"All of the Marvels" - new history of Marvel comics by Douglas Wolk

[Yohei72]

It's hard for me to believe this hasn't been discussed here, so apologies if I'm retreading old ground, but I couldn't find any sign of a thread with a forum search.

The first-ever full reckoning with Marvel Comics’ interconnected, half-million-page story, a revelatory guide to the “epic of epics”—and to the past sixty years of American culture—from a beloved authority on the subject who read all 27,000+ Marvel superhero comics and lived to tell the tale

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/b...-douglas-wolk/

[Mike_Murdock]

I haven't read it, but I listened to an interview about it and the concept seems a lot of fun. Hopefully I'll get a chance to read it one day.

[Hypestyle]

is this simply a history of the company, including profiles of creative personalities say, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Bill Everitt, Carl Burgos, John Romita, Roy Thomas, Steve Ditko, etc., and the corporate ownership over the decades, or is this some kind of exploration of the narratives of the characters?

[jackolover]

Wolk brings up a fresh look towards the continuity of Marvel, considering his volume of reading, and the accolades laid at his feat by people in the industry, and his critical audience.

[Yohei72]

is this simply a history of the company, including profiles of creative personalities say, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Bill Everitt, Carl Burgos, John Romita, Roy Thomas, Steve Ditko, etc., and the corporate ownership over the decades, or is this some kind of exploration of the narratives of the characters?

Yeah, as Jackolover indicated, I think it's more a critical history of the comics themselves, and less a journalistic history of the company.

[Mike_Murdock]

is this simply a history of the company, including profiles of creative personalities say, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Bill Everitt, Carl Burgos, John Romita, Roy Thomas, Steve Ditko, etc., and the corporate ownership over the decades, or is this some kind of exploration of the narratives of the characters?

Closer to the latter. As I understand it, he took it upon himself to read all of Marvel comics and he's writing about his experiences. So it's a history of the comics as they unfold as well as realizations about what the characters are and mean.