The Secret History Of Marvel Comics: Jack Kirby and the Moonlighting Artists at Martin

by Blake Bell, Michael J. Vassallo

Marvel Comics — home to virtuous heroes like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers — has a hidden sordid past, stretching back to long before the first Marvel Comic rolled off the presses.

Authors Blake Bell and Dr. Michael J. Vassallo pull back the curtain on the real-life characters who built the publishing empire that became Marvel Comics, document their shady practices, and reveal how it all shaped the Marvel we know today.

Lavishly illustrated and wildly revealing, The Secret History of Marvel Comics discredits long-held myths about Marvel and bursts open a treasure trove of lost artwork by comic book legends Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Bill Everett, Carl Burgos, Alex Schomburg, and dozens more. none of this art ever appeared in any comic book!

Includes early writings by Stan Lee plus a rare Human Torch escapade — published here in color for the first time!

Genres: Comics, History, Nonfiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Business, Art

304 pages, Hardcover

First published August 28, 2012

About the author

Writer of multiple books on comic-book creators. Books include "Fire & Water: Bill Everett, The Sub-Mariner & The Birth of Marvel Comics"; "Strange & Stranger: The World Of Steve Ditko", "I Have To Live With This Guy!", plus multiple introductions and forewords for Marvel and DC Comics. Also, editor of "The Steve Ditko Archives" volumes for Fantagraphics.

Reviews

[Eoin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great art but extremely repetitive text.

[Michael Neno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blake Bell and Dr. Michael Vassallo's exhaustively researched and meticulously compiled record of the transition between Martin Goodman's publishing of pulp magazines and what were (for all intents and purposes) the earliest Marvel comics makes for fascinating reading and is an important document.

For those like me interested in the history of 20th century magazine publishing, pulp magazines and the earliest comic books, The Secret History of Marvel Comics is pure gold. It details the complex and convoluted relationships between the earliest publishers of what became DC Comics, Archie Comics and Marvel, and breaks down Goodman's cynical but effective business strategies publishing books and magazines of all stripes, of which comics were only a part.

Goodman's lack of interest, bordering on contempt, of most of his creative teams had echoes which still reverberate today (such as in the Jack Kirby heir's recent legal battle with Disney over Kirby's creations for Marvel).

Half the book is given over to illustrations drawn by Goodman's employees for his pulp magazines, including much work by Kirby, Joe Simon, Alex Schomburg, Bill Everett, Syd Shores and many more.

A few anecdotes and facts are given too many times, and I wish the book had given more information on Goodman's later days (especially his involvement in the '70s Atlas comics). I understand that, given the title of the book, that was probably out of the scope of the project. And yet, how many books are written about Martin Goodman? This would have been a perfect opportunity for that.

[Monty Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really a history of Marvel Comics, despite the title. The first hundred pages or so are a look at original Marvel owner Martin Goodman, and it is exhaustive in all meanings of the word. it feels like every issue of every pulp magazine that Goodman put out gets mentioned and criticized. If there's a typo on a cover somewhere, it will get mentioned, possibly more than once.

It's interesting information, there's just so much of it. The authors feel that artists like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were not properly compensated for their work, which is obviously true. But since so much of the Goodman section is crawling through the history of the Western magazines he published, or his forays into crime magazines, that there's no time to actually talk about the comics that the reader (or at least me) care about.

Then comes a series of shorter artist biographies, which feel very disconnected from each other and the Goodman section.

The actual book to read about the history of Marvel is Sean Howe's Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. But that one doesn't have a million cool pictures of pulp magazine covers like this one does, so it's a tradeoff.

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marvel's secret, sordid history revealed.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heavily detailed on the business end, and essentially none of the illustrations are of Marvel's popular characters - they all come from the pulps and the assorted western/detective/romance mags.

[Ian Massey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apart from finding the text of this book a bit on the dry side, and frequently repetitive, my main problem with it is the claim that it "pulls back the curtain" and documents "shady practices". Ok, so it details Martin Goldman's (mostly) pre-Marvel - or, more accurately, pre-comicbooks - work on the pulps and magazines but, while it doesn't exactly paint him in a glowing way as a publisher, it hardly demonizes him either.

Yes, he passed off reprints as new work, but so did others - he wasn't the only one investigated for doing so. Yes, he published material that was on the cusp of offensive, but so did others - in fact, the authors go to lengths to point out that Goodman often jumped on a trend. And is the fact that he published using a multitude of company names really damning?

The main thrust of the book seems to be that today's Marvel (or the Marvel of ten years ago, when the book was published) is built on sleaze, horror and, sometimes, titillation. So what? This was the ears of the pulps, read by grown-up, not children.

That doesn't make it not interesting, and the reproduced artwork is, for the most part, lovely to look at. I just dont think it needs the sensationalism.

[Lyndsey · Rating 1 out of 5]

**WARNING** This book IS NOT ABOUT THE TRUE EVOLUTION OF MARVEL COMICS! This should have been titled: The redundant ramblings on the life of Martin Goodman. Every time I’d start a new chapter I’d think to myself, “wait, did I read this already?” And then upon perusing the rest of the chapter found I could skip the entire thing.

If what Goodman printed wasn’t really “Marvel Comics” then spend maybe the first chapter laying the foundation of his initial corrupt contributions, then get on with the real creation of the ACTUAL Marvel comics. Interviews with Kirby, Lee, and Ditko. Highlight the lesser known creators of the characters, especially their contributions to the development of the brand in the late 90’s and early 2000’s when Marvel was coming back from the brink of bankruptcy.

Why spend so much time glorifying a corrupt conniving jackass in the 40’s when Marvel didn’t even find its true footing until the 70’s? This book isn’t about Marvel - I’m guessing it was written by someone related to Goodman trying to squeeze another dollar out of the unsuspecting public, just like Goodman would have done.

[Tim Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, if you're you're looking for a history of Marvel Comics, this isn't what you're looking for. There are a number of other place you can go. Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe comes to mind. And there are others. While you may find out some things about the comic book side of Martin Goodman's business enterprises here that's not the focus. This is, by and large, a look at Martin Goodman, his businesses and more particularly his pulp and magazine publishing (with a bit out paperbacks thrown in). And for that I'm thankful. If you combine books, interviews, articles, etc., I've read hundreds of works on the history of Marvel Comics over the years. But they usually mention Goodman's other publishing enterprises in passing, if at all. So there was a ton of new ground here. And there was carry-over. For those of us who looked at the indicia (that's those little boxes of small text usually on the bottom first page of a funnybook) you knew that the early Marvel Comics were technically published by various different entities. This book goes in to some detail on the way Goodman set up his publishing empire to minimize risk across titles. This was something a lot of us knew, but this is the best explanation I've seen so far. And most of us knew that Goodman published pulps and sweat mags and whatnot. But we didn't know a lot about them. This fills in some of those gaps.

There are also a number of spot illustrations from those pulps and magazines that were done by artists that were mostly known as comic book creators. Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Dave Berg, Dan DeCarlo and a passel of others did illustrations and cartoons for Goodmans publications and number of them show up here.

Also keep in mind that this is a coffee-table book. It's not as in-depth as some of us might like. But it's still something different and a good new look at one of the most important publishers in comics history.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

The artwork in this book is fantastic! I also enjoyed the thorough details about the history of Martin Goodman. It is difficult to take raw facts, dates, and titles and make them interesting. Bell did a good job presenting Goodman's history (the first half of the book), though some of it was a little repetitive. The latter half of the book gives readers a nice brief collection of writers and artists who worked for Goodman/Marvel, and brief histories of each. In between and all throughout were very nice cover pages, artwork, inside art illustrations, etc.

Goodman was his own worst enemy, and this book explains why. It is astonishing that Marvel Comics even survived the Goodman years. This book is worth reading, especially if you enjoy the pulps of the latter 1930s and the golden and silver age of the comic book industry.

[Clay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite what I was expecting when I flipped through some pages in the used bookstore. I thought it might be more like "Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-creator Joe Shuster" from some of the 'shudder pulp' images in the second 2/3 of the book (which features artwork from the Martin Goodman pulps).

It is a history of the Martin Goodman publishing empire and examination of how this lead to the creation of Silver Age Marvel Comics. I needed a scorecard and several family tree diagrams to understand and follow all the shell companies created as pulp publishing houses and from where each title (and individual issues) originated. An engrossing read with insight into the publishing world before and after WW2 and through the '50s.

[Jonathan Barnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is essential for lovers of periodicals and pop culture. This is less about Stan Lee and more about Martin Goodman, the owner of Marvel and Magazine Management. Marvel Comics was born from the heap of Pulp, imitation magazines, unemployed artist, frustrated company men and a crash of regulated distribution. This is the story.

Basically he learned about the magazine business alongside the co-founders of DC Comics and Louis Silberkleit of Archie Comics while working at Eastern Distributing Corp. One of the clients that he served indirectly was Hugo Gernsback of the “Amazing Stories” and the Hugo Awards. He learned about creating shell games between multiple publishing companies and titles. He could move money and assists to file _and_ avoid bankruptcy. Pulp series would be published as Red Circle Magazine (Shudder Pulps), Ranger Publishing (Westerns such as imitations of the Lone Ranger), and Western Publishing, Comic books had several publishers such Timely, Marvis, and Marvel Comic (a short live stint before Marvel Comics Group). He also had book divisions such as Lion books. In short, He had lots of title and publishers. He learned how to push volume in an area that was dependent on quality and name brand recognition like TIME or “The Saturday Evening Post”. Comics were just one division of his empire.

From his Pulps he learned how to chase trends and also rip off artists and employees. It’s customary, almost to a fault to blame, Stan Lee for some of the troubles that have fallen on some ex-employees at Marvel; The most popular ones being Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Yet, that’s not really accurate. Much of the business vs intellectual property arguments stem from the business practice of Martin Goodman. That’s what the book is about. This is not a re-telling of the Mark Mine Marvel days of 1960s.

The book also features an inventory of other artists who worked for Goodman from the1930s- 1960. Within the pages, you will find Pulp art of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Included are Alex Shomberg (the Jack Kirby of Pulp Magazines), Bill Everett (The Sub-Marinier), Joe Maneely, Russ Heath and Carlos Burgos (The Human Torch), and Dan (Archie) DeCarlo. Some of the pulps characters that exist to this day are Ka-Zar (Like Tarzan only similar), The Angel (in name only, anyways) and The Masked Raider/Rider. The looks of the latter (dressed in all black) being a Lone Ranger Rip Off was actually appropriated for the 2013 Disney version of THE LONE RANGER; Imagine Bat-Man dressed as Moon Knight. There are stories and art pertaining to Stan Lee’s attempt to give Esquire, Playboy and MAD Magazine and run for their money with title like Stag, Snafu, and Swank. Yes, _that_ Swank albeit in a slightly more accessible format. Only to see that work brushed aside for Goodman’s knack for shuffling titles and talent to the next limited title to grab the attention of a spectator at a newsstand. One could surmise that Goodman created the Comic Book mini-series. The 1960s Marvel Way was formed and born as much out of frustration and it was a burst of creativity. I suspect that Stan Lee wanted to be the Hugh Hefner of Humor.

Much like the people behind AIP or New World Pictures, you’ll appreciate Goodman’s flying by the seat of his pants approach to grab people’s attention. You’ll also be disappointed at how he treated his employees. He seemed to like Lee and Bill Everett. His tense relationship with Simon and Kirby was tick for tack but also understandable from both sides. How he treated Carlos Burgos was just downright mean. Even his son Chip is a human punching bag. Basically, Goodman never really understood the value of his own company. Some people paid for that by not getting paid. One could say that a couple of employees actually died from it.

Less information is given to the writers like Mickey Spillane, Patricia Highsmith (Not mentioned), Alan Le May and possibly Richard Matheson. Actually it can be hard to tell if someone actually worked for Goodman because there was plenty of sub-contracting, farming out of talent as well as “on-staff” and “freelancers”. To compound it all some of the publications could be sold off to other companies like Lion Books.

Only criticisms are that the subject makes for some difficult reading, trying to keep track of the various publications and how Goodman rose from the ranks. That’s not really the fault of the writers; it’s just the nature of the beast. Reader who are more familiar with Black Mask and Amazing Stories will have an easier times acclimating the exploits. I’m surprised that is as accessible as it is, considering. I appreciate the details and the footnotes.

In Goodman’s defense, there should have been least another paragraph on his latter day comic book company Atlas Comics. After selling off Marvel Comics and everything related to it, He started a new Comic Book company that paid better rates, ownership and royalties. He even went as far as to hire some former adversaries like Steve Ditko, Russ Heath and Wally Wood. Alas, that company didn’t last long despite the advantage for the artists. That was a fate that would fall upon First Comics, Eclipse and Pacific Comics. However, today we have Dark Horse, IDW, and Image. It took a while for companies to figure how to make that approach work. Nowadays, Comics Books are commodities, not just volume to move around.

It is a Book about the American Dream. What is it? You will find it as something Good, Big, and Bold….and Ugly and Desperate and Dirty. It’s also Astonishing, Uncanny, Mysterious, and a Marvel to behold.

[Kenneth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first chapters comprise an impressively detailed record of the many often shady operations and publications of Martin Goodman, including before he got into publishing comics, illustrated with numerous credited cover illustrations. The latter half of the book discusses the work esteemed comics artists such as Jack Kirby, Joe Maneely, and Gene Colan did for Goodman before they became ensconced in the Marvel Comics bullpen. Those who geek out over this sort of thing will probably love it. A valuable contribution to the study of popular culture.

[Elliot · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Interesting read about the shady ways Marvel was run BEFORE it was Marvel. Martin Goodman's practises were very suspect

[Joe Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good art from the non-comics world of Marvel. The text is very repetitive and fairly dull.

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely invaluable and mythbusting resource for anyone interested in the pre-1960’s history of Martin Goodman’s publishing empire.

[John Adkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This excellent book tells the early history of Marvel Comics and the predecessor companies owned by Martin Goodman. The book shows the links between Goodman's pulp magazines and his later comic empire. It also fully illustrates the often questionable business practices that Goodman employed. Profiles of many of the artists who were around for both periods are included with portfolios of their pulp work. Despite the title the book does not go into detail about the later superhero comics period and would have been better titled "Tge Secret Origins of Marvel Comics."

[Gary Lang · Rating 5 out of 5]

These guys, driven to make money selling pulp, would do anything, and I mean *anything*, to enhance their meager incomes. The artists were always underpaid, and the management always on the edge of exploitation of these artists. For all that, their work endures and their secret work clearly informed the works that we all care about and that, half a century later, form the basis of the healthiest part of the movie business. 5 Stars.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was actually kind of disappointed by this. The writing is really dry, and there wasn't nearly as much information as I was expecting. However, the never before seen artwork is worth the price of the book alone.

[Mark Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it! Don't read if you are looking for superheroes. This is about everything else Marvel published that used many of the same artists. Highly recommended.