Hardcover Book 15.6x21.7cm 512 Pages The Marvel Age of Comics 1961–1978. 40th Ed. - Taschen

In the Marvel comics era, innovations in comic books and popular culture redefined the superhero genre. This treasure trove of first-hand accounts and images reveals how characters as popular as Hulk and Spider-Man came into being, and the legendary artists who brought them to life, from Stan Lee to Jack Kirby.

The genesis of family heroes and mythological universes

It was the age of powerful heroes, misunderstood monsters and villains with complex psychologies. When it published the first issue of Fantastic Four in November 1961, comic book giant Marvel ushered in a period of transformation in popular culture. Over the next 20 years, the illustrious Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron Man and X-Men leapt, blasted and flew across its pages. It pulled Captain America out of the deep freeze of history where he had been shut away since the 1940s and made the Avengers the greatest superhero team in the world. Daredevil, Doctor Strange and dozens of others joined its pantheon, each with their own assembly of malevolent adversaries. More than 50 years on, these thrilling characters born in the 1960s and 1970s are more popular than ever, still ready for a fight in magazines, toy shops and big-budget films all over the world.

In The Marvel Comics Era 1961–1978, legendary writer and editor Roy Thomas takes you to the heart of this pivotal chapter in comic book history, an era of triumphant innovation in storytelling and characterisation during which the superhero reinvented itself as a genre. Through hundreds of images and first-hand accounts, the book charts the birth of heroes made mythical by their powers and their opponents, yet rooted in a world much like the one readers knew: heroes with their own problems, their own battles to fight and their own flaws, just like anyone else, and with whom readers could identify. We also see how, in the 1970s, the Marvel idea machine folded horror, heroic fantasy and martial arts into its stable of titanic demigods, with iconic characters such as Man-Thing, Conan and Shang-Chi, proving that its way of telling stories could be successfully replicated without capes or skin-tight suits.

We also get to know Marvel's extraordinary architects, whose names are almost as famous as the mortals and immortals they brought to life: Stan "The Man" Lee, Jack "King" Kirby and Steve Ditko, alongside other greats of the genre such as John Romita, John Buscema, Marie Severin and Jim Steranko. Together, they make for an exhilarating behind-the-scenes exploration of this legendary house, a centrepiece in any comic book fan's library, buzzing with the energy and appetite for innovation of the age that saw Marvel and its heroes triumph.