Marvel Fireside Books

The Marvel Fireside Books Series was a series of full-color trade paperbacks featuring Marvel Comics stories and characters co-published by Marvel and the Simon & Schuster division Fireside Books from 1974 to 1979.

The series enabled fans of the old comic books to have access to the stories without having to pay exorbitant prices for the original back issues. It introduced new readers to the work of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and other Marvel creators, and packaged the material in a traditional book format that carried more cachet than the flimsy pamphlet style of a typical comic book. Many of the books featured painted covers illustrated by such artists as Bob Larkin, John Romita Sr., and Earl Norem. In this way, the series was an antecedent to the now common practice of packaging "classic" stories into archival editions and trade paperback collections including Marvel's 1998 book Grandson of Origins of Marvel Comics.

Publishing history

The Silver Surfer (1978), the only Marvel Fireside edition featuring original material. Cover art by Earl Norem.

Marvel Publisher Stan Lee came up with the idea of compiling the origins of some of their most popular characters in a book format similar to Jules Feiffer's 1965 book The Great Comic Book Heroes. Teaming up with Fireside, a young adult imprint of Simon & Schuster, Marvel initially produced Origins of Marvel Comics in 1974,^[1] featuring the origins of the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, and Doctor Strange. Like the books to follow, Origins featured a foreword by Lee, and short introductions to each section, which followed the format of presenting the character's origin followed by a contemporary story by current Marvel contributors.

Origins of Marvel Comics was followed in 1975 with Son of Origins of Marvel Comics, featuring the origins of the X-Men, Iron Man, the Avengers, Daredevil, Nick Fury, the Watcher, and the Silver Surfer.

The two Origins books were followed by Bring on the Bad Guys, origins of a selection of Marvel villains; and The Superhero Women, featuring some of Marvel's most popular female superheroes. Eventually, the series moved away from origin stories and published collections of classic stories with individual characters such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Captain America, and Doctor Strange.^[2]

One of the Marvel Fireside Books superhero story editions was not a reprint but an original story. The Silver Surfer (1978) by Stan Lee, with art by Kirby and Joe Sinnott, was a new take on the late 1960s icon; and is considered by many to be one of the first true "graphic novels".^[3]

In conjunction with their reprint collections, Marvel and Fireside also produced a number of activity and game books, how-to books, and even a cookbook, again all featuring Marvel characters. The most well-known and popular book of this kind was 1978's How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, which is still in print.

Marvel/Fireside published 24 different books, many with multiple printings in both hardcover and paperback.

DC Fireside books

DC Comics also formed a short-lived partnership with Fireside in 1979–1980, producing three titles.

• America at War: The Best of DC War Comics, 247 pages, July 1979, ISBN 978-0671249533
• Heart Throbs: The Best of DC Romance Comics, 256 pages, November 1979, ISBN 978-0671252366
• Mysteries in Space: The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics, 251 pages, May 1980, ISBN 978-0671247751

Original graphic novels

• The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience, 114 pages, September 1978, ISBN 978-0671242251

Reprint collections

• Origins of Marvel Comics 254 pages, September 1974, ISBN 978-0671218638
• Son of Origins of Marvel Comics 249 pages, October 1975, ISBN 978-0671221669
• Bring on the Bad Guys: Origins of the Marvel Comics Villains 253 pages, October 1976, ISBN 978-0671223557
• The Superhero Women: Featuring the Fabulous Females of Marvel Comics 254 pages, November 1977, ISBN 978-0671229283
• The Best of Spidey Super Stories 128 pages, January 1978, ISBN 9780671242206
• The Incredible Hulk 253 pages, July 1978, ISBN 978-0671242244
• Marvel's Greatest Superhero Battles 253 pages, November 1978, ISBN 978-0671243913
• The Amazing Spider-Man 128 pages, May 1979, ISBN 978-0671248130
• The Fantastic Four 128 pages, September 1979, ISBN 978-0671248123
• Doctor Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts 132 pages, October 1979, ISBN 9780671248147
• Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty 128 pages, October 1979, ISBN 978-0671252328

Activity and how-to titles

• The Mighty Marvel Superheroes Fun Book 128 pages, June 1976, ISBN 978-0671223106
• The Mighty Marvel Comics Strength and Fitness Book 128 pages, September 1976, ISBN 978-0671223120
• The Mighty Marvel Superheroes Fun Book #2 128 pages, June 1977, ISBN 978-0671227586
• The Mighty Marvel Superheroes Cookbook 95 pages, September 1977, ISBN 978-0671225599
• The Mighty Marvel Fun Book #3 128 pages, July 1978, ISBN 978-0671242237
• How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way 192 pages, September 1978, ISBN 978-0671530778
• Marvel Mazes to Drive You Mad October 1978, ISBN 978-0671243388
• The Mighty Marvel Pin-Up Book 45 pages, November 1978, ISBN 978-0671243906
• The Mighty Marvel Fun Book #4 (1979)
• The Mighty Marvel Fun Book #5 (1979)
• Marvel Word Games August 1979, ISBN 978-0671248086
• The Mighty Marvel Jumbo Fun Book 352 pages, 1979, ISBN 9780671248109

See also

• Marvel Premiere Classics
• The Official Marvel Try-Out Book

References

External links

• Tribute page to the Marvel Fireside Books series
• Collected Comics Library Podcast #54 (Feb. 2, 2006).
• Website with retrospective reviews of the Marvel Fireside Books