A review by sfian
The Secret History of Marvel Comics: Jack Kirby and the Moonlighting Artists at Martin Goodman's Empire by Michael J. Vassallo, Blake Bell

informative medium-paced

3.0

Apart from finding the text of this book a bit on the dry side, and frequently repetitive, my main problem with it is the claim that it "pulls back the curtain" and documents "shady practices". Ok, so it details Martin Goldman's (mostly) pre-Marvel - or, more accurately, pre-comicbooks - work on the pulps and magazines but, while it doesn't exactly paint him in a glowing way as a publisher, it hardly demonizes him either. 

Yes, he passed off reprints as new work, but so did others - he wasn't the only one investigated for doing so. Yes, he published material that was on the cusp of offensive, but so did others - in fact, the authors go to lengths to point out that Goodman often jumped on a trend. And is the fact that he published using a multitude of company names really damning? 

The main thrust of the book seems to be that today's Marvel (or the Marvel of ten years ago, when the book was published) is built on sleaze, horror and, sometimes, titillation. So what? This was the ears of the pulps, read by grown-up, not children. 

That doesn't make it not interesting, and the reproduced artwork is, for the most part, lovely to look at. I just dont think it needs the sensationalism.