress. It was like, ‘We need to get it out in the next thirty seconds.’”
Fake subscription ad for Marvel Comics, circa 1968. Art by Marie Severin.
