75 Years of Marvel. from the Golden Age to the Silver Screen

This is a beautiful, comprehensive pictorial history of the comics which formed the backdrop to my childhood and indeed my early adulthood life.One major gripe. The book arrived "packed" only in the transparent factory seal plastic. As a result it had been damaged in several ways.1. The customs/delivery documents had been affixed in such a way that in order to remove them, the box surface was partially torn.2. Having been roughly handled by the courier the spine of the box was partially split.3. Again having been roughly handled all corners of the box had been "rounded".I feel as this book and the integral presentation box is a "display/coffee table" piece it should have been packaged in the normal robust Amazon brown cardboard. As it is I have been forced to remove the book from it's box in order to maintain the "eye candy" aspect when displayed.I feel with all of this in mind a replacement would have been appropriate but I seem to have gone around in circles trying to leave the packaging feedback.If you order this book please INSIST under "comments" that it be properly protected in the post.James Calderhead.South Africa

Another giant (and weighty) leap for comics history as Taschen delivers the goods on Marvel. The huge books follows the same format as the story of DC Comics Taschen published in 2010 though with a couple of differences: the five fold-out Timelines in the DC book are now presented as a loose insert printed both sides and folding out to fifty-five inches wide; there is no index, which I find sort of amazing in a title like this.The editorial covers eight decades of Marvel and author Roy Thomas would seem the obvious choice to write about the company, he was an editor there from 1965 to 1980. The four chapters, each opening like the DC book with a spread wide bit of art printed on thick paper with reflective metallic ink, look at the origins of Martin Goodman and his Timely Comics of which Marvel was a subsidiary group of titles. Timely morphed into Atlas comics in 1951 which eventually, in the early sixties, became the Marvel line that carries on today and the book is right up to date, too, with the cover of Black Widow issue six from July this year.A nice feature of the editorial are references to comic and media items through the decades and how they related to Marvel and their comic characters. I think the real strength of the book is the art, pages and pages of covers, spreads, individual frames and several examples of cover art (blown up big) as inked but before the colour was added. A two-page foldout of Steranko's spread from Strange tales 167 is also included.The book's production is, as the DC title, first-class. Beautifully printed and bound with all the images getting deep comprehensive captions, eight pages at the back have biogs of several dozen writers and artists who were the real masters of Marvel. Taschen have thoughtfully provided a blue silk bookmark, too.Overall a feast for the eyes but what will the next book be about? I'm putting my money on EC comics getting the Taschen treatment, in three or four years time.See my comment below.

An expensive but essential book for anyone into the history of Marvel Comics. You'll need to rest this hefty huge volume on something to read it in comfort though. An excellent journey throughout Marvel's long history and superbly illustrated with pages, covers, and photographs.

A stupendous tome covering TIMELY,ATLAS & MARVEL Amazing writing from ROY THOMAS.The perfect book for your shelf(if it's strong enough).A+++++++++++

The biggest and heaviest book (literally) I've ever purchased. Being a Marvel from the mid 1970's (I know, I'm old) this book is perfect. Even if you think you know Marvels history, this book is worth it for the reproduced artwork that is stunningly vivid. Did I mention it's big and heavy?

Beautiful book,though you do need a substantial table to keep this on .A very weighty book.

I bought this for my grandsons birthday and he was beyond excited!

The book is amazing, perfect gift for my partner who is a marvel fan. However the book wasn’t packaged properly for its weight and size... the case containing the book was badly damaged which meant the book was the same. Verrrrry disappointing.