Sean Howe Knihy

The defining, behind-the-scenes chronicle of one of the most extraordinary, beloved, and dominant pop cultural entities in America’s history -- Marvel Comics – and the outsized personalities who made Marvel including Martin Goodman, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby.   “Sean Howe’s history of Marvel makes a compulsively readable, riotous and heartbreaking version of my favorite story, that of how a bunch of weirdoes changed the world…That it’s all true is just frosting on the cake.”  —Jonathan Lethem For the first time,  Marvel Comics  tells the stories of the men who made Marvel: Martin Goodman, the self-made publisher who forayed into comics after a get-rich-quick tip in 1939, Stan Lee, the energetic editor who would shepherd the company through thick and thin for decades and Jack Kirby, the WWII veteran who would co-create Captain America in 1940 and, twenty years later, developed with Lee the bulk of the company’s marquee characters in a three-year frenzy. Incorporating more than one hundred original interviews with those who worked behind the scenes at Marvel over a seventy-year-span,  Marvel Comics  packs anecdotes and analysis into a gripping narrative of how a small group of people on the cusp of failure created one of the most enduring pop cultural forces in contemporary America.

A retelling of the old story of the genie in the bottle.

How a poor man can become rich and a tailor can marry a princess.

Topics to interest young learners, ranging from blood banks to deserts.

Shows how Marvel's identity has continually shifted, careening between scrappy underdog and corporate behemoth. The author also introduces the men behind the magic, including self-made publisher Martin Goodman, energetic editor Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby, the WWII veteran and co-creator of many of the company's marquee characters.

The life and times of High Times' enigmatic founder Thomas King Forcade, an underground newspaper editor and marijuana kingpin who-between police raids, smuggling runs, and outrageous stunts-battled both the US government and fellow radicals.

What’s your damage? In 1989, Michael Lehmann’s black comedy Heathers drew a line in the sand, rebuffing the sweetness and optimism of John Hughes’ more popular fare with darkness and death. Launching the careers of Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, Heathers became a cult classic, ranking #5 on Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 50 Best High School Movies and inspiring hoards of teen films that vastly overshadow its fame but lack its acid wit, moral complexity, and undeniable emotional punch. For the latest installment of Deep Focus, John Ross Bowie blends captivating memoir with astute analysis, tracing the rebel-teen mythology that links Columbine, heavy metal, and The Catcher in the Rye. With help from Lehmann, screenwriter Daniel Waters, and members of the cast, Bowie thoroughly unpacks the film’s peculiar resonance. Brilliant riffs on the etymology of its teen slang, the implications of its title, and its visual debt to Stanley Kubrick show how Heathers—for all its audacious absurdity—speaks volumes about the realities of high school and of life itself.

The years 1780 to 1820 have long been seen as the Golden Age of the English satirical print. This period witnessed a number of changes in style which had far-reaching consequences, including an increase in the effectiveness of the caricature as visual propaganda. William Pitt the Younger and Charles James Fox were the leading politicians of the age, continuing a family rivalry begun by their fathers. They were amongst the most caricatured men of their time and became emblems of the two sides of the political debate whilst gathering personal followings, based upon personality rather than filial or political patronage. Fox and Pitt the Younger came to represent a more modern notion of the party leader, in an age before formalized political parties and structures. Neil Howe here shows how `stock images' came to the fore and examines the central role they played within the visual representation of politicians during the late-eighteenth century. His book also chronicles how the biggest political rivalry of the age played out within contemporary caricature, from the emergence of Fox and Pitt as big political beasts in the wake of the American Revolution, though the East India Bill Crisis; Regency Crisis and French Revolution to the death of both men in 1806.