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Hello, Marvelites!
I'm Ryan Penagos, a.k.a.
Agent M.
And I'm Lorraine Cink, a.k.a.
that lady over here.
And this episode of This Week in Marvel
is presented by the Folio Society
because we're talking about something really cool today.
There's this giant book set tome box of awesomeness.
Yeah, we're celebrating Marvel's 80th anniversary
all year long, and the Folio Society has created this very
special 80th anniversary set.
They normally make these really beautiful
luxury editions of the best books,
and so obviously we get one.
Yay.
Yeah.
And so because it's our 80th anniversary,
they looked back at the first thing
Marvel ever published, which is Marvel Comics Number 1.
Yeah, check it out.
And that's what it really would have looked like.
Yeah, what it looked like, a little bit like what it would
smell like, which you may--
that may sound--
Wait.
--hold on-- that may sound strange,
but as someone who has been reading
and smelling comics my entire life,
that is an important thing.
Get in there.
If you-- if only there were smell-o-vision
vision because that's pretty darn authentic.
It smells like an old school comic.
Yeah, and it's really cool because it's-- it's a very
close facsimile not just in the size and everything, but also
in the way it would look.
You'd have to be a very wealthy person
to own a copy of Marvel Comics Number 1 at this point,
80 years after it was printed, but you
can now have one that this is pretty
much what it would be like.
Yeah.
And included in this huge box set,
you can see that there is so much stuff,
but there's also this digitally signed
print by Marco Del Alfonso.
As you can see, it's got Captain America bursting
forth with the other heroes from the early days
of Marvel Comics.
It's awesome, super cute.
I want to put it in my house.
And Marco also did the art on the box set,
so it's-- it's a really beautiful package.
Yeah.
And you'll see that there are a bunch of characters that
are detailed that are from Marvel Comics 1000,
like the Masked Raider, Lady Dorma, and a lot more.
Yeah.
And-- and so, part of it is also this book right here,
and this book is really special because it has
an introduction by Roy Thomas.
Now Roy Thomas grew up reading these original comics.
He then went on to work for Marvel.
He then went on to be the second editor-in-chief
for Marvel Comics, following up on the legendary Stan Lee.
So he knows these characters really well,
so he has an introduction in this book
about the golden age of Marvel, about this time period.
And he even hand-selected four issues that are reprinted here.
That's right.
It includes The Submariner Number 1, Human Torch Number 5,
Captain America Comics Number 10, and All Winners
Comics Number 19.
As you can see, it says Marvel, the Golden Age.
It's from 1939 to 1949, so it's our earliest days.
And those are those hand-picked selects by Roy Thomas.
Yeah.
And what-- what is extra special is it,
again, going back to what The Folio Society does,
is authenticity.
So these aren't pulling from the digital files,
which are beautiful.
We've, you know, digitized them over the years.
But these are pulling from first printings
and giving you a representation, again, what these comics would
look like, taking from those printings,
not from digital files.
And I'm a big fan of Marvel's, like, very early stuff
because it is wild.
It is awesome.
I mean, also, I think it's really fun that some
of the things that we forget about is the Human Torch,
it wasn't Johnny Storm in those days,
but the Human Torch was an android
that turned into a human torch.
And that was introduced in Marvel Comics Number
1 way back in 1939.
Namor, been with us since the beginning, 1939.
Yeah.
And, like, All Winners Comics is really
important because it's an--
like, you can almost think of it as a prototype
for The Avengers, of, like, superheroes coming together.
And this is in the '40s.
It's really, really cool.
This is just a really special package.
Now if you're going to be at New York Comic Con,
like Lorraine and I, you can go to the Marvel booth.
And every day, we're going to have a giveaway hour.
During giveaway hour, we are going to be
giving away one of these sets.
It's going to be really cool.
Gently, because they're heavy.
Yes.
Now before we go, you guys, if you're not going to be at New
York Comic Con, you can check it out at foliosociety.com
and get your own.
But before we go, I want to read this quote
by Roy Thomas from the book.
He says, "This book is every Marvelite's dream come true,
a heaping handful of stories that heralded and celebrated
the Marvel age of comics reproduced in full color
in the most faithful way possible.
I'm just proud to have been a part of it all."
Yeah.
I'm proud to have been here to talk about this, too.
- Me too. - I'm Ryan.
I'm Lorraine.
And this is Marvel.
Your universe
OK, so this one's mine, right?
No, no.
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