Company name	Marvel Comics

Marvel Publishing, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media. Marvel Entertainment, Inc., a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, owns Marvel Publishing.

The comic book arm of the company started in 1939 as Timely Publications, and by the early 1950s had generally become known as Atlas Comics. Marvel's modern incarnation dates from 1961, with the company later that year launching Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and others.

Marvel counts among its characters such well-known properties as Spider-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men, Wolverine, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Daredevil, Thor, the Sub-Mariner, the Punisher, Ghost Rider, Doctor Strange, the Silver Surfer, and the Avengers; antagonists such as Doctor Doom, the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Venom, Magneto, Sabretooth, Galactus, the Red Skull, the Kingpin, and Bullseye; and others. Most of Marvel's fictional characters operate in a single reality known as the Marvel Universe, with locales set in real-life cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

In 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4.24 billion.

History

Timely Publications

: #1 (Oct. 1939), the first comic from Marvel precursor Timely Comics. Cover art by Frank R. Paul.]]

Martin Goodman founded the company later known as Marvel Comics under the name Timely Publications in 1939. Goodman, a pulp-magazine publisher who started by selling a Western pulp in 1933, expanded into the emerging — and by then already highly popular — new medium of comic books. Goodman began his new line from his existing company's offices at 330 West 42nd Street, New York City, New York. He officially held the titles of editor, managing editor, and business manager, with Abraham Goodman officially listed as publisher. came from an outside packager, Funnies, Inc., but by the following year Timely had its own staff in place. With the second issue the series title changed to Marvel Mystery Comics.

The company's first true editor, writer-artist Joe Simon, teamed up with soon-to-become industry-legend Jack Kirby to create one of the first patriotically themed superheroes, Captain America, in Captain America Comics #1. (March 1941) It, too, proved a major sales hit, with a circulation of nearly one million. as well as a line of children's funny-animal comics featuring popular characters like Super Rabbit and the duo Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal.

title All Surprise Comics #12 (Winter 1946-47) was labeled "A Marvel Magazine" 14 years before the publisher formally adopted the name.]]

Goodman hired his wife's cousin, Stanley Lieber, as a general office assistant in 1939. When editor Simon left the company in late 1941, Goodman made Lieber — by then writing pseudonymously as "Stan Lee" — interim editor of the comics line, a position Lee kept for decades except for three years during his military service in World War II. Lee wrote extensively for Timely, contributing to a number of different titles.

As the late-1940s rolled on, Timely was branching into new genres, notably romance (virtually all comic publishers took part in the great "romance glut" of 1949), western and crime. One title, Venus, changed genres at least three times: hero, romance, then horror.

Atlas Comics

The post-war American comic market saw superheroes falling out of fashion. Goodman's comic book line dropped them for the most part and expanded into a wider variety of genres than even Timely had published, emphasizing horror, Westerns, humor, funny animal, men's adventure-drama, crime, and war comics, and later adding a helping of jungle books, romance titles, and even espionage, medieval adventure, Bible stories and sports. Like other publishers, Goodman also courted female readers with mostly humorous comics about models and career women.

Goodman began using the globe logo of Atlas, the newsstand-distribution company he owned, on comics cover-dated November 1951. This united a line put out by the same publisher, staff, and freelancers through 59 shell companies, from Animirth Comics to Zenith Publications, under the umbrella name Atlas Comics.

Atlas, rather than innovate, took what it saw as the proven route of following popular trends in television and movies — Westerns and war dramas prevailing for a time, drive-in movie monsters another time — and even other comic books, particularly the EC horror line. Atlas also published a plethora of children's and teen humor titles, including Dan DeCarlo's Homer the Happy Ghost (à la Casper the Friendly Ghost) and Homer Hooper (à la Archie Andrews). Atlas unsuccessfully attempted to revive superheroes from late 1953 to mid-1954, with the Human Torch (art by Syd Shores and Dick Ayers, variously), the Sub-Mariner (drawn and most stories written by Bill Everett), and Captain America (writer Stan Lee, artist John Romita Sr.).

#1 (Nov. 1961). Cover art by Jack Kirby (penciler) and unconfirmed inker.]]

1960s

The first comic book under the Marvel Comics brand, the science-fiction anthology Amazing Adventures #3, cover-dated August 1961, appeared May 9, 1961, displaying a box labeled "MC" on its cover. Then, in the wake of DC Comics' success in reviving superheroes in the late 1950s and early 1960s, particularly with the Flash, Green Lantern, and other members of the team the Justice League of America, Marvel followed suit. The introduction of modern Marvel's first superhero team, in The Fantastic Four #1, cover-dated November 1961, began establishing the company's reputation. From then until the end of 1969, Marvel published a total of 831 comic books with at least one new superhero story, the majority of them written by editor-in-chief Stan Lee, in addition to a smattering of Western (such as Rawhide Kid), humor (such as Millie the Model), romance (such as Love Romances), and war comics like Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos.

Editor-writer Lee and freelance artist Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four, reminiscent of the non-superpowered adventuring quartet the Challengers of the Unknown that Kirby had created for DC in 1957, originated in a Cold War culture that led their creators to revise the superhero conventions of previous eras to better reflect the psychological spirit of their age. Eschewing such comic book tropes as secret identities and even costumes at first, having a monster as one of the heroes, and having its characters bicker and complain in what was later called a "superheroes in the real world" approach, the series represented a change that proved to be a great success. Marvel began publishing further superhero titles featuring such heroes and antiheroes as the Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, Ant-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men, and Daredevil, and such memorable antagonists as Doctor Doom, Magneto, Galactus, the Green Goblin, and Doctor Octopus. Lee and Steve Ditko generated the most successful new series in The Amazing Spider-Man. Marvel even lampooned itself and other comics companies in a parody comic, Not Brand Echh (a play on Marvel's dubbing of other companies as "Brand Echh", à la the then-common phrase "Brand X").

Marvel's comics had a reputation for focusing on characterization to a greater extent than most superhero comics before them. This applied to The Amazing Spider-Man in particular. Its young hero suffered from self-doubt and mundane problems like any other teenager. Marvel often presents flawed superheroes, freaks, and misfits — unlike the perfect, handsome, athletic heroes found in previous traditional comic books. Some Marvel heroes looked like villains and monsters. In time, this non-traditional approach would revolutionize comic books. Writer Geoff Boucher in 2009 reflected that, "Superman and DC Comics instantly seemed like boring old Pat Boone; Marvel felt like The Beatles and the British Invasion. It was Kirby's artwork with its tension and psychedelia that made it perfect for the times — or was it Lee's bravado and melodrama, which was somehow insecure and brash at the same time?"

Comics historian Peter Sanderson wrote that in the 1960s,

#4 (March 1964), with (from left to right), the Wasp, Giant-Man, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and (inset) the Sub-Mariner. Cover art by Jack Kirby and George Roussos.]]

Lee, with his charming personality and relentless salesmanship of the company, became one of the best-known names in comics. His sense of humor and generally lighthearted manner became the "voice" that permeated the stories, the letters and news-pages, and the hyperbolic house ads of that era's Marvel Comics. He fostered a clubby fan-following with Lee's exaggerated depiction of the Bullpen (Lee's name for the staff) as one big, happy family. This included printed kudos to the artists, who eventually co-plotted the stories based on the busy Lee's rough synopses or even simple spoken concepts, in what became known as the Marvel Method, and contributed greatly to Marvel's product and success. Kirby in particular is generally credited for many of the cosmic ideas and characters of Fantastic Four and The Mighty Thor, such as the Watcher, the Silver Surfer and Ego the Living Planet, while Steve Ditko is recognized as the driving artistic force behind the moody atmosphere and street-level naturalism of The Amazing Spider-Man and the surreal atmosphere of the Strange Tales mystical feature "Doctor Strange". Lee, however, continues to receive credit for his well-honed skills at dialogue and sense of storytelling, for his keen hand at choosing and motivating artists and assembling creative teams, and for his uncanny ability to connect with the readers — not least through the nickname endearments he bestowed in the credits and the monthly "Bullpen Bulletins" and letters pages, giving readers humanizing hype about the likes of "Jolly Jack Kirby," "Jaunty Jim Steranko", "Rascally Roy Thomas", "Jazzy Johnny Romita", and others, right down to letterers "Swingin' Sammy Rosen" and "Adorable Artie Simek".

Lesser-known staffers during the company's growth in the 1960s (some of whom worked primarily for Marvel publisher Martin Goodman's umbrella magazine corporation) included circulation manager Johnny Hayes, subscriptions person Nancy Murphy, bookkeeper Doris Siegler, merchandising-person Charles "Chip" Goodman (son of publisher Martin), and Arthur Jeffrey, described in the December 1966 "Bullpen Bulletin" as "keeper of our MMMS [Merry Marvel Marching Society] files, guardian of our club coupons and defender of the faith".

In the fall of 1968, company founder Goodman sold Marvel Comics and his other publishing businesses to the Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation. It grouped these businesses in a subsidiary called Magazine Management Co. Goodman remained as publisher. In 1969 Marvel finally ended the distribution deal with DC which it had reached under duress during the Atlas years and which had constrained its growth by signing with Curtis Circulation Company.

1970s

In 1971, the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare approached Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Stan Lee to do a comic book story about drug abuse. Lee agreed and wrote a three-part Spider-Man story portraying drug use as dangerous and unglamorous. However, the industry's self-censorship board, the Comics Code Authority, refused to approve the story because of the presence of narcotics, deeming the context of the story irrelevant. Lee, with Goodman's approval, published the story regardless in The Amazing Spider-Man #96-98 (May–July 1971), without the Comics Code seal. The market reacted well to the storyline, and the CCA subsequently revised the Code the same year.

#8 (January 1977). Cover art by Gene Colan and Steve Leialoha]]

Goodman retired as publisher in 1972 and Lee succeeded him, stepping aside from running day-to-day operations at Marvel. A series of new editors-in-chief oversaw the company during another slow time for the industry. Once again, Marvel attempted to diversify, and with the updating of the Comics Code achieved moderate to strong success with titles themed to horror (The Tomb of Dracula), martial arts, (), sword-and-sorcery (Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja), satire (Howard the Duck) and science fiction (, "Killraven" in Amazing Adventures, Star Trek, and, late in the decade, the long-running Star Wars series). Some of these were published in larger-format black and white magazines, that targeted mature readers, under its Curtis Magazines imprint. Marvel was able to capitalize on its successful superhero comics of the previous decade by acquiring a new newsstand distributor and greatly expanding its comics line. Marvel pulled ahead of rival DC Comics in 1972, during a time when the price and format of the standard newsstand comic were in flux. Goodman increased the price and size of Marvel's November 1971 cover-dated comics from 15 cents for 39 pages total to 25 cents for 52 pages. DC followed suit, but Marvel the following month dropped its comics to 20 cents for 36 pages, offering a lower-priced product with a higher distributor discount.

In 1973, Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation changed its name to "Cadence Industries", which in turn renamed Magazine Management Co. as "Marvel Comics Group". Goodman, now completely disconnected from Marvel, set up a new company called Atlas/Seaboard Comics in 1974, reviving Marvel's old Atlas name, but this lasted only a year-and-a-half.

In the mid-1970s a decline of the newsstand distribution network affected Marvel. Cult hits such as Howard the Duck fell victim to the distribution problems, with some titles reporting low sales when in fact the first specialty comic book stores resold them at a later date. But by the end of the decade, Marvel's fortunes were reviving, thanks to the rise of direct market distribution — selling through those same comics-specialty stores instead of newsstands.

In October 1976, Marvel, which already licensed reprints in different countries, including the UK, created a superhero specifically for the British market. Captain Britain debuted exclusively in the UK, and later appeared in American comics.

1980s

#1 (May 1984). Cover art by Mike Zeck.]]

In 1978, Jim Shooter became Marvel's editor-in-chief. Although a controversial personality, Shooter cured many of the procedural ills at Marvel, including repeatedly missed deadlines. The company enjoyed some of its best successes during Shooter's nine-year tenure as Editor-in-Chief, most notably Chris Claremont and John Byrne's run on the Uncanny X-Men and Frank Miller's run on Daredevil. Also under Shooter's editorial reign, Walt Simonson revamped The Mighty Thor and made it a bestseller again. Shooter brought Marvel into the rapidly evolving direct market, institutionalized creator royalties, starting the Epic imprint for creator-owned material in 1982; introduced company-wide crossover story arcs with Contest of Champions and Secret Wars; and in 1986 launched a new, albeit ultimately unsuccessful line named New Universe, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Marvel Comics imprint. Star Comics, a younger-oriented line than the regular Marvel titles, was briefly successful for a time during this period.

Despite Marvel's successes in the early 1980s, however, it lost ground to rival DC in the latter half of the decade, as many former Marvel stars defected to their competitor. DC scored critical and sales victories with titles and limited series like Watchmen, , Crisis on Infinite Earths, John Byrne's revamp of Superman, and Alan Moore's Swamp Thing.

In 1981, Marvel purchased the DePatie-Freleng Enterprises animation studio from Looney Tunes director Friz Freleng and his business-partner David H. DePatie. The company was renamed Marvel Productions and produced animated TV series and movies featuring such characters and properties as G.I. Joe, Transformers, Jim Henson's Muppet Babies, and Dungeons & Dragons, as well as cartoons based on Marvel characters, including Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.

In 1986, Marvel was sold to New World Entertainment, which within three years sold it to MacAndrews and Forbes, owned by Revlon executive Ronald Perelman.

1990s

#1, later renamed "Peter Parker: Spider-Man" (August 1990; second printing). Cover art by Todd McFarlane.]]

Marvel earned a great deal of money and recognition during the comic book boom of the early 1990s, launching the successful 2099 line of comics set in the future (Spider-Man 2099, etc.) and the creatively daring though commercially unsuccessful Razorline imprint of superhero comics created by novelist and filmmaker Clive Barker. Yet by the middle of the decade, the industry had slumped, and in December 1996 Marvel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

In 1991, Ronald Perelman, whose company MacAndrews and Forbes had purchased Marvel in 1986, took the company public in a New York Stock Exchange stock-offering underwritten by Merrill Lynch and First Boston Corporation. As part of the process, Marvel Productions sold its back catalog to Saban Entertainment (which was acquired in 2001 by The Walt Disney Company). Following the rapid rise of this popular stock, Perleman issued a series of junk bonds that he used to acquire other children's entertainment companies. Many of these bond offerings were purchased by Carl Icahn Partners, which later wielded much control during Marvel's court-ordered reorganization after Marvel went bankrupt in 1996. In 1997, after protracted legal battles, control landed in the hands of Isaac Perlmutter, owner of the Marvel subsidiary Toy Biz.

Also in the early 1990s, Marvel created Marvel Studios, devoted to film and TV projects. Arad became director of that division in 1993, with production accelerating in 1998 following the success of the film Blade, based on the Marvel character.

Marvel suffered a major blow in early 1992, when seven of its most prized artists — Todd McFarlane (known for his work on ), Jim Lee (X-Men), Rob Liefeld (X-Force), Marc Silvestri (Wolverine), Erik Larsen (The Amazing Spider-Man), Jim Valentino (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Whilce Portacio — left to form the successful company .

In late 1994, Marvel acquired the comic book distributor Heroes World Distribution to use as its own exclusive distributor. As the industry's other major publishers made exclusive distribution deals with other companies, the ripple effect resulted in the survival of only one other major distributor in North America, Diamond Comic Distributors Inc. In early 1997, when Marvel's Heroes World endeavor failed, Diamond also forged an exclusive deal with Marvel — giving the company its own section of its comics catalog Previews.

Creatively and commercially, the '90s were dominated by the use of gimmickry to boost sales, such as variant covers, cover enhancements, swimsuit issues. In 1991 Marvel began selling Marvel Universe Cards with trading card maker SkyBox International. These were collectible trading cards that featured the characters and events of the Marvel Universe. The following year, Marvel acquired the Fleer Corporation, also known primarily for its trading cards.

Another common Marvel practice of this period was regular company-wide crossovers that threw the universe's continuity into disarray. In 1996, Marvel had almost all its titles participate in the "Onslaught Saga", a crossover that allowed Marvel to relaunch some of its flagship characters, such as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, in the Heroes Reborn universe, in which Marvel defectors (and now Image Comics stars) Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld were given permission to revamp the properties from scratch. After an initial sales bump, sales quickly declined below expected levels, and Marvel discontinued the experiment after a one-year run; the characters soon returned to the Marvel Universe proper. In 1998, the company launched the imprint Marvel Knights, taking place within Marvel continuity; helmed by soon-to-become editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, it featured tough, gritty stories showcasing such characters as the Inhumans, Black Panther and Daredevil.

2000s

With the new millennium, Marvel Comics escaped from bankruptcy and again began diversifying its offerings. In 2001, Marvel withdrew from the Comics Code Authority and established its own Marvel Rating System for comics. The first title from this era to not have the code was X-Force #119 (October 2001).

Marvel also created new imprints, such as MAX (a line intended for mature readers) and Marvel Age (developed for younger audiences). In addition, the company created an alternate universe imprint, Ultimate Marvel, that allowed the company to reboot their major titles by revising and updating its characters to introduce to a new generation. , Marvel remains a key comics publisher, even as the industry has dwindled to a fraction of its peak size decades earlier. Some of its characters have been turned into successful film franchises, the highest-grossing being the X-Men movie series, starting in 2000, and the Spider-Man series, beginning in 2002.

In 2002, Stan Lee sued successfully for a share of income related to movies and merchandising of Marvel characters, based on a contract between Lee and Marvel from the late 1990s; according to court documents, Marvel had used "Hollywood accounting" to claim that those projects' "earnings" were not profits.

In a cross-promotion, the November 1, 2006, episode of the CBS soap opera The Guiding Light, titled "She's a Marvel", featured the character Harley Davidson Cooper (played by Beth Ehlers) as a superheroine named the Guiding Light. The character's story continued in an eight-page backup feature, "A New Light", that appeared in several Marvel titles published November 1 and 8. Also that year, Marvel created a wiki on its Web site.

In late 2007 the company launched an online initiative, announcing Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, a digital archive of over 2,500 back issues available for viewing, for a monthly or annual subscription fee.

In 2009 Marvel Comics closed its Open Submissions Policy, in which the company had accepted unsolicited samples from aspiring comic book artists, saying the time-consuming review process had produced no suitably professional work. The same year, the company commemorated its 70th anniversary, dating to its inception as Timely Comics, by issuing the one-shot Marvel Mystery Comics 70th Anniversary Special #1 and a variety of other special issues.

On August 31, 2009, The Walt Disney Company announced a deal to acquire Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion, with Marvel shareholders to receive $30 and 0.745 Disney for each share of Marvel they own. Disney had already owned a backlog of Marvel-related TV series since 2001, when it bought Saban Entertainment. The shareholder vote took place December 31, 2009 and the merger was approved. The acquisition of Marvel was finalized hours after the shareholders voted. The company was subsequently delisted from the New York Stock Exchange under its ticker symbol (MVL).

, Stan Lee, though no longer officially connected to the company save for the title of "Chairman Emeritus", remains a visible face in the industry.

Editors-in-chief

The Marvel editor-in-chief oversees the largest-scale creative decisions taken within the company. The position evolved sporadically. In the earliest years, the company had a single editor overseeing the entire line. As the company grew, it became increasingly common for individual titles to be overseen separately. The concept of the "writer-editor" evolved, stemming from when Lee wrote and managed most of the line's output. Overseeing the line in the 1970s was a series of chief editors, though the titles were used intermittently. By the time Jim Shooter took the post in 1978, the position of editor-in-chief was clearly defined.

In 1994, Marvel briefly abolished the position, replacing Tom DeFalco with five "group editors", though each held the title "editor-in-chief" and had some editors underneath them. It reinstated the overall editor-in-chief position in 1995, installing Bob Harras. Joe Quesada became editor-in-chief in 2000 and held the position until 2011 when Axel Alonso took up the position.

Joe Simon (1940–1941)

Stan Lee (1941–1942)

Vincent Fago (acting editor during Lee's military service) (1942–1945)

Stan Lee (1945–1972)

Roy Thomas (1972–1974)

Len Wein (1974–1975)

Marv Wolfman (black-and-white magazines 1974-1975, entire line 1975-1976)

Gerry Conway (1976)

Archie Goodwin (1976–1978)

Jim Shooter (1978–1987)

Tom DeFalco (1987–1994)

No overall; separate group editors-in-chief (1994–1995)

*Mark Gruenwald

*Bob Harras

*Bob Budiansky

*Bobbie Chase

*Carl Potts

Bob Harras (1995–2000)

Joe Quesada (2000–2011)

Axel Alonso (2011–present)

ImageSize = width:800 height:125 PlotArea = left:0 bottom:20 top:20 right:00 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy DateFormat = yyyy # European date format Period = from:1935 till:2009 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1935 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1935 AlignBars = justify

PlotData = align:middle textcolor:black fontsize:10 mark:(line,white) width:50 shift:(0,0) bar: editor from:1939 till:1941 color:skyblue text:"Joe~Simon" shift:(-15,0) from:1941 till:1942 color:coral text:"Stan~Lee" shift:(-10,-25) from:1942 till:1945 color:skyblue text:"Vincent~Fago" shift:(-15,0) from:1945 till:1972 color:coral text:"Stan~Lee" shift:(-15,0) from:1972 till:1974 color:skyblue text:"Roy~Thomas" shift:(-20,25) from:1974 till:1975 color:coral text:"Len~Wein" shift:(-10,0) from:1975 till:1976 color:skyblue text:"Marv~Wolfman" shift:(-15,-25) from:1976 till:1978 color:coral text:"Archie~Goodwin" shift:(-15,0) from:1978 till:1987 color:skyblue text:"Jim~Shooter" shift:(-15,0) from:1987 till:1994 color:coral text:"Tom~DeFalco" shift:(-15,0) from:1994 till:1995 color:skyblue text:"No overall" shift:(-15,-15) from:1995 till:2000 color:coral text:"Bob~Harras" shift:(-15,0) from:2000 till:end color:skyblue text:"Joe~Quesada" shift:(-10,0) at:1976 mark:(line,white) text:"Gerry~Conway" shift:(-15,25)

Offices

Located in New York City, Marvel has been successively headquartered in the McGraw-Hill Building, at 635 Madison Avenue (the actual location, though the comic books' indicia listed the parent publishing-company's address of 625 Madison Ave.);

Marvel characters in other media

Marvel characters and stories have been adapted to many other media. Some of these adaptations were produced by Marvel Comics and its sister company, Marvel Studios, while others were produced by companies licensing Marvel material.

Television programs

Many television series, both live-action and animated, have based their productions on Marvel Comics characters. These include multiple series for popular characters such as Spider-Man and the X-Men. Additionally, a handful of television movies based on Marvel Comics characters have been made.

Films

the Blade trilogy

the Fantastic Four film series

the Punisher film series

the Spider-Man film series

the X-Men film series

Captain America

Daredevil and Elektra

Ghost Rider

Hulk and The Incredible Hulk

Iron Man and Iron Man 2

Kick-Ass

Live-action films in development () include:

Thor (in post-production) (in post-production) The Avengers Spider-Man The Wolverine Iron Man 3

A series of direct-to-DVD animated features began in 2006 with the release of Ultimate Avengers, Ultimate Avengers 2, and The Invincible Iron Man.

Theme parks

Marvel has licensed its characters for theme-parks and attractions, including at the Universal Orlando Resort's Islands of Adventure, in Orlando, Florida, which includes rides based on their iconic characters and costumed performers. Universal theme parks in California and Japan also have Marvel rides. In early 2007 Marvel and developer the Al Ahli Group announced plans to build Marvel's first full theme park, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, by 2011. The cartoon drew the condemnation of Michael Johns, a board member of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, who felt it mischaracterized the party's platform as being racist and intolerant.

Imprints

Icon Comics

Marvel Adventures

Marvel Knights

Marvel Illustrated

Marvel Noir

MAX

Soleil

Ultimate Marvel

CrossGen

Defunct

Amalgam Comics

Curtis Magazines

Epic Comics

Marvel 2099

Marvel Absurd

Marvel Age

Malibu Comics

Marvel Edge

Marvel Mangaverse

Marvel Music

Marvel Next

Marvel UK

MC2

New Universe

Paramount Comics (co-owned with Viacom's Paramount Pictures)

Razorline

Star Comics

Tsunami

See also

Panini Comics

Soleil Productions

Marvel Rating System

Footnotes

References

Marvel Entertainment official site

The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe

Marvel Guide: An Unofficial Handbook of the Marvel Universe

All in Color for a Dime by Dick Lupoff & Don Thompson ISBN 0-87341-498-5

The Comic Book Makers by Joe Simon with Jim Simon ISBN 1-887591-35-4

Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee by Stan Lee and George Mair ISBN 0-684-87305-2

Jack Kirby: The TCJ Interviews, Milo George, ed. (Fantagraphics Books, Inc., 2001). ISBN 1-56097-434-6

Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics, by Les Daniels (Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1991) ISBN 0-8109-3821-9

Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book by Gerard Jones (Basic Books, 2004) trade paperback ISBN 0-465-03657-0

Comic Wars by Dan Raviv ISBN 0-7679-0830-9

Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee ISBN 0-7851-0579-4

The Steranko History of Comics, Vol. 1 by James Steranko ISBN 0-517-50188-0

Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution by Ronin Ro (Bloomsbury, 2004) ISBN 1-58234-345-4

Vassallo, Michael J. "A Timely Talk with Allen Bellman", Comicartville Library, 2005, p. 2. WebCitation archive.

Atlas Tales

The Marvel/Atlas Super-Hero Revival of the Mid-1950s

Jack Kirby Collector #25: "More Than Your Average Joe"

Clive Barker official site: Comics

Independent Heroes from the USA: Clive Barker's Razorline

Buzzscope (June 23, 2005): "Addicted to Comics" #10 (column) by Jim Salicrup

Daredevil: The Man Without Fear fan site: Marv Wolfman interview

External links

Marvel Directory

The Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center

Marvel Database (Wiki)

70 facts you didn't know about Marvel

Category:Companies based in New York City Category:Companies established in 1939 Category:Companies that have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Company name	Midtown Comics
Logo
Type	Private
Foundation	1997
Founder	Gerry Gladston, Angelo Chantly, Thomas Galitos, Robert Mileta
Location	New York, New York
Area served	worldwide
Industry	retail
Products	comic books, graphic novels and related materials
Homepage	http://www.midtowncomics.com/

branch occupies two floors.]] Midtown Comics is a New York City comic book retailer with three shops in Manhattan and an e-commerce website. The company opened its first store in the Times Square area in 1997. Its second was opened on Lexington Avenue in 2004, and is known as the Grand Central store for its proximity to Grand Central Station. Its Downtown store was opened on Fulton Street in the Financial District in November 2010. The store, which is noted for appearances by celebrities known outside the comic book industry, has been hailed by Comic Book Resources as "the industry’s leading retailer of comic books, graphic novels and manga." According to the New York Times:

The stereotypical view of comics stores is that they are dim, cramped and dusty places with a no-girls-allowed clubhouse atmosphere. In reality, they run the gamut. For instance, the West Side Midtown store is bright, airy and welcoming to all, with two floors and of space. The main floor, which is one story above street level, has a long wall with countless racks of new and recently released comics. The rest of the space offers DVDs, manga, trading cards, back issues and trade paperbacks. Toys and other collectibles are upstairs. The second Midtown store, on Lexington Avenue and 45th Street, though smaller than the first one, is just as inviting.

On November 10, 2010, Midtown Comics opened a third Manhattan store. Known as their Downtown store, it is located in the Financial District, at 64 Fulton Street, in the southernmost section of the borough. Inaugural book signings were held for that branch featuring Jim Lee and Jonathan Layman, creator of Chew.

In media

As Manhattan is the location of the Big Two of the American comic book publishing industry, Marvel Comics and DC Comics, and the setting for much of the former's stories, Midtown Comics Times Square and its staff have been utilized for local news reporting relating to comic books and popular culture. The New York Daily News interviewed Midtown Comics co-owner Gerry Gladston for a 2006 story on vintage comics selling for large amounts of money at auction, and again for a 2009 story on the return of Captain America after Marvel Comics had killed him off two years previously. Midtown's staff were also interviewed in 2009 by ABC News regarding the appearance of President Barack Obama in an issue of Spider-Man, and again later that year regarding the anticipation of the release of the film Avatar. Midtown Comics is also relied on by the media as a source for reaction to industry news and events. Publishers Weekly relies on them for their annual survey about the state of the comics and graphic novel marketplace and for their coverage of Free Comic Book Day, while Comic Book Resources quoted Gladston for reaction to Axel Alonso's 2011 promotion to editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics.

Midtown Comics Times Square was the location of the December 21, 2010 press conference in which Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada and Executive Editors Tom Brevoort and Axel Alonso announced the 2011 company-wide crossover storyline "Fear Itself".

Comic book writer Mark Millar explicitly references the store in Ultimate Comics Avengers 3 #2 (October 2010), in which Nerd Hulk requests permission from Captain America to attend a book signing at Midtown Comics.

Signings and appearances

Midtown Comics has hosted signings by comic book creators such as Rob Liefeld, Dave Gibbons, Mark Millar and Simone Bianchi, as well as celebrities known outside the comic book industry, Tim Gunn, Fallout Boy,

See also

Comic books

Online shopping

New York Comic Convention

References

External links

Midtown Comics official website

Midtown Comics at New York Comic Con 2008

Midtown Comics – In-Store Events

Ed Johnson's action figure webcomics, podcasts and nerdology website

Midtown mentioned in article about Captain America, 2007

Award-winning graphic-novelist Mark Millar at Midtown Comics - PCS TV video clip

Midtown Comics on Twitter

Lining Up for Obama and Spider-Man- New York Times Blog

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