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A review by mrgrifter
Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe
5.0
I don't know what must have been harder, having to read decades of low profile fanzines (for contemporaneous interviews with comics professionals) or having to parse out every he said/she said of the behind the scenes soap opera of the Marvel Bullpen.
Any comics fan who wants to know about the history of the comics business and how it changed over the years would do well to read this. However, those without a pre-existing interest in comics will probably love or hate the inclusion of such anecdotes as how writer/artist John Byrne may or may not have shouted at and threatened future writer Peter David (then a PR staffer) over sending out preview pages to the press that revealed the shock ending to Byrne's Alpha Flight #12 - and how they still feud about it to this day. Is this tidbit emblematic of the state of the business at that moment in time, or a fanboy space-filler that slows down the overall story? (If you'd say the latter, consider this a four-star review.)
Howe is a very, very skilled writer, who must have had quite a job trying to make thousands of anecdotes fit properly into their historical place, as well as the thematic and social flow of the book -- as well as make it easily readable and feel briskly paced. In real life, events do not fall neatly into place by year or regime. So Howe has to jump around a little bit to draw an errant story into the correct context. Speaking as a comics reader and a former biographer, I think he pulled it off masterfully.
I only hope for his sake he hasn't made too many enemies in the comics professionals' world - in attempting to give multiple sides of every story, he's probably pleased no one. (Not to mention fanboys on the internet who love to trash everything.) A couple of places I thought I'd caught Howe in a mistake, but it turned out I was wrong. (Steve Englehart feuded with Joe Quesada over writing the FF? Not possible! I'd forgotten the limited series "Fantastic Four: Big Town.")
Kudos to Howe for collecting all this info, parsing it, organizing it, and making it a breezy read.
Any comics fan who wants to know about the history of the comics business and how it changed over the years would do well to read this. However, those without a pre-existing interest in comics will probably love or hate the inclusion of such anecdotes as how writer/artist John Byrne may or may not have shouted at and threatened future writer Peter David (then a PR staffer) over sending out preview pages to the press that revealed the shock ending to Byrne's Alpha Flight #12 - and how they still feud about it to this day. Is this tidbit emblematic of the state of the business at that moment in time, or a fanboy space-filler that slows down the overall story? (If you'd say the latter, consider this a four-star review.)
Howe is a very, very skilled writer, who must have had quite a job trying to make thousands of anecdotes fit properly into their historical place, as well as the thematic and social flow of the book -- as well as make it easily readable and feel briskly paced. In real life, events do not fall neatly into place by year or regime. So Howe has to jump around a little bit to draw an errant story into the correct context. Speaking as a comics reader and a former biographer, I think he pulled it off masterfully.
I only hope for his sake he hasn't made too many enemies in the comics professionals' world - in attempting to give multiple sides of every story, he's probably pleased no one. (Not to mention fanboys on the internet who love to trash everything.) A couple of places I thought I'd caught Howe in a mistake, but it turned out I was wrong. (Steve Englehart feuded with Joe Quesada over writing the FF? Not possible! I'd forgotten the limited series "Fantastic Four: Big Town.")
Kudos to Howe for collecting all this info, parsing it, organizing it, and making it a breezy read.