Balloonless: "Marvel Comics: The Untold Story"

[CBR News]

ROBOT 6's J. Caleb Mozzocco reviews "Marvel Comics: The Untold Story," Sean Howe's prose retrospective on the comic book company, noting "the story of Marvel Comics is at least as exciting as any story in Marvel comics."


Full article here.

[jackolover]

I agree with the reviewer, that the book by Howe was about the tension between art and commerce. One of the hidden aspects of creation is that things are done under duress, not as powerfully as that word makes out, but a duress or dictatorship of life. You have to have a job, and you need the money to pay the bills. You learn something you're good at, and you get paid for that work. When you then discuss what that work is, you have a lopsided view of the value of that work as quality and art.

The discussion of the work created by the artists, as Howe calls them, becomes a little more sentimentalized, because the viewers reading the books have a strong response from the material. People begin to judge that the material has far more value than it did when it was first produced, because something magical happened in between time. The images and the iconic quality of the characters and stories took on a life of their own, so that today, people talk of them in a reverence that in the Silver Age would have seemed inappropriate. When Stan, Jack and Steve brought these characters to life, They didn't see billion dollar films being made or extraordinary runs with great creators because of what they did. Back then, they were happy if they got their pay check and could pay the rent and buy some food. Nobody in their wildest dreams thought the response to DC's successful JLA was anything more than a reaction to a trend. By the time the dust settled and people knew what they had on their hands, the creators were wondering why the hell they couldn't get in on the action.

Who knew out of the strong reactions of 14 something kids in the 1960's that the formula of over emotional dialogue and soap opera schmaltz, that a book like Marvel Comic:The Untold Story would be made? It's unheard of!

Postscript - I would argue that the mid 2000's onwards was a similar era of creative enthusiasm with company owned properties, that rivals the Silver Age. Though no new properties were created in that time, I would say that the output had a similar reaction from the viewers, that the 60's did. If Howe were to write something about the 2000's onwards, he would have a similar source material that he would have had if he had the Lees, Kirby's and Ditkos of that time.