Saturday, July 26, 2014

75 Years of Marvel: From the Golden Age to the Silver Screen

Out Dec. 1, 2014

A mighty history
Building the House of Ideas

From the very first issue of pulp impresario Martin Goodman s Marvel Comics in 1939, the comic book creators of Marvel s Golden Age flipped the traditional fantasy script by placing the inhuman and the invincible into the real world. With the likes of the fiery android Human Torch, vengeful sea prince Sub-Mariner, and pip-squeak-turned-paragon Captain America, Marvel created a mythological universe grounded in a world that readers recognize as close to their own, brimming with humor and heartache.

In the early 1960s, this audacious approach launched the creation of heroes who have since become household names Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, the Avengers, Thor, the X-Men the list goes on. Fans still celebrate it as the Marvel Age of comics, an era populated by a pantheon of bickering heroes, misunderstood monsters, and noble villains.

In celebration of Marvel s 75th anniversary, TASCHEN presents a magnum opus of the most influential comic book publisher today, with an inside look not only at its celebrated characters, but also at the "bullpen" of architects whose names are almost as familiar as the protagonists they brought to life Stan the Man Lee, Jack King Kirby, along with a roster of greats like Steve Ditko, John Romita, John Buscema, Marie Severin, and countless others. With essays by comics historian and former Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, this book delves into the heart of thousands of costumed characters who continue to fight the good fight in comics, movies, and toy aisles of the world.

The XL-format book includes:

More than 700 pages of near 2,000 images including vintage comic books, one-of-a-kind original art, behind-the-scenes photographs and film stills, as well as rare toys and collectibles
A four-foot accordion-fold timeline, suitable for framing!
Biographies of more than 300 artists, writers, editors, directors, actors, and famous fans who helped shape Marvel's history

Monday, July 21, 2014

The Phantom Omnibus the Complete Gold Key Comics

Hermes Press' best selling Phantom the Gold Key Years, Volumes One and Two, now out of print, are collected in this deluxe omnibus edition. Presenting the complete run of Gold Key Phantom comic books, issues #1-#17 in one comprehensive, definitive volume. Featuring painted cover art by comic book legend George Wilson with interior artwork by Silver Age stalwart Bill Lignante and scripts by Bill Harris. The definitive collection presents classic adventures of the Ghost Who Walks!

Out Oct. 27, 2014

Complete Junior and Sunny by Al Feldstein

Long considered to be prime examples of late 1940s "headlight" and "Good Girl" art comics, issues of Junior and Sunny have been quite difficult to find and very expensive to obtain. Until now! Created, written, and illustrated by the legendary E.C. Comics artist/writer/editor Al Feldstein for the notorious Victor Fox of Fox Feature Publications, The Complete Junior and Sunny presents the full run of these comics. Along with a historical Introduction by Grant Geissman, the book also presents the one issue of Meet Corliss Archer that Feldstein did for Fox. Although the stories are basically charming, "typical teenage" period pieces, Feldstein's artwork for them often pushes the envelope for the time, with titillating covers depicting ample "headlights," and often-suggestive images in the stories themselves. It's probably a good thing that Dr. Fredric Wertham never found out about Junior and Sunny! Seduction of the innocent, indeed!

Out Dec. 9, 2014

Corto Maltese: Under the Sign of Capricorn

This book, the first of twelve volumes, launches the definitive English-language edition of Hugo Pratt's masterpiece, presented in the original oversized B&W format and with new translations made from Pratt's original Italian scripts. Frank Miller calls Pratt "one of the true masters of comic art." Long before the term "graphic novel" entered the popular lexicon - ten years before Will Eisner's A Contract with God - Hugo Pratt pioneered the long-form "drawn literature" story. Corto Maltese set the standard for all adult adventure comics in Europe. By the mid-1970s, Corto was the continent's most popular series and Hugo Pratt the world's leading graphic novelist. Hugo Pratt's peripatetic sailor was featured in a series of twenty-nine stories. The adventures of this modern Ulysses are set during the first thirty years of the 20th Century in such exotic locales as Pratt's native Venice, the steppes of Manchuria, the Caribbean islands, the Danakil deserts, the Amazon forests, and the waves of the Pacific. EuroComics is working closely with Patrizia Zanotti, Pratt's long-time collaborator, to present the complete Corto Maltese in a series of twelve quality trade paperbacks in Pratt's original oversized B&W format. Corto Maltese: Under the Sign of Capricorn collects the first six inter-connected short stories Pratt created in France in the early 1970s: "The Secret of Tristan Bantam," "Rendez-vous in Bahia," "Sureshot Samba," "The Brazilian Eagle," "So Much for Gentlemen of Fortune," and "The Seagull's Fault."

Out Dec. 16, 2014

Steve Canyon Volume 5: 1955-1956

Milton Caniff's square-jawed hero is back in the Orient and crossing paths with old friends and new enemies. Doe Redwood and the Hall family reappear on the scene, as does another young friend who is working hard to grow up. There are also more hearts and flowers in store within the tangled web that ensnares Steve, Summer Olson, and Copper Calhoon, while Happy Easter returns stateside but ends up having a Gay old time on the Savannah. As 1956 races to a conclusion, a new member of the Canyon clan steps on-stage - get ready to meet Cousin Poteet! There's plenty of adventure on land, sea, and air in the fifth volume of Steve Canyon. Steve Canyon is presented in a matching hardcover set to the Library of American Comics's Eisner Award-winning Terry and the Pirates.

Out Dec. 16, 2014

Superman The Silver Age Newspaper Dailies Volume 3: 1963-1966

The third volume of the Superman Silver Age daily newspaper strips presents the never-before reprinted stories from November 1963 through the series' conclusion in April 1966. Wayne Boring provides the classic artwork, and once again, Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel scripts adaptations of stories that first appeared in comic books. Siegel and Boring offer alternate versions of now classic stories originally written by Siegel himself, Leo Dorfman, Otto Binder, Robert Bernstein, Edmund Hamilton - and drawn in comic books by Curt Swan, Al Plastino, Kurt Schaffenberger, and Pete Costanza. Stories include "Lex Luthor, Daily Planet Editor," "Superman's Sacrifice," "The "Man Who Stole Superman's Secret Life," "Lois Lane's Love Trap," "Clark Kent in the Big House," and "The Goofy Superman," among others. More than 750 daily strips - over two years worth of stories - from Earth-N (for Newspapers) that comic book fans have not previously seen. Edited and designed by Dean Mullaney, Introduction by Sid Friedfertig, and cover drawing by Pete Poplaski.

Out Dec. 23, 2014

Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Volume 1

Out Jan. 27, 2015, 880 pages.

Spawn of Mars and Other Stories - EC Library

This is a highly anticipated collection of EC science fiction comics—drawn by Wallace Wood—which revolutionized the genre's visuals.
The science fiction genre owes a debt, especially visually, to EC Comics, and this highly anticipated Wallace Wood collection shows why. It features over two dozen comics stories drawn in Wood's meticulously detailed brushwork (his "lived in" spaceship interiors helped inspire Star Wars' Millennium Falcon). And with titles like “Spawn of Mars,” “The Dark Side of the Moon,” “A Trip to a Star,” “The Invaders,” “The Secret of Saturn’s Ring,” and “The Two-Century Journey,” how can you go wrong? Like every book in the Fantagraphics EC line, Spawn of Mars and Other Stories features essays and notes by EC experts on these superbly crafted, classic comic book masterpieces. Black & white

Out Jan. 10, 2015

Hurricane Isle and Other Adventures: The Best of Captain Easy

In the wake of our Eisner Award–nominated Captain Easy Sunday adventure newspaper strip series, we are collecting the very best of the daily comic exploits of Easy and Tubbs.
Sate your wanderlust with a brick of slam-bang action, boisterous humor, dangerous villains, even more dangerous women, and the promised treasure in this collection of Roy Crane’s classic Captain Easy and Wash Tubbs. Following our Eisner Award–nominated series of Roy Crane’s Captain Easy Sunday strip collections, we have selected the very best of the indispensable daily comic strip adventures of Easy and Tubbs. Featuring Wash running a dinky railroad in a comic-opera version of Eastern Europe, the gripping narrative of Easy waging total war against The Phantom King, battles with pirates in the South Seas, and the harrowing story of Easy and Wash as prisoners on the infamous Devil’s Island. Roy Crane mixes imagination, romance, and thrills in a masterful storytelling style that entices you over the next mountain, across the next ocean, toward the next horizon—and always to the next thrill-packed adventure! Black and white

Out Feb. 10, 2014

His World: The Art and Life of Wallace Wood

This biography is an incisive look at the life and career of one of the greatest and most mythic comic book creators—the maddest artist of Mad magazine, the man behind Marvel’s Daredevil, and self-publishing pioneer of Witzend—Wallace Wood.
Who was Wallace Wood? The maddest artist of Mad magazine? The man behind Marvel’s Daredevil? His World is an incisive look back at the life and career of one of the greatest and most mythic figures of cartooning. Edited over the course of thirty years by former Wood assistant Bhob Stewart, His World is a biographical portrait, generously illustrated with Wood’s gorgeous art as well as little-seen personal photos and childhood ephemera. Also: remembrances by Wood’s friends, colleagues, assistants, and loved ones. This collective biographical and critical portrait explores the humorous spirit, dark detours, and psychological twists of a gifted maverick in American pop culture.

Out March 10, 2015

Harvey Kurtzman: The Man Who Created Mad and Revolutionized Humor in America

This biography reveals the true story of Mad creator Harvey Kurtzman—the man who revolutionized humor in America; it features new interviews with his colleagues Hugh Hefner, Robert Crumb, and others.
Harvey Kurtzman created Mad, and Mad revolutionized humor in America. Kurtzman was the original editor, artist, and sole writer of Mad, one of the greatest publishing successes of the 20th century. But how did Kurtzman invent Mad, and why did he leave it shortly after it burst, nova-like, onto the American scene? For this heavily researched biography, Bill Schelly conducted new interviews with Kurtzman’s colleagues, friends and family, including Hugh Hefner, R. Crumb, Jack Davis, and many others, and examined Kurtzman’s personal archives. The result is the true story of one the 20th century’s greatest humorists: Kurtzman's family life, the details of the FBI's investigation during the McCarthy Era, his legal battles with William M. Gaines (publisher of Mad), are all revealed for the first time. Rich with anecdotes, this book traces Kurtzman’s life from his Brooklyn beginnings to his post-Mad years, when his ceaseless creativity produced more innovations: new magazines, a graphic novel, and Little Annie Fanny in Playboy.

Out March 10, 2105

Barnaby Volume Three

This is the third book in a series of five collecting Harold and the Purple Crayon author Crockett Johnson's long-lost newspaper comic strip about a five-year-old boy and his fairy godfather.
The long-lost comic strip masterpiece by legendary children’s book author Crockett Johnson (Harold and the Purple Crayon, The Carrot Seed), collected in full and designed by graphic novelist and Barnaby superfan Daniel Clowes (Ghost World). Volume Three collects the postwar years of 1946–1947, continuing five-year-old Barnaby Baxter and his Fairy Godfather J.J. O’Malley’s misadventures. Bumbling but endearing, Mr. O’Malley rarely gets his magic to work—even when he consults his Fairy Godfather’s Handy Pocket Guide. The true magic of Barnaby resides in its canny mix of fantasy and satire, amplified by the understated elegance of Crockett Johnson’s clean, spare art. In its combination of Johnson’s sly wit and O’Malley’s amiable windbaggery, a child’s feeling of wonder and an adult’s wariness, highly literate jokes and a keen eye for the ridiculous, Barnaby expanded our sense of what comics can do. This volume also features essays by comics historians Charles Hatfield and Coulton Waugh, as well as Johnson biographer Philip Nel. Black and white with over 50 pages of color.

Out April 20, 2015

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

75 Years of Marvel Comics

Out Dec. 1, 2014

A mighty history:
Marvel from its golden age to the silver screen

From the very first issue of pulp impresario Martin Goodman s Marvel Comics in 1939, the comic book creators of Marvel s Golden Age flipped the traditional fantasy script by placing the inhuman and the invincible into the real world.

With the likes of the fiery android Human Torch, vengeful sea prince Sub-Mariner, and pip-squeak-turned-paragon Captain America, Marvel created a mythological universe grounded in a world that readers recognize as close to their own, brimming with humor and heartache. In the early 1960s, this audacious approach launched the creation of heroes who have since become household names Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, the Avengers, Thor, the X-Men the list goes on. Fans still celebrate it as the Marvel Age of comics, an era populated by a pantheon of bickering heroes, misunderstood monsters and noble villains.

In celebration of Marvel s 75th anniversary, TASCHEN presents a magnum opus of the most influential comic book publisher today, with an inside look not only at its celebrated characters, but also at the bullpen of architects whose names are almost as familiar as the protagonists they brought to life Stan the Man Lee, Jack King Kirby, along with a roster of greats like Steve Ditko, John Romita, John Buscema, Marie Severin, and countless others.

With essays by comics historian and former Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas, this book delves into the heart of thousands of costumed characters who continue to fight the good fight in comics, movies, and toy aisles of the world.

The XL-format book includes:
- More than 700 pages of over 2,000 images including vintage comic books, one-of-a-kind original art, behind-the-scenes photographs and film stills, as well as rare toys and collectibles
- Two seven-foot (two-meter) fold-out timelines that chronicle the entire Marvel history from the dawn of comics to the present day
- Biographies of more than 300 artists, writers, editors, directors, actors, and famous fans who helped shape Marvel s history

Monty Python's Total Rubbish: Super Deluxe

The group's complete albums on CD or vinyl.

Out Aug. 19, 2014.

Walt Disney Records The Legacy Collection: Mary Poppins

Original movie soundtrack and bonus tracks on three disks. Out Aug. 25, 2014.

The Beatles in Mono Vinyl Box Set

The Beatles in mono: This is how most listeners first heard the group in the 1960s, when mono was the predominant audio format. Up until 1968, each Beatles album was given a unique mono and stereo mix, but the group always regarded the mono as primary. THE BEATLES IN MONO VINYL BOX SET is released in mono on fourteen 180-gram vinyl LPs with faithfully replicated artwork, newly mastered from the analogue master tapes.

In an audiophile-minded undertaking, The Beatles' acclaimed mono albums have been newly mastered for vinyl from quarter-inch master tapes at Abbey Road Studios by GRAMMY®-winning engineer Sean Magee and GRAMMY®-winning mastering supervisor Steve Berkowitz. While THE BEATLES IN MONO CD boxed set released in 2009 was created from digital remasters, for this new vinyl project, Magee and Berkowitz cut the records without using any digital technology. Instead, they employed the same procedures used in the 1960s, guided by the original albums and by detailed transfer notes made by the original cutting engineers.

Working in the same room at Abbey Road where most of The Beatles' albums were initially cut, the pair first dedicated weeks to concentrated listening, fastidiously comparing the master tapes with first pressings of the mono records made in the 1960s. Using a rigorously tested Studer A80 machine to play back the precious tapes, the new vinyl was cut on a 1980s-era VMS80 lathe.

Manufactured for the world at Optimal Media in Germany, The Beatles' albums are presented in their original glory, both sonically and in their packaging. The boxed collection's exclusive 12-inch by 12-inch hardbound book features new essays and a detailed history of the mastering process by award-winning radio producer and author Kevin Howlett. The book is illustrated with many rare studio photos of The Beatles, fascinating archive documents, and articles and advertisements sourced from 1960s publications.

Albums included in the box set are REVOLVER, MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR, RUBBER SOUL, WITH THE BEATLES, MONO MASTERS (3LP SET), THE BEATLES (2LP SET), BEATLES FOR SALE, SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND, PLEASE PLEASE ME, HELP! and A HARD DAY'S NIGHT.

The Beatles in Mono Vinyl Box Set (Limited Edition)