Celebrating the 80th anniversary of Marvel Comics #1
The Folio Society has launched a number of high-end editions of classic science fiction and fantasy novels over time, including novels by Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, George R.R. Martin, and much more. Now, it’s taking on a new medium novels. This September, it’s going launch Marvel: The Golden Age, 1939-1949, a compilation of their company’s classic comics.
The book is designed to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Marvel Comics #1. It’s now available for preorder, and it’ll retail for $225 when it’s published on September 25th. It include a replica of the original comicbook.
The Folio Society’s books are geared toward collectors and serious readers: its offerings are not paperbacks or hardcovers that you’ll find on the shelves of your local bookstore. They’re volumes which comprise introductions from all on high quality paper, original art, in addition to the writers or their contemporaries and come with slipcovers. I’ve been impressed with its own offerings (and’ve bought a bunch over the years) due to the effort that’s put in and also the artwork that the publisher includes with every one.
Folio Society editorial director Tom Walker tells The Verge that moving into comics is a”really thrilling new venture for us,” but he notes that”it doesn’t feel like virgin land. Marvel Comics have been among the great literary effects of the past century, and as I began to explore that world, I discovered the comic variant had motivated so many of my favorite authors, from Neil Gaiman to Margaret Atwood.”
Walker explains that the Folio Society wanted to anthologize the major Marvel eras, and also its”goal was to allow readers to get closer to the Golden Age of Marvel Comics than they have ever been” To assemble the book, the culture partnered with Roy Thomas, the author and editor who succeeded Stan Lee at Marvel Comics. He assisted for the publication, which includes characters like The Human Torch, Captain America, and Namor, The Sub-Mariner.
Walker says he’s most proud of the reproduction of Marvel Comics #1, which was predicated on a first copy from 1939 that it was able to monitor. “We spent hours perfecting this, choosing the right grade of newspaper and discovering methods to recreate the experience children would have had picking this up in the newsstand for the very first time.” Another comics included in the primary volume are reproduced from”first-edition comics from the Marvel archives and from major private collectors, so as to locate the most pristine copies to offset,” Walker says.
The Folio Society says the quantity is the first in an ongoing partnership with Marvel Comics, and the volume is set to come out sometime in the first half of 2020.
