LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Marvel Comics: Companies
built 658 days ago
Marvel Comics was founded by pulp-magazine publisher Martin Goodman in 1939 as Timely Publications, based at his existing company at 330 West 42nd Street, New York City, New York. Goodman's official titles were editor, managing editor, and business manager, with Abraham Goodman officially listed as publisher.[1] The company's roots go back further, to Goodman's first Western pulp, in 1933. A precursor of one Marvel character, the jungle lord Ka-Zar, first appeared in a 1936 pulp; he was adapted to a comic-book story in the first Timely Comics release, and the name became that of a different Marvel jungle lord introduced in the 1960s.
Source:
Marvel.com may have finally admitted that the trend towards digital comics is not just some fad. The company recently announced Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, a digital archives service that will let comicbook fans access comics as recent as six months old to as old as 40 years. The subscription fee for the service is $59.88 for a whole year or $9.99 a month. The digital comics will be shown in high resolution but it cannot be downloaded. Marvel will use a proprietary “Smart Panel” applet for reading the comics.
Source:
In 1994, Marvel acquired the comic book distributor Heroes World to use as its own exclusive distributor. As the industry's other major publishers made exclusive distribution deals with other companies, the ripple effect resulted in the survival of only one other major distributor in North America, Diamond Comic Distributors Inc. [16] Creatively and commercially, the '90s were dominated by the use of gimmickry to boost sales, such as variant covers, cover enhancements, regular company-wide crossovers that threw the universe's continuity into disarray, and even special swimsuit issues. In 1996, Marvel had almost all its titles participate in the Onslaught Saga, a crossover that allowed Marvel to relaunch some of its flagship characters, such as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, in the Heroes Reborn universe, in which Marvel defectors Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld were given permission to revamp the properties from scratch. After an initial sales bump, sales quickly declined below expected levels, and Marvel discontinued the experiment after a one-year run; the characters returned to the Marvel Universe proper. In 1998, the company launched the imprint Marvel Knights, taking place within Marvel continuity; helmed by soon-to-become editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, and featuring tough, gritty stories showcasing such characters as the Inhumans, Black Panther and Daredevil, it achieved substantial success.
Source:
Thirdly and worst, Marvel seems to intend to make the comics available only through a proprietary web application. Probably the company is doing that to prevent subscribers from sharing with non-subscribers, while ... preventing users from creating a personal archive independent of their subscriptions. The net effect, though, will be to encourage pirates to find other ways to scan and share back issues. They'll probably even use Marvel's own high-quality scans from the archive.
Source:
Marvel Comics is an American comic book company, headquartered in New York City. Its best-known comics include The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and X-Men. Since the 1960s, it has been one of the two largest American comics companies, the other being DC Comics.
Source:
With a library of over 5,000 characters, Marvel Entertainment, Inc. is one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies. Marvel's operations are focused on utilizing its character franchises in licensing, entertainment, publishing and toys. Areas of emphasis include feature films, DVD/home video, consumer products, video games, action figures and role-playing toys, television and promotions. Rooted in the creative success of over sixty years of comic book publishing, Marvel's strategy is to leverage its character franchises in a growing array of opportunities around the world. For more information visit www.marvel.com. MARVEL and all related Marvel characters are (C) and trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc., and are used with permission.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Companies