MARVEL COMICS LIBRARY HC (2025)

This XXL-sized volume collects the classic first 21 stories of the world's favorite web slinger from 1962-64. The most pristine pedigreed comics have been cracked open and photographed for reproduction in close collaboration with Marvel and Certified Guarantee Company. With an in-depth historical essay by Marvel editor Ralph Macchio, original art, rare photographs, and other gems, these 698 pages of wall-crawling wonder will make anyone's spider-sense tingle with anticipation.

By early 1963 the foundations of the Marvel Age had been laid. Marvel editor in chief Stan Lee realized something was missing, so Lee and artist Jack Kirby assembled Iron Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Thor, and the Hulk to create the Avengers. If the Fantastic Four were family, then the Avengers were the co-workers you didn't choose. Not everyone got along-the Hulk fought with everyone-but working together they could defeat the baddest of Marvel's bad guys, like Loki, Kang the Conqueror, the Masters of Evil, and Immortus. Relive the classic early adventures of Avengers Nos. 1-20 in an XXL-sized edition that's bigger than the Hulk's fist, weightier than Thor's hammer, and with more extras than Iron Man's armor. TASCHEN has attempted to create an ideal representation of these books as they were produced at the time of publication. The most pristine pedigreed comics have been cracked open and photographed for reproduction in close collaboration with Marvel and the Certified Guaranty Company. Each page has been photographed as printed more than half a century ago, then digitally remastered using modern retouching techniques. Accompanying the stories are an original foreword by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and an in-depth history by the Eisner Award-winning writer Kurt Busiek that's illustrated with original art, little-seen photographs, and rare documents.

In 1961 Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created The Fantastic Four, a powerhouse super hero team that kicked the comic book industry into high gear. These four super-powered beings with complex human emotions revolutionized the world of comics. This XXL volume collects their first 20 stories and documents how it became in Lee's words "the world's greatest comic magazine."

When Martin Goodman asked Stan Lee to deliver another new team book for his line of comics, he had no idea he'd be getting something like The X-Men. In fact, nobody could have imagined the extraordinary phenomenon the X-Men would eventually grow into-not Goodman, not Lee, not even the forward-thinking futurist Jack Kirby. What they started out as was a charming, ragtag team of misfits, devised by Lee and Kirby to be mutants-youngsters born with 'X-tra' powers thrust upon them not by accidentally crossing paths with cosmic rays or a nuclear blast, but by the fate of birth-led by a no-nonsense professor who trained them to become heroes that could protect the world from menaces, mutant and otherwise. The first years of storytelling laid the foundation for much of what has put the X-Men at the crossroads of comics and popular culture: Hounded by a public that fears and misunderstands them, mutantkind find themselves at the heart of their own civil rights struggle; Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Beast, and Iceman found safety amongst themselves despite the challenges that set them apart from others in society; and Professor Xavier lined up against his ideological foe, Magneto, who had assembled a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to take the fight directly to humankind. Along the way, Lee and Kirby-who were on fire taking comics into the Marvel Age-introduced a menagerie of villains and supporting characters that would become mainstays of Marvel and its lore: the super-powered siblings Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch; the formidable Blob; the unstoppable Juggernaut; the jungle dweller from the Savage Land, Ka-Zar; the demigod from the stars, the Stranger; and Bolivar Trask and his army of mutant-hunting Sentinels. And as Lee and Kirby gave way to new talents so they could move on to new corners of the Marvel Universe, Atlas era art veteran Werner Roth teamed with writing newcomer and future X-Men legend Roy Thomas to begin their long run on the title. Close in size to the original artworks, this XXL-sized edition features the first 21 stories of our favorite oddball super heroes from 1963-1966. The most pristine pedigreed comics have been cracked open and photographed for reproduction in close collaboration with Marvel and the Certified Guaranty Company. Each page has been photographed as printed more than half a century ago, then digitally remastered using modern retouching techniques to correct problems with the era's inexpensive, imperfect printing-as if hot off of a world-class 1960s printing press. Three different paper stocks, including an uncoated and woodfree paper, were exclusively developed for this series to simulate the feel of the original comics. In addition to these seminal tales are an original foreword by modern X-Men mastermind Chris Claremont, reliving the heyday of Lee and Kirby's foundational years, and an in-depth essay by X-Men writer Fabian Nicieza alongside original art, photographs, and memorabilia from the early years of X.

Introduced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the fertile pages of The Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer quickly established himself as one of Marvel's most far-out characters. Enslaved by Galactus to prowl the cosmos for the demi-god's next planet-sized meal, the Surfer was as tragic a figure as any in comics-and he looked impossibly cool at the same time! In the spring of 1968, things came together for both writer and character, with Lee giving the Surfer Marvel's very first ongoing double-sized book. Lee also recruited John Buscema, who had recently been lending his muscular brushwork to The Avengers, for art chores. Together, they spun off a run of legendary tales that helped define the character forevermore. The entire 18-issue run of the 1968 Silver Surfer series, with a final issue that reunites Surfer creators Lee and Kirby, is collected in this cosmic-sized XXL tome from the Eisner Award-winning series, every page shot with the highest production values from a pristine copy of the original comic book.

Spider-Man tangles with Doc Ock, Kraven, and the Green Goblin, while Peter Parker navigates the perils of teen romance in the second half of Lee and Ditko's Amazing Spider-Man magnum opus. This volume in the Eisner-Award winning series sources the highest quality comic books to reproduce meticulous facsimile editions that would make Aunt May proud.