Marvel Comics Quotes

“But once again, he would learn, Marvel’s fate lay in the hands of people who knew nothing about comic books. Out in Los Angeles, as soon as the sale was made, Rehme had summoned his vice president of marketing and proudly told him, “We just bought Superman.”
― Sean Howe, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

“Although Jerry Siegel didn’t bring it up with people, a swirl of whispers followed as he made his way in and out of the office: That guy co-created Superman. DC Comics won’t even let him in their offices anymore”
― Sean Howe, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

“Steve Englehart’s latest idea for Doctor Strange was appropriately zany: Strange and his lover/apprentice Clea would be whisked back in time to explore “The Occult History of America,” an adventure that would put them in contact with notable Freemasons like Francis Bacon, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson. Clea and Benjamin Franklin would have a torrid affair—cuckolding Strange—as they sailed from England to bear witness to the occult-influenced drafting of the Declaration of Independence. Finally, they’d return to the present, where the evil sorcerer Stygro was vampirically feeding off the energy of American patriotism. “It seemed like the thing to do for the bicentennial,” Englehart said.”
― Sean Howe, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

“You fellas think of comics in terms of comic books, but you’re wrong. I think you fellas should think of comics in terms of drugs, in terms of war, in terms of journalism, in terms of selling, in terms of business. And if you have a viewpoint on drugs, or if you have a viewpoint on war, or if you have a viewpoint on the economy, I think you can tell it more effectively in comics than you can in words. I think nobody is doing it. Comics is journalism. But now it’s restricted to soap opera.”
― Sean Howe, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

“Over the decade that movie producer Menahem Golan had retained the rights for Spider-Man, he’d managed to involve half a dozen different corporate entities. Golan had originally bought the Spider-Man rights for his Cannon Films; after leaving Cannon, he transferred them to 21st Century Films. Next, he raised money by preselling television rights to Viacom, and home video rights to Columbia Tri-Star; then he signed a $5 million deal with Carolco that guaranteed his role as producer. But after Carolco assigned the film to James Cameron, Cameron refused to give Golan the producer credit, and the lawsuits began. By the end of 1994, Carolco was suing Viacom and Tri-Star; Viacom and Tri-Star were countersuing Carolco, 21st Century, and Marvel; and MGM—which had swallowed Cannon—was suing Viacom, Tri-Star, 21st Century, and Marvel.”
― Sean Howe, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

“Colan, who’d been drawing for Marvel continuously since 1965, over disagreements on Colan’s artwork, which was the antithesis of the Shooter grid. Colan, naturally, went to DC, where he soon began drawing Batman. All of this intrigue was gleefully reported by an increasing number of comics-related magazines that fed industry”
― Sean Howe, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

“Galton would say to Stan, ‘Weren’t the Beatles sort of like the Monkees?”
― Sean Howe, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

“DC’s very failure to re-create the Marvel style resulted in its biggest hit.”
― Sean Howe, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

“AMID THE CROSSOVERS AND THE ENHANCED COVERS AND THE NUMBER-ONE collectors’ editions, there was one comic that seemed to please everyone, from the fickle fourteen-year-olds chasing the next hot artist to the patience-tested boomers who faithfully held out for Marvel Comics to return to the way they remembered it being when they were fourteen.”
― Sean Howe, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

“You implied that the Panther was a token Negro. When we became aware of the lack of Negroes in our magazines, and decided to introduce them in our stories, don’t you think it would have looked rather foolish to suddenly have fifteen colored personalities appear and barnstorm through the books? As it is, we have T’Challa (the Panther), Joe Robertson and his son, Willie Lincoln, Sam Wilson (The Falcon), Gabe Jones, Dr. Noah Black (Centurius), and even a super-villain—The Man-Ape. In short, we think that we have approached a decent start with these characters.”
― Sean Howe, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

“Lee huddled with Gene Colan, who based the Falcon’s look on college football star O. J. Simpson;”
― Sean Howe, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

“But even as Kirby’s Promethean concepts spun in all directions, he was, by the summer of 1967, all but finished creating new Marvel heroes. “I’m not going to give them another Silver Surfer” was the oft-repeated reasoning he gave to friends.”
― Sean Howe, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

“Goodman moved into a sprawling colonial mansion, with five fireplaces and four master bedrooms, in the upscale neighborhood of Woodmere, next door to a country club. When he took his father to see the house, Isaac Goodman was astonished. “This,” he said, “was the kind of house I was a serf on, in Russia.”
― Sean Howe, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

“The books were suddenly being used to make Marvel a lot of money in the short term, with no concern for the long run or the characters,” she said. “Immediate cash appeared to be what Marvel was bought for—to be milked and milked and milked. I think that at that point anyone who looked like they could produce lots of instant cash for Marvel was likened to a god, and Rob Liefeld looked like he could do just that.”
― Sean Howe, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

“The watershed moment,” said Ann Nocenti, “was when Shooter said every single comic had to have a ‘can’t-must’ moment: I am not a thief . . . I don’t want to steal. But I must steal because my grandmother is starving. Every comic had to have that in the first three pages. Literally, a panel where the superhero had to say, ‘I can’t steal—but I must, for my grandmother.’ Or, ‘I can’t kill Mephisto—but I must, because he has my soul.’ He was sending comics back to the Bullpen to have the ‘can’t-must’ panel squeezed in, in the middle of the page.”
― Sean Howe, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story