After being relegated to the realm of children's literature for the first 25years of its history, the comic book industry experienced an unexpectedflowering in the early 1960s. A celebration of that emergence, Marvel Comicsin the 1960s: An Issue-by-Issue Field Guide to a Pop Culture Phenomenonpresents a step-by-step look at how a company that had the reputation of beingone of the least creative in a generally moribund industry, emerged as one ofthe most dynamic, slightly irreverent, and downright original contributions toan era when pop-culture, from Tom Wolfe to Andy Warhol, emerged as the dominantforce in the artistic life of America.
In scores of handy, easy-to-reference entries, Marvel Comics in the1960s takes the reader from the legendary company's first fumblingbeginnings as helmed by savvy editor/writer Stan Lee (aided by such artists asJack Kirby and Steve Ditko), to the full maturity of its wild, colorful, offbeatgrandiosity. With the history of Marvel Comics in the 1960s divided into fourdistinct phases, author Pierre Comtois explains just how Lee, Kirby, Ditko, et.al. created a line of comic books that, while grounded in the traditionalelements of panel-to-panel storytelling, broke through the juvenile mindset of alow brow industry and provided a tapestry of full-blown, pop-cultureicons.

Visual artist(s): Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko