A fascinating history, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story recounts the rise of a small group of comic creators in the 1940s through their heyday in the 1960s and early 1970s and into some very dark recent times. This isn't simply a retelling of the "official" character-focused merry Marvel story but a shadowy behind-the-scenes corporate history focusing on the people who created the comics.

Although I already knew a fair amount about the history of creators like Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Steve Ditko Steve Gerber and others - I was astonished how much detailed background material Sean Howe sifts through. In fact, I was downright outraged throughout the book: firstly in terms of how the artists were treated in the early days - even though they created comics and comic characters that made the company owners lots of money, they were poorly paid and had no ownership over their creations. Later on this transforms into outright corporate parasitism where lifelong Marvel staff were let go in order for the owners of the company to suck as much cash as they could out of the business. Certainly in the late 1990s and early 2000s Marvel seemed to have massive debts and yet its owners were making millions (if not billions) out of the company.

One perspective of this book is the manner in which corporate business decisions affect creativity. Howe seems to show that the tensions between commerce and creativity appeared to have a positive impact at first but later seemed to literally destroy people's lives. Not only do many creators seem to end up declaring that they couldn't encourage newcomers to enter the comics industry but there seem to have been so many who died incredibly young (often in their early 30s) or - in one case - literally died on the job. He sees creators' rights as an ongoing aspect of the Marvel story and sees McFarlane's, Jim Lee's, Liefeld's, et al's  exodus from Marvel in the 1990s as a pivotal moment in redefining the relationship between company and artist. Yet the way in which managerialism (and its resultant continual restructuring) became dominant in the declining years of the company (late 1970s onwards) is astonishing.

In fact, the second half of the book - where diversification into different media becomes as important as production of comics - is the most engaging. Merchandise, low-budget cartoons and tv shows and endlessly "in development" movies shifted Stan Lee's attention from the comics to pursuing revenue from other media (and it seems to be that this is when the quality of the comics dramatically declines). The recent movie successes are undoubtedly the culmination of this diversification but - arguably - have only further diminished the role of Marvel Comics in the whole Marvel Productions company Disney.

Howe also shattered my (admittedly childish) image of the Marvel Bullpen and even Stan Lee himself. The portrait he presents of the real working practices is a million miles away from that of the Merry Marvel Marching Society I can remember reading about as a 10 year old all those years ago. Howe depicts the relationship between Lee and Kirby (as well as other creators) as being far from straightforward - but definitely plays up Lee's crucial role as editor and promoter of Marvel comics. Over the last year I've been reading a lot of Kirby's comics and gradually understanding the esteem in which he's held. For me, this history only boosts Kirby's crucial role in the development of Marvel (and superhero comics as a whole) - although he does come across as cranky towards the end (but certainly nowhere near as cranky as Ditko).

I found this an intriguing and thoroughly engrossing book. One feature of Howe's writing I admire is the way that he uses elements of Marvel stories to parallel the relationships between staff and the state of the company. It's worth reading just for the many anecdotes told (my favourite is the plan by disgruntled artists to spike Stan Lee's coffee with LSD!). Thoroughly recommended.

Rating: ★★★★★ - Excellent