First Printing
Selected and introduced by
Roy Thomas
Five Marvel milestones! Three sovereign super heroes! One exclusive collection! Including a facsimile of the extremely rare Marvel Comics #1! Marvel: The Golden Age 1939-1949 marks a terrific team-up between The Folio Society and Marvel Comics.
Discover the origin story of Marvel Comics. Meet the wartime Super Heroes who built the Marvel Universe. As part of this special collaboration with The Folio Society, legendary Marvel editor Roy Thomas has curated five milestone comic books – including a unique facsimile of Marvel Comics #1 – all painstakingly reproduced and collected with an exclusive digitally signed print.
‘This book is every Marvelite’s dream come true – a heaping handful of the stories that heralded and celebrated the Marvel Age of Comics, reproduced in full color in the most faithful way possible! I’m just proud to have been a part of it all!’
- Roy Thomas
Main volume
Bound in screen-printed and metallic foil blocked cloth with lettering by Ian Jepson
Set in Miller Text with Benton as display
272 pages printed in 4-colour throughout
Endpapers printed in metallic ink with a design by Marco D’Alfonso
Ribbon marker
Coloured page edges
13¼˝ x 9¼˝
Solander Box
Bound and lined in printed and gold laminated paper with a design by Marco D’Alfonso
Facsimile Comic
64 pages with 4-page cover
10˝ x 7˝
Exclusive Print
Illustration by Marco D’Alfonso printed in 4-colour on Natural Evolution White 280gsm paper
10˝ x 7˝
© 2019 MARVEL
In celebration of the 80th anniversary of Marvel Comics #1, The Folio Society has joined legendary Marvel editor Roy Thomas to form a super-powered team-up of their own. Marvel: The Golden Age 1939–1949 presents five specially curated comic books, including a meticulous facsimile of the comic that started it all back in 1939. Thomas’s selection includes Sub-Mariner #1, Human Torch #5, Captain America Comics #10, and All Winners Comics #19, and showcases the founding characters, debut appearances, famous battles and signature talent that helped define the Golden Age of American Super Hero comics.
To recapture and preserve the spirit of the Golden Age, The Folio Society has scanned these comics from original newsprint titles, valuable rarities sourced from either the Marvel vaults or a discerning collector. While Folio has ensured that the authentic facsimile of Marvel Comics #1 maintains its original dimensions, the four titles collected in hardback have all been enlarged to a treasury format to best appreciate each detail. Every minute aspect of all five books has been preserved, from crinkles and creases in the grainy newsprint to the vintage adverts and short fiction. Even glitches, including original spelling errors and colouring overlaps, have been preserved
Roy Thomas was not only the first to succeed Stan Lee as Marvel Comics’ Editor-in-Chief, he also co-created a host of Marvel characters that have since become household names, including Vision, Carol Danvers, Iron Fist and Ultron. Among the books he selected on behalf of The Folio Society is Marvel Comics #1. First published 80 years ago, this comic book features the debut appearances of two of Marvel’s founding heroes, the Human Torch and Namor the Sub-Mariner. A unique facsimile of this exceptionally rare item provides the collection’s showpiece. Printed on authentic paper, this is a reproduction so precise that it’s the closest you can get to owning a copy of the original comic. (The less collectable November printing recently sold at auction for $1,260,000.)
Thomas himself draws upon more than 50 years’ experience in the comic-book industry. His detailed introduction provides an expert guided tour of his selected comics. He outlines the superhuman creative effort that went into staging the first epic battle between the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner, as well as tracks Stan Lee’s orchestration of Marvel’s very first Super Hero team-up. Elsewhere, modern Marvel artist Marco D’Alfonso – famed colourist for Elektra, Avengers and Thor – has provided a digitally signed print available only with this edition.
The four comics collected in hardback come bound in a brilliant blue volume, blocked and screen printed with original lettering by pop-art illustrator and typographer Ian Jepson. This beautifully crafted 272-page book is completed with a ribbon marker and page edges coloured in bold red. The Folio Society commissioned modern Marvel artist Marco D’Alfonso to create gorgeous retro sketch designs for the endpapers, all printed in gleaming gold. His dazzling design also features on the handmade presentation box, bound and lined in printed and gold-laminated paper. Marvel: The Golden Age 1939–1949 is an exclusive edition available only from The Folio Society and is the perfect gateway into the dizzying world of Super Heroes.
Raw, vigorous, youthful and bold, this is the spirit that founded the comic book Super Heroes we know today. These titles are bursting with signature talent, from artwork from renowned artists Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, Alex Schomburg, Joe Simon and ‘King of Comics’ Jack Kirby, to stories written by Stan Lee and Batman co-creator Bill Finger.
This is the world that inspired works such as Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. These are the stories that spoke to a generation of blue-collar Americans recovering from the Great Depression only to find themselves facing a Second World War. Here beats the heart of an entire genre.
Marvel: The Silver Age 1960–1970 marks the second chapter in The Folio Society’s collaboration with Marvel Comics. Over 30 revolutionary Super Heroes await you, including Spider-Man, the Avengers and Doctor Strange. Curated by Marvel legend Roy Thomas, this collector’s edition comes complete with a scale reproduction of the groundbreaking The Fantastic Four #1.
Experience the amazing adventures of Marvel’s iconic Super Hero in Spider-Man, the second volume in Folio’s exclusive ‘Marvel Heroes’ series. Featuring acclaimed comic books by Stan Lee, Steve Dikto, Todd McFarlane and Brian Michael Bendis.
Witness the creation of the world’s very first Super Heroes in DC Comics: The Golden Age. Folio has teamed up with the legendary publishers of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman to present the first in a brand-new series of prestige comic-book collections.
This collector’s edition of Frank Herbert’s phenomenal tale of far-future desert warriors, fallible messiahs and interplanetary intrigue is illustrated by award-winning artist Sam Weber, and published to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the world’s best-selling science-fiction title.
