| Coordinates | 45°30′″N73°40′″N |
|---|
| company name | Marvel Comics
| logo
| type Subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment
| genre Crime, horror, mystery, romance, science fiction, superhero, war, Western
| foundation 1939 (as Timely Comics)
| founder Martin Goodman
| location 417 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
| area_served USA, UK
| key_people Axel Alonso, EIC
Dan Buckley, publisher, COO
Stan Lee, former EIC, publisher
| industry Publishing
| products Comics/''See List of Marvel Comics publications''
| revenue (2007)
| operating_income (2007)
| owner Martin Goodman (1939-1968)
| parent Magazine Management Co. (1968-1973)Marvel Entertainment Group (1973-1997)Marvel Entertainment (1997- )
| divisions
| homepage marvel.com
}} |
|---|
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media. Marvel Entertainment, Inc., a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, owns Marvel Worldwide.
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,the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Thor and Captain America; antagonists such as Doctor Doom, the Green Goblin, Magneto, Galactus, and the Red Skull; 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 Comics' parent company, Marvel Entertainment for $4.24 billion.
History
Timely Publications
:
Martin Goodman founded the company later known as Marvel Comics under the name Timely Publications in 1939, publishing comic books under the imprint Timely Comics. Goodman, a pulp magazine publisher who had started with a Western pulp in 1933, expanded into the emerging—and by then already highly popular—new medium of comic books. He 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.
Timely's first publication, ''Marvel Comics'' #1 (cover dated Oct. 1939), included the first appearance of Carl Burgos' android superhero the Human Torch, and the first generally available appearance of Bill Everett's anti-hero Namor the Sub-Mariner, among other features. The issue was a sales blockbuster and the contents 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 imminent 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 sales of nearly one million.
While no other Timely character would achieve the success of these "big three", some notable heroes—many of which continue to appear in modern-day retcon appearances and flashbacks—include the Whizzer, Miss America, the Destroyer, the original Vision, and the Angel. Timely also published one of humor cartoonist Basil Wolverton's best-known features, "Powerhouse Pepper", 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.
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 went on, Timely branched out into new genres, notably romance, Western and crime.
Goodman's business strategy involved having his various magazines and comic books published by a number of corporations all operating out of the same office and with the same staff. One of these shell companies through which Timely Comics was published was named Marvel Comics by at least ''Marvel Mystery Comics'' #55 (May 1944). As well, some comics' covers, such as ''All Surprise Comics'' #12 (Winter 1946-47), were labeled "A Marvel Magazine" many years before Goodman would formally adopt the name in 1961.
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, featuring
horror,
Westerns,
humor,
funny animal,
men's adventure-drama, giant monster,
crime, and
war comics, and later adding
jungle books,
romance titles,
espionage, and even
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, a 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 a 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.).
1960s
The first modern comic books under the Marvel Comics brand were the science-fiction anthology ''
Journey into Mystery'' #69 and the teen-humor title ''
Patsy Walker'' #95 (both
cover dated June 1961), which each displayed an "MC" box 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, (Nov. 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,
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. with Goodman remaining 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.
Goodman retired as publisher in 1972 and installed his son, Chip, as publisher. Shortly there after Chip did not approve the Spiderman strip for newspaper syndication in time amoungst other actions by Chip, Chip was remove by management at Lee's insistence. Lee succeeded Chip as publisher and also became Marvel's president for a brief time. During his time as president, he appointed Roy Thomas as editor(-in-chief), who added "Stan Lee Presents" on the opening page of each comic book.
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, ''(Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu''), sword-and-sorcery (''Conan the Barbarian'', ''Red Sonja''), satire (''Howard the Duck'') and science fiction (''2001: A Space Odyssey'', "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.
Goodman, now disconnected from Marvel, set up a new company called Seaboard Periodicals in 1974, reviving Marvel's old Atlas name for a new Atlas Comics line, 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.
Marvel held its own comic book convention, Marvelcon '75, in spring 1975, and promised a Marvelcon '76. At the 1975 event, Stan Lee used a Fantastic Four panel discussion to announce that Jack Kirby, the artist co-creator of most of Marvel's signature characters, was returning to Marvel after having left in 1970 to work for rival DC Comics. 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
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'', ''Batman: The Dark Knight Returns'', ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'', John Byrne's revamp of Superman, and Alan Moore's ''Swamp Thing''.
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
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.
Marvel suffered a major blow in early 1992, when seven of its most prized artists—Todd McFarlane (known for his work on ''Spider-Man''), 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 Image Comics.
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.
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.
In 1991 Ronald Perelman, whose company, Andrews Group, had purchased Marvel Comic's Parent corporation, Marvel Entertainment Group (MEG) in 1986, took the company public in a New York Stock Exchange stock-offering underwritten by Merrill Lynch and First Boston Corporation. 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 secured by MEG stock. In 1997, Toy Biz and MEG merged to end the bankruptcy forming a new corporation, Marvel Enterprises. With his business partner Avi Arad, publisher Bill Jemas, and editor-in-chief Bob Harras, Perlmutter helped revitalize the comics line.
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 2003, following publication of the prose young adult novel ''Mary Jane'', starring Mary Jane Watson from the Spider-Man mythos, Marvel announced the formation of the publishing imprint Marvel Press, saying in a press release it planned to launch with three prose novels, aimed at various ages, in 2004, and publish at least 12 in 2005.
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 Comics' parent corporation, Marvel Entertainment, for $4 billion, with Marvel shareholders to receive $30 and 0.745 Disney shares for each share of Marvel they own.
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.
Martin Goodman (1939-1940)
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)
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TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
DateFormat = yyyy # European date format
Period = from:1935 till:2014
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:1940 color:coral text:"Martin~Goodman" shift:(-20,25)
from:1940 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:2011 color:skyblue text:"Joe~Quesada" shift:(-10,0)
from:2011 till:end color:coral text:"Axel~Alonso" shift:(-15,0)
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, where it originated as
Timely Comics in 1939; in suite 1401 of the
Empire State Building; at 635
Madison Avenue (the actual location, though the comic books'
indicia listed the parent publishing-company's address of 625 Madison Ave.); 575 Madison Avenue; 387 Park Avenue South;
10 East 40th Street; 417
Fifth Avenue; and a space at 135 W. 50th Street.
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
See:
Marvel Studios
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.
Video games
Marvel also made a series of
digital comics that serve as prequels to ''
Disney Epic Mickey''. Marvel also released two games under the title ''
Marvel Ultimate Alliance'' between 2000 and 2010. The same game has been remodeled as an arcade game as well.
Role-playing games
TSR published the pen-and-paper
role-playing game Marvel Super Heroes in 1984. TSR then released the ''
Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game'' in 1998. In 2003 Marvel Comics published their own role-playing game, the ''
Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game''. This incarnation was discontinued a short time later after several team specific supplements.
Imprints
Icon Comics
Marvel Adventures
Marvel Knights
Marvel Illustrated
Marvel Noir
MAX
Soleil
Ultimate Marvel/Ultimate Comics
CrossGen
Defunct
Aircel Comics
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
Footnotes
References
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, main page. WebCitation archive, p. 2.
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
Daredevil: The Man Without Fear fan site: Marv Wolfman interview
External links
Marvel Directory
The Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center
Marvel Database (Wiki)
Vaughan, Owen. "Jacko tried to buy Spider-man: 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel", ''The Times'' (London), October 30, 2009
Category:Media companies based in New York City
Category:Companies established in 1939
Category:Companies that have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
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