Fantagraphics Books will publish collections of comics published by Atlas, the precursor to Marvel Comics, in hardcover editions that will focus on individual titles and artists. They will publish five volumes of Fantagraphics Presents the Marvel Atlas Comics Library per year; four will be collections of sequential issues of individual titles, and the fifth will spotlight work by a single artist. The collections will be edited by Atlas scholar Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, and the comics will be scanned from the published comics and restored.
The series will kick off with Adventures Into Terror: The Atlas Comics Library Vol. 1, which will include Russ Heath’s “The Brain” and “Return of the Brain”; Basil Wolverton’s “Where Monsters Dwell”; Gene Colan’s “House of Horror”; and Don Rico’s “The Torture Room.” The 180-page hardcover will go on sale on September 12, 2023, with an MSRP of $34.99.
Next up is The Atlas Artist Edition Vol. 1: Joe Maneely, featuring Maneely’s work in a variety of genres, including horror, Westerns, and satire, with characters including Kid Colt, the Yellow Claw, Speed Carter, Combat Kelly, and The Black Knight. This volume includes an essay by Vassallo setting out the history and context of the work. The 256-page oversized hardcover will be released on November 14, 2023, with an MSRP of $75.00.
Atlas was the brand name most often used by Marvel in the 1950s, during a period when the company shifted its focus from superheroes to other genres that were popular at the time, including horror, war comics, Westerns, and funny animal, following the lead of other publishers, notably EC. Dead Reckoning published a collection of Atlas war comics from the 1950s (see “Dead Reckoning to Publish ‘Atlas at War’ World War II Comics”). In 2019, Ghost Rider producer Steven Paul acquired majority ownership of the Atlas library and signed a deal with Paramount to produce movies based on them (see “Producer Acquires Majority Control of Atlas Comics”).
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Source: ICV2
