RIP VAN MARLOWE

By Raymond Benson

Robert Altman was a very quirky director, sometimes missing the mark, but oftentimes brilliant. His 1973 take on Raymond Chandler’s 1953 novel The Long Goodbye is a case in point. It might take a second viewing to appreciate what’s really going on in the film. Updating what is essentially a 1940s film noir character to the swinging 70s was a risky and challenging prospect—and Altman and his star, Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe (!), pull it off.

It’s one of those pictures that critics hated when it was first released; and yet, by the end of the year, it was being named on several Top Ten lists. I admit that when I first saw it in 1973, I didn’t much care for it. I still wasn’t totally in tune with the kinds of movies Altman made—even after M*A*S*H, Brewster McCloud (an underrated gem), and McCabe & Mrs. Miller. But I saw it again a few years later on a college campus and totally dug it. Altman made oddball films, and either you went with the flow or you would be put off by the improvisational, sometimes sloppy mise-en-scene that the director used. And the sound—well, Altman is infamous for his overlapping dialogue (one critic called it “Altman Soup”). If you didn’t “get” what the director was doing with sound, then you would certainly have a hard time with his pictures.

Yes, Elliott Gould plays Philip Marlowe. A very different interpretation than Humphrey Bogart, obviously. And yet, it works. Gould displays the right amount of bemused cynicism, as if he had been asleep for twenty years and suddenly woken up in the 1970s. And that’s exactly how Altman, screenwriter Leigh Brackett (who co-wrote the 1946 The Big Sleep), and Gould approached the material. Altman, in a documentary extra on the making of the film, called the character “Rip Van Marlowe.” He is an anachronism in a different time. For example, Marlowe can’t help but be bewildered by the quartet of exhibitionist lesbians that live in his apartment complex. And he still drives a car from his original era. And therein lies the point of the picture—this is a comment on the 70s, not the 50s.

The plot concerns the possible murder of the wife of Marlowe’s good friend—the friend is a suspect—as well as a suitcase of missing money belonging to a vicious gangster (extrovertly played by film director Mark Rydell), an Ernest Hemingway-like writer who has gone missing (eccentrically played by Sterling Hayden), and the author’s hot blonde wife who may know more than she’s telling (honestly portrayed by newcomer Nina van Pallandt). The story twists, turns, hits some bumps in the road, and finally circles back to the initial beginning mystery.

It may not be one of Altman’s best films, but it’s one of the better ones. It’s certainly one of the more interesting experiments he tried in his most prolific period of the 70s.

Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray release, however, doesn’t really improve on the original DVD release of some years ago. It appears to be a straight to Blu-ray transfer with no digital restoration of any kind. Hence, the image looks not much better than the DVD version. Since the soft photography and low lighting was intentional, any attempt at high definition is lost. The extras—the aforementioned “making of” documentary, a short piece on cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, an animated reproduction of a vintage American Cinematographer article, the trailer, and a few radio spots—are the same.

Still, if you’re an Altman fan and don’t already own the out of print DVD, you may want to pick up the new Blu-ray. It probably won’t be long before this, too, like Philip Marlowe himself, is a rare collector’s item.

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(This review pertains to the UK Region 2 video releases). 

BY ADRIAN SMITH

Michael Armstrong, the writer and star of Eskimo Nell,once said, "It's hard to wank and laugh at the same time". In the 1970s filmmakers gave it a very good try however, and the British sex comedy was virtually the only kind of film being funded. The problem is that the majority of them were neither funny or sexy. They were generally grubby and embarrassing for the actors and the audience. One of the pioneers of the British sex film was director and producer Stanley Long, responsible for The Wife Swappers (1969) and Adventures of a Taxi Driver (1975) and many others. An occasional cinematographer on prestigious films like Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965), Long often recognised and nurtured new talent, particularly if he could see a financial reward.

Michael Armstrong had written The Sex Thief for Martin Campbell (1975), a film that Stanley Long admired, so he approached the two of them with an idea for making a film based on the pornographic poem Eskimo Nell. Realising that the concept was so pornographic it was unfilmable, Armstrong decided to pen a tale of young, idealistic filmmakers trying to make a film in 1970s Britain. Armstrong wrote himself in as the director, fresh out of film school. After being rejected by the major studios, he finds himself hired by Benny U. Murdoch (Roy Kinnear), a sleazy producer who is obsessed with making a sex film based on the poem Eskimo Nell. In an attempt to raise the finance, they end up agreeing to make various different versions: a pornographic film, a kung-fu musical, a gay cowboy epic and a wholesome family film, each with a different star. Inevitably chaos ensues, along the way spoofing virtually the entire British film industry, Mary Whitehouse and the Legion of Decency, and the very establishment itself.

Eskimo Nell is a fantastic snapshot of Britain in the 1970s, and also manages to be utterly hilarious. The cast includes porn pin-up Mary Millington and TV stars Christopher Biggins, Doctor Who's Katy Manning and Christopher Timothy, best known as the vet from All Creatures Great and Small. Some of the comedy is dated, it often manages to be tasteless, and is probably offensive in its use of camp gay stereotypes, but the film gets away with it all thanks to the filmmakers' irreverent attitude. Eskimo Nell is not only Britain's best sex comedy, but also one of the finest satires of the film industry ever made. Michael Armstrong was an experienced film director himself, having made horror films including Mark of the Devil (1970) under very difficult circumstances. Martin Campbell went on to achieve fame as director of two Bond Films, GoldenEye (1995) and Casino Royale (2006), putting his sex film history far behind him.

88 Films have released the film in both DVD and Blu-ray versions, utilising a new transfer of a 35mm print from the BFI archive. A booklet about the film is included, written by genre historian Simon Sheridan, who also discusses the film with Michael Armstrong on an entertaining commentary track. Eskimo Nell is a terrific film and this new release is a reminder that it was indeed possible to laugh at a sex film.

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“A MADCAP MANHATTAN WEEKEND”

By Raymond Benson

Easily one of Woody Allen’s best films, The Purple Rose of Cairo, released in 1985, is a treat. It’s got laughs and pathos and is an excellent treatise on the conflict between fantasy and reality. Purple Rose represents a period when Allen was at the peak of his powers, when he was considered one of America’s greatest auteurs, and before there was the stigma of scandal hovering over his work. In 1985, Allen could do no wrong, and The Purple Rose of Cairo does everything right.

Allen doesn’t appear in the film. The picture belongs to Mia Farrow, and she delivers one of her best and most poignant performances as Cecilia, a meek and unhappy housewife/waitress in New Jersey during the Depression area. She is married to Monk (Danny Aiello), who is abusive and pays little attention to her needs. Thus, Cecilia escapes to the movies and sometimes sits through the same picture repeatedly. One such picture is the film-within-the-film, The Purple Rose of Cairo, a fictional RKO movie about Manhattan socialites who have just returned from Africa. They’ve brought along an archaeologist, Tom Baxter (winningly played by Jeff Daniels), who notices Cecilia in the audience, falls in love with her, and then breaks the fourth wall by stepping out of the screen and into the real world. Cecilia and Tom have a whirlwind romance, even going back into the movie together for a “madcap Manhattan weekend.”

The hilarity comes, of course, with Baxter’s reactions to the universe of color and places beyond the scenes in the movie he was in. But his vacating the picture has caused problems—the other characters in the movie don’t know what to do with themselves and their story halts. The picture’s producer and Gil Shepherd—the “real” actor who played Baxter onscreen—comes to remedy the situation. Cue the love triangle complications.

Allen draws from a number of influences, most particularly Buster Keaton’s 1924 film, Sherlock Jr., in which Keaton is a theater projectionist who slips into the movie that’s playing. Allen takes the premise further, in several different directions, and the result is a bittersweet comedy that even Allen himself (who is normally self-deprecating about his work) thinks turned out well. The picture also features an early appearance by Glenne Headly and Allen regular Dianne Wiest.

Twilight Time has released a limited edition Blu-ray—only 3,000 units—which automatically gives the title collectors’ item status. In terms of picture quality, it appears that the movie was simply transferred to Blu-ray without any restoration. There is a lot of grain in outdoor scenes, and artifacts and blemishes can be seen throughout. That said, Purple Rose is still a good-looking picture on Blu-ray (the cinematography was by the late, great Gordon Willis, whose contrasts in lighting work well with the theme of the story). The only extras are the theatrical trailer and trailers for other titles released by the company.

Therefore, forking out $29.95 for The Purple Rose of Cairo might be of interest only to die-hard Woody Allen fans. I’m not sure the Blu-ray improves significantly over the original DVD release from a decade ago. But if you don’t already own it, and you’re either an Allen fan or a cinephile who appreciates some of the best the 80s had to offer, then The Purple Rose of Cairo is for you.

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BY DAVID SAVAGE

Kino Lorber was right to bring out Foxes (1980) in Blu-ray under their KL Studio Classics series. The elegant re-issue seems aimed at convincing film snobs that this little gem from the last days of disco finally deserves their attention after a distance of 35 years, during which time it was either dismissed as another insignificant teen comedy of the ‘80s, or as a guilty pleasure. But longtime champions of the film, myself included, need no convincing. We owned the clamshell VHS, we owned the first-generation DVD, and now, if anything, I’d venture to say we feel vindicated that it now carries the stamp as a bonafide classic by a home video label as respected as Kino Lorber. Indeed, a major fist-pump moment comes during director Adrian Lyne’s remark in the audio commentary that Roger Ebert selected it as his favorite film of 1980 and took it with him to the Dallas Film Festival that year.

French lobby card.

Speaking of the commentary, British director Lyne’s (“Fatal Attraction,” “Flashdance,” “9 ½ Weeks”) fascinating and intimate recollections are worth the price of the disc alone. He made his directorial debut with the movie and is at times almost apologetic over what he sees as the wobbly choices of a first-time director. Viewers will note scenes that contain what came to be known as his signature style in movies like “Jacob’s Ladder” and “Fatal Attraction”: single-source lighting, using smoke on set to create light rays, and other stylistic techniques from his background as a commercial director. He is refreshingly candid and modest throughout, revealing misgivings over a scene he feels should have been cut or one that goes on too long, as well as revealing funny anecdotes about the actors. Randy Quaid, for example, donned a carnival mask in an umpteenth take of a scene that Lyne felt he just wasn’t getting right; Kandace Stroh had to be screamed at in her face so she could cry, and other funny reminiscences.

Sally Kellerman’s on-camera interview is another bonus, but she seems hard-pressed to remember much about filming “Foxes,” since at the time of production she was also shooting another feature in Israel. As a result she had to repeatedly jump on transatlantic flights between LA and Tel Aviv to shoot both pictures simultaneously. Kellerman is nonetheless a hoot just to listen to, as her trademark breathy, blousy way of talking just seduces you all over again, a la “Hot Lips O’Houlihan.” At one point she interrupts a story to ask her interviewer, “What is Blu-ray anyway?”

“Foxes” is a portrait of a group of teen girlfriends in LA’s San Fernando Valley at the cusp of the ‘80s, mothered by bossy and precocious Jeanie, played by Jodie Foster. They are real Valley Girls at varying degrees of promiscuity and jadedness. The baby-face of the group, bespectacled Madge (Marilyn Kagan) wears her virginity as a badge of shame, while druggie Annie (Cherie Currie of The Runaways) is trying to hide out from her abusive cop father, who wants to commit her to a mental hospital. They’re all trying to act older than they are, hosting awkward dress-up dinners in homes not their own, sleeping around and cutting class. Scott Baio plays a skateboarding drifter who’s dropped out of school and now fills fire extinguishers to make money. He seems to be everyone’s kid brother, when he’s not trying to sleep with one or another of the girls. Jeanie (Foster) seems to be hopelessly devoted to saving doomed Annie, to the point of suggesting lesbian longing, especially given Jeanie’s indifference to her part-time boyfriend Scott (Robert Romanus) but it never goes that far. That’s pretty much the whole plot: a loosely woven series of moments in their lives, punctuated by concerts, fights with parents, and cruising Hollywood Boulevard -- until an inevitable tragedy strikes one of them and closes the story, offering an open-ended but decidedly down take on teen life.

In one of the film’s key scenes, Jeanie and her mother, Mary (Sally Kellerman) have it out at home after Mary has picked up her daughter from another police station. Mary, herself a divorced mother who sleeps around, tells her daughter: “I don’t like your friends….You’re all a bunch of short forty year-olds and you’re tough.” But Mary’s honesty gets the better of her when minutes later she breaks down and admits that when she sees them lying around “half out of your clothes….you’re beautiful. I admit it, you’re all beautiful -- and you make me hate my hips. I hate my hips.” Lyne calls out the scene as his favorite and pays tribute to screenwriter Gerald Ayres for its emotional truth.

Visually, “Foxes” is beautiful to watch in this Blu-ray edition, whereas previous home video issues made the cinematography look murky. “Midnight Express” and “Fame” cinematographer Michael Seresin’s artful camerawork gives the picture a soft-focus and pastel coloring, even managing to make the smoggy sunlight of Los Angeles look like an oil painting. Lyne says he shot some of the Hollywood Boulevard scenes himself, and they give the film an authentic sense of time and place, with glimpses of street life that remind the viewer of a pre-gentrified Hollywood, much like New York’s 42nd Street at the same time.

As Lyne explains, the picture was put together by producer David Puttnam and Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart, who was obviously keen to use the movie as a vehicle for his hottest artists of the time, most prominent being Donna Summer. Her beautiful disco classic “On the Radio” plays over the opening titles, while Cher -- another Casablanca artist -- literally plays on a radio in the opening scene, post-credits. Is it a duel between the two, top disco divas of ‘79-80? Fragments of “On the Radio” repeat throughout the film, taking on a more melancholy tone as the story comes to a close. Euro-disco composer Giorgio Moroder provided the score -- containing echoes of his music for “Midnight Express” (1978) -- and other artists to listen for on the soundtrack include Janice Ian, Foreigner and Brooklyn Dreams. When the girls go to see Angel in concert at the Shrine Auditorium, Lyne confirms in the commentary a suspicion I have had for years: They couldn’t get KISS, who was on tour during filming.

Released between two movies that became classics of the L.A. High School genre, Rock ‘n Roll High School (1979) and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Foxes dared to silence its teen audience with issues of heavy drug use and overdoses, teen pregnancy, domestic abuse and premature death. In fact, Lyne reveals that writer Gerald Ayres (“The Last Detail,” “Rich and Famous”) based Jodie Foster’s character on his own teen daughter, whom he accompanied to high school and on friend outings to gain more authentic insights into her world. Tonally, “Foxes” is more of a true companion piece to “Little Darlings” (1980), starring Tatum O’Neal and Kristy McNichol, or “The Last American Virgin” (1982), both of which satisfy their audiences’ demands in the sexual-initiation and awkward-high-school-moments departments, but manage to slip in moments of true pathos.

Someday, perhaps, Jodie Foster will participate in reminiscing about the making of “Foxes” as an indulgence to the movie’s fans, as she has done on numerous other commentary tracks of her other, “serious” films. Likewise Scott Baio. In the meantime, Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray is the definitive collector’s edition to date and one to enjoy for years to come.

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BY ADRIAN SMITH

Review by Adrian Smith

When American Andrew Jessel (Tony Randall arrives in Marrakesh on a business trip, he checks into the hotel and discovers a corpse in his wardrobe. This is the beginning of a "wrong man" style adventure involving international espionage and criminal gangs, but thankfully on his side is sexy super-spy Kyra Stanovy (Senta Berger). The two set off to clear his name and solve the mystery, and spend large parts of the film having to rescue each other from assorted dangers, mainly involving local kingpin Casimir (Herbert Lom) and his psychotic henchman Jonquil (Klaus Kinski). Also thrown into the mix are British character actors Wilfrid Hyde-White, John Le Mesurier and Terry-Thomas, providing a combination of plot exposition and comic relief, and the entire plot builds to an inevitably happy conclusion where wrongs are made right, the guilty are punished and the innocent get to ride off into the sunset.

Our Man in Marrakesh (known in the States as Bang! Bang! You're Dead!) is a typical mid-Sixties Harry Alan Towers production. An independent British producer who had made a name for himself in radio and television before moving into feature films, he specialised in European co-productions, pulling in A-list names and finance from several different countries. His budgets were low, and his scripts were often second-rate, but he seemed to have a no trouble persuading bankable stars to take off around the world with him. He always preferred to shoot on location, and Our Man in Marrakesh is no exception. Aside from some rear-projection driving shots in a studio, most of the film is shot in Marrakesh itself, giving it a seedy authenticity which gives puts it on a par with the Bond films of the time. This film was one of hundreds of Bond-style films produced during the 1960s. They became known as Eurospy films, although other countries and continents got in on the act, too. Our Man in Marrakesh mixes elements of Bond with Hitchcock's thrillers fairly successfully, and Tony Randall makes a likeable comedic leading man. More fun, however, are the various characters that rotate around him, most notably Klaus Kinski, who once again looks unhinged and slightly dangerous. His piercing eyes and ease with violent outbursts would of course be put to use in better films later on, particularity in his collaborations with Werner Herzog.

The Tasmanian director Don Sharp is best known for his Hammer films Rasputin the Mad Monk (1966), The Kiss of the Vampire (1963) and The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964), but his cult credentials include films like Curse of the Fly (1965), two Fu-Manchu films with Christopher Lee (both produced by Harry Alan Towers) and bizarre zombie-biker thriller Psychomania (1973), a film that caused such despondency in star George Sanders that he committed suicide shortly after its release. His direction is uncomplicated and efficient. Although he rarely displays what could be called creative flair, he gets the job done, and he was clearly reliable enough to be regularly employed by producers for whom schedules and budgets were tight.

Our Man in Marrakesh, complete with James Bond-style marketing materials, is a fun and exciting film with bullets, car chases, corpses, bikini-clad babes, spies and gangsters, all wrapped up in an exotic locale. It won't change your life, but it is fun and features more entertainment value than many other Eurospy movies of the period. This has been released by Network on R2 DVD as part of their 'The British Film' collection. This is an exciting five-year plan, launched in 2013 with Studiocanal, to release over 450 vintage British films. Sadly most of these DVDs have so far featured very little in the way of extras, with just a theatrical trailer and an image gallery to accompany the movie. However when films like these have not been seen in any sort of decent print for decades the DVDs are well worth your time.

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BY ADRIAN SMITH

75 Years of Marvel Comics. From the Golden Age to the Silver Screen

Roy Thomas, Josh Baker
Hardcover with fold-out, ribbon bookmark, and four-foot accordion-fold timeline

11.4 x 15.6 in.

712 pages

Published 2014

ISBN: 9783836548458

$200/ £135

75 Years of DC Comics. The Art of Modern Mythmaking

Paul Levitz

Hardcover with fold-out, ribbon bookmark

11.4 x 15.6 in.

720 pages

Published 2010

ISBN: 9783836519816

$200/ £135

If you take a look at the top 100 all-time highest worldwide grossing movies, fifteen of them are either Marvel or DC comic adaptations. According to Box Office Mojo the third highest grossing film of all time is The Avengers (2012) at over a billion and a half dollars. Comics, it would seem, are major players in the world of entertainment.

Seventy-five years ago it was all very different. Comics were for children and were disregarded as both an entertainment medium and as an art form. Comics were disposable. Because of their ephemeral nature surviving early copies now trade hands for vast sums. Buying the first appearance of Superman or Batman will set you back a cool $1-2 million. Thankfully, if you want to hold the history of these comics in your hands without having to cash in your life insurance, Taschen have released huge and lavish tributes that, once opened, will send you whirling back through time to your own childhood and beyond.

Four years ago Taschen published 75 Years of DC Comics. The Art of Modern Mythmaking, and it was one of the biggest books this writer had ever seen. So heavy it comes in a cardboard carrying case with handle, it is crammed with fantastic full-size reproductions and blown up panels from classic comics and long-forgotten strips. The dating used here suggests that DC began in 1935, with a comic called New Fun. DC's most famous sons, Superman and Batman, did not make their first appearances until 1938 and 1939 respectively. The book is divided into sections; The Stone Age, The Golden Age, The Silver Age, The Bronze Age, The Dark Age and The Modern Age, and each begins with shiny toughened pages. By discussing some of the things that were going on in the comic industry outside of DC, one can look at their development in context. There are also fold-out detailed timelines in each section with a year-by-year breakdown including major world events.

The book is also a reminder that DC weren't always about superheroes. Alongside our spandex-wearing favourites were western comics, science fiction, military comics, funny animals, exotic adventurers, gangsters and detectives. There are other big names which have been somewhat forgotten by now, such as Captain Marvel, Will Eisner's The Spirit (despite an ill-advised attempt to being him back in a 2008 movie), Plastic Man, Starman and The Spectre. Even supporting characters occasionally got their own comics, such as Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen ("See Jimmy turn into The Giant Turtle Man!") and Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane, the latter demonstrating that comics could appeal to both boys and girls.

Also honoured are the many writers and artists who have built up the world of DC comics over the years, from Jerry Seigel and Joe Schuster, the creators of Superman, through to more modern writers like Alan Moore, who with Watchmen in 1986 changed the perception of what the comic book could achieve.

Of course DC has made a major impact beyond the comics, something which is included here. It is fun to see some of the toys and games kids would be desperate to collect, as well as imagery from the many movies and TV shows they inspired, including serials The Adventures of Superman (1948) and Batman and Robin (1949) as well as perhaps the greatest example of 1960s pop culture, the televised Batman series starring Adam West and Burt Ward (recently released on DVD and Blu-ray by Warner Brothers); a comic strip brought to life in full technicolour.

75 Years of DC Comics. The Art of Modern Mythmaking is a book that will most-likely take you the rest of your life to read and enjoy. For those who prefer something a little smaller to read, Taschen has also released separate volumes titled The Golden Age of DC Comics and The Silver Age of DC Comics.

It was only a matter of time before Taschen would give Marvel the same treatment, and 2014 marks their seventy-fifth anniversary. In 1939 Marvel really hit the ground running, publishing a comic featuring a collection of tales featuring amongst others The Human Torch (in this version an android) and Sub-mariner, both of whom are still popular today. Coinciding with the beginnings of war in Europe, a conflict which would eventually spread around the globe, Marvel's comics reflected the fears and ambitions of military conflict. Sub-mariner became the first superhero to fight Nazis in 1940, and in 1941 Captain America leapt into the fight, literally. On the front cover of his first issue he is proudly punching Hitler in the face, star-spangled shield to the fore. This was so controversial at the time that protestors marched on the Marvel headquarters in New York!

That same year Stanley Leiber was hired at Marvel as a general assistant and gofer whilst still a teenager. Within two weeks he was commissioned to write a Captain America story. Signing the story "Stan Lee", within eight months he was an editor and he went on to become one of the most important figures in the comic book world. Stan Lee is responsible for the creation of dozens of classic comic characters including The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Iron Man, The X-Men and many more. It is mostly his creations that now dominate Hollywood, particularly since the creation of the Marvel film studios in 1996 and their subsequent purchase by Disney in 2009 for a mere $4 billion.

Stan Lee was not the only genius working at Marvel, and the book covers work by many of the fantastic writers and artists employed over the last seventy-five years including Jack Kirby, John Romita and Steve Ditko. The author of this Marvel history himself, Roy Thomas, served as a Marvel editor from 1965-80 and had runs on The Avengers, The Incredible Hulk, Conan the Barbarian and many more.

75 Years of Marvel Comics. From the Golden Age to the Silver Screen gives us a thorough history of the company and their comics. There is a detachable four-foot long double-sided timeline giving a year-by-year history not only of Marvel but comic book development in general. Obviously a lot of space in the book is devoted to their most beloved characters, including Thor, Hulk, Silver Surfer, Daredevil and The Avengers alongside those already mentioned. Like the DC book before it, it is also fun to discover many other characters and stories that one may have missed, with names like Werewolf By Night, Captain Britain, Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandoes, Dr. Strange (recently announced as another Marvel movie) and Luke Cage, the first black superhero. Marvel also published "girls comics" such as My Love and Our Love Story and created female superheroes like The Cat, Black Widow and Elektra.

In the late 1960s some of their comics went psychedelic, and in the 1970s Marvel began to experiment with some fairly edgy material, such as the sleazy Howard the Duck, the horror-enthused Tomb of Dracula or the violent adventures of Conan the Barbarian. The artwork was always excellent and is beautifully reproduced here.

Despite an early Captain America movie serial in 1944, Marvel's comics were not used as material for a theatrical movie again until 1986, with the disastrous George Lucas-produced Howard the Duck. It was not until the movie version of Blade (1998) and X-Men (2000) that the real movie boom began. Perhaps special-effects technology had finally caught up with the imaginations of Marvel's writers and artists. However some of their characters had found success on American television, most memorably with the Bill Bixby/ Lou Ferrigno-starring The Incredible Hulk (1978). This was produced by CBS who were also responsible for the TV movies of Captain America (1979) and The Amazing Spider-Man (1977), imagery from which can also be found in this book.

Spider-Man first appeared in a Marvel comic in 1962. Whether posing on the White House lawn with First Lady Rosalynn Carter in 1980 or appearing alongside Barack Obama in a 2009 issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, the web-slinger has become closely associated with the real world, and in particular the city of New York. His youth and quips have made him one of Marvel's most popular heroes, and in a moving December 2001 issue he was forced to confront the horrors of 9/11. Unlike DC characters who mainly live in fictional cities or worlds, the Marvel universe exists amidst our own.

Taschen's books are a fitting tribute to the worlds of DC and Marvel and the people who brought these incredible worlds to life week after week. One can only hope that both companies will continue producing comics and stories for at least another seventy-five years each.

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