Douglas Wolk

In this remarkable book, Douglas Wolk recreates the evening of October 24th 1962, at Harlem's Apollo Theatre, an evening at the epicentre of Cold War tensions. An evening when James Brown took the stage to be faced by 1500 screaming fans - fans who thought they might well be dead within a week. Wolk reconstructs, in great detail, what took place (and was recorded) inside the Apollo that night: one of the tightest, most legendary performances ever put down on tape. 33 1/3 is a series of short books about critically acclaimed and much-loved albums of the last 40 years. Focusing on one album rather than an artist's entire output, the books dispense with the standard biographical background that fans know already, and cut to the heart of the music on each album. The authors provide fresh, original perspectives, often through their access to and relationships with the key figures involved in the recording of these albums. By turns obsessive, passionate, creative, and informed, the books in this series demonstrate many different ways of writing about music. (A task that can be, as Elvis Costello famously observed, as tricky as dancing about architecture.) What binds this series together, and what brings it to life, is that all of the authors - musicians, scholars, and writers - are deeply in love with the album they have chosen. Previous titles in this now well-established series have beaten sales expectations and received excellent review coverage - the third batch is sure to continue this success. More titles follow in the spring of 2005.

The second Marvel character to spring from the legendary creative collaboration of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the early 1960s was a far cry from the Fantastic Four’s recognizable family dynamics and globe-trotting super heroics. The Hulk was a Monster! The alter ego of puny human scientist Bruce Banner unleashed when an experimental bomb douses the hapless scientist in Gamma radiation, and thereupon unleashed every time the mild-mannered Banner lost his temper, the Hulk exploded from comics stands into an unsuspecting world…and he hasn’t stopped since.Unquestionably one of the strangest, strongest, and most evocative archetypes to come from Marvel Comics, the Hulk defies all explanation. At times at war with other superheroes, villains, the United States military, humanity, and even his alter-ego Bruce Banner himself, he stands as an avatar of unbridled fury, primal instincts, the destructive potential of the atomic bomb and humanity’s hubris all at once. A modern Prometheus, imbued by atomic fire, who will never stop raging, never stop smashing. Now, TASCHEN brings you the Hulk as you’ve never seen him before, in an XXL-size volume worthy of his name. Collecting The Incredible Hulk Issues 1–6, along with his appearances in Tales to Astonish. All issues have been photographed using TASCHEN’s sterling reproduction methods, resembling the way these comics first looked when initially published, while also being digitally remastered using modern retouching techniques to correct problems with the era’s inexpensive, imperfect printing. An introduction by pop-culture and comic scholar Douglas Wolk, meticulously researched and adorned with rarely seen original art, photos, and paraphernalia showcasing the Hulk’s lasting impact on global culture, rounds out this massive package to honor of the biggest, meanest, and greenest superheroes of all time.Also available in a Collector’s Edition of 1,000 numbered copies© 2025 MARVEL

Winner of the 2022 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Book A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice The first-ever full reckoning with Marvel Comics' interconnected, half-million-page story, a revelatory guide to the "epic of epics"--and to the past sixty years of American culture--from a beloved authority on the subject who read all 27,000+ Marvel superhero comics and lived to tell the tale "Thorough, fascinating, and joyfully executed, All of the Marvels is essential reading for fans and scholars alike." --G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel) "A revelation, a tour both electrifying in its weird charisma and replenishing in its loving specificity . . . a testament, and a tribute." --Jonathan Lethem "Brilliant, eccentric, moving and wholly wonderful. . . . Wolk proves to be the perfect guide for this type of adventure: nimble, learned, funny and sincere. . . . All of the Marvels is magnificently marvelous. Wolk's work will invite many more alliterative superlatives. It deserves them all." --Junot D az, New York Times Book Review The superhero comic books that Marvel Comics has published since 1961are the longest continuous, self-contained work of fiction ever created. Thousands of writers and artists have contributed to it. Everyone recognizes its protagonists. Eighteen of the hundred highest-grossing movies of all time are based on parts of it. And Douglas Wolk has read the whole thing. Wolk sees both into the ever-expanding story and through it, as a prism through which to view the landscape of American culture. In his hands, the mammoth Marvel narrative becomes a fun-house-mirror history of the past sixty years--a boisterous, tragicomic, magnificently filigreed epic about power and ethics, set in a world transformed by wonders. A huge treat for Marvel fans, this book is also a revelation for readers who don't know Doctor Strange from Doctor Doom. Here, truly, are all of the marvels.

Introduced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the fertile pages of The Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer quickly established himself as one of Marvel’s most far-out characters. Enslaved by Galactus to prowl the cosmos for the demi-god’s next planet-sized meal, the Surfer was as tragic a figure as any in comics—and he looked impossibly cool at the same time! A smash hit with fans and a regular supporting character in Fantastic Four, the character struck a creative nerve with Lee, who couldn’t wait to begin to tell some Surfer solo stories, but the timing had to be right.In the spring of 1968, things came together for both writer and character, with Lee giving the Surfer Marvel’s very first ongoing double-sized book. Lee also recruited artist John Buscema, who had recently been lending his extraordinary pencils to The Avengers. Together, they spun off a run of legendary tales that helped define the character forevermore.The feature stories from the entire 18-issue run of the 1968 Silver Surfer series are collected in this cosmic-sized XXL tome from the Eisner Award-winning Marvel Comics Library series. The most pristine pedigreed comics have been cracked open and photographed for reproduction in close collaboration with Marvel and the Certified Guaranty Company. Each page has been photographed as printed more than half a century ago, then digitally remastered using modern retouching techniques to correct problems with the era’s inexpensive, imperfect printing—as if hot off a world-class 1960s printing press. A custom paper stock was exclusively developed for this series to simulate the feel of the original comics.Texts by author and critic Douglas Wolk and Marvel artist and brother of John Buscema, Sal Buscema, accompany original artwork, photographs, and rare memorabilia. © 2023 MARVEL

Introduced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the fertile pages of The Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer quickly established himself as one of Marvel’s most far-out characters. Enslaved by Galactus to prowl the cosmos for the demi-god’s next planet-sized meal, the Surfer was as tragic a figure as any in comics—and he looked impossibly cool at the same time! A smash hit with fans and a regular supporting character in Fantastic Four, the character struck a creative nerve with Lee, who couldn’t wait to begin to tell some Surfer solo stories, but the timing had to be right.In the spring of 1968, things came together for both writer and character, with Lee giving the Surfer Marvel’s very first ongoing double-sized book. Lee also recruited artist John Buscema, who had recently been lending his extraordinary pencils to The Avengers. Together, they spun off a run of legendary tales that helped define the character forevermore.The feature stories from the entire 18-issue run of the 1968 Silver Surfer series are collected in this cosmic-sized XXL tome from the Eisner Award-winning Marvel Comics Library series. The most pristine pedigreed comics have been cracked open and photographed for reproduction in close collaboration with Marvel and the Certified Guaranty Company. Each page has been photographed as printed more than half a century ago, then digitally remastered using modern retouching techniques to correct problems with the era’s inexpensive, imperfect printing—as if hot off a world-class 1960s printing press. A custom paper stock was exclusively developed for this series to simulate the feel of the original comics.Texts by author and critic Douglas Wolk and Marvel artist and brother of John Buscema, Sal Buscema, accompany original artwork, photographs, and rare memorabilia. © 2023 MARVEL

WINNER OF THE 2022 EISNER AWARD FOR BEST COMICS-RELATED BOOK 'Magnificently marvellous' Junot Diaz 'An account of how a motley gang of accidental collaborators created a vernacular mythology out of the dodgiest of commercial occasions ... a revelation' Jonathan Lethem Every schoolchild recognises their protagonists: the Avengers, the X-Men, your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. The superhero comics that Marvel has published since 1961 make up the biggest self-contained work of fiction ever created: over half a million pages and counting. Eighteen of the 100 highest-grossing movies of all time are based on it. And not even the people telling the story have read the whole thing. But Douglas Wolk did. In All Of The Marvels, a critic and superfan takes on the epic to end all epics. What he finds is a magic mirror of the past 60 years, from the atomic terrors of the Cold War to the political divides of our present. The result is an irresistible travel guide to the magic mountain at the heart of popular culture.

Winner of the 2022 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Book A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice The first-ever full reckoning with Marvel Comics' interconnected, half-million-page story, a revelatory guide to the "epic of epics"--and to the past sixty years of American culture--from a beloved authority on the subject who read all 27,000+ Marvel superhero comics and lived to tell the tale "Thorough, fascinating, and joyfully executed, All of the Marvels is essential reading for fans and scholars alike." --G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel) "A revelation, a tour both electrifying in its weird charisma and replenishing in its loving specificity . . . a testament, and a tribute." --Jonathan Lethem "Brilliant, eccentric, moving and wholly wonderful. . . . Wolk proves to be the perfect guide for this type of adventure: nimble, learned, funny and sincere. . . . All of the Marvels is magnificently marvelous. Wolk's work will invite many more alliterative superlatives. It deserves them all." --Junot D az, New York Times Book Review The superhero comic books that Marvel Comics has published since 1961are the longest continuous, self-contained work of fiction ever created. Thousands of writers and artists have contributed to it. Everyone recognizes its protagonists. Eighteen of the hundred highest-grossing movies of all time are based on parts of it. And Douglas Wolk has read the whole thing. Wolk sees both into the ever-expanding story and through it, as a prism through which to view the landscape of American culture. In his hands, the mammoth Marvel narrative becomes a fun-house-mirror history of the past sixty years--a boisterous, tragicomic, magnificently filigreed epic about power and ethics, set in a world transformed by wonders. A huge treat for Marvel fans, this book is also a revelation for readers who don't know Doctor Strange from Doctor Doom. Here, truly, are all of the marvels.

Suddenly, comics are everywhere: a newly matured art form, filling bookshelves with brilliant, innovative work and shaping the ideas and images of the rest of contemporary culture. In Reading Comics , critic Douglas Wolk shows us why and how. Wolk illuminates the most dazzling creators of modern comics-from Alan Moore to Alison Bechdel to Chris Ware-and explains their roots, influences, and where they fit into the pantheon of art. As accessible to the hardcore fan as to the curious newcomer, Reading Comics is the first book for people who want to know not just which comics are worth reading, but ways to think and talk and argue about them.

Welcome to the first volume in an exciting new annual series that celebrates the year's best American writing about music and its culture, as selected by one of the genre's preeminent practitioners. Covering the gamut of contemporary styles,rock, pop, rap, jazz, blues, country,Guralnick has chosen the kind of pieces that send you right to the record store, by both established writers and bright new talents. With thirty selections drawn from more than a hundred sources, including mainstream magazines like the New Yorker , music journals like Spin , and tiny'zines and websites where the scribes of the new century are found, this collection will be indispensable for music lovers and lovers of wonderful writing alike.