MARVEL AT MARVEL! PART TWO

HOW typical that after my last note suggested my review of Marvel Chronicle would be in Friday's paper, that it should have been held out until today's.

Oh well, Saturday is book review day in any case.

If you missed it, here's my piece in full:

Marvel Chronicle: A Year By Year History (Dorling Kindersley, £35)

IF YOU know anboby who likes their Marvel characters and comics, buy them this incredibly-marvellous book for Christmas and they'll love you for ever.

The weight of this hefty tome will be enough to make them think you're their No 1 present buyer of 2008.

Presented in a magnificently illustrated box, the inside flap contains a complex coloured compendium Marvel Chronicle illustration with a separate card containing a black and white outline for you to colour in yourself.

The silver cover is cut into an M shape, and eight of the 350 pages are devoted to a comprehensive index.

Inside, creator Stan Lee's foreword reveals the secrets of his genius in three simple steps and writer/editor Tom DeFalco explains why comics were published three months ahead of their cover date.

Going right back to 1939 and forerunner Timely Publication's introduction of Marvel Comics (hash) 1 Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner, Marvel Chronicle is as much of an extraordinary reference work as it is a fascinating read in its own right.

You'll learn all about everything from the first appearance of Spider-Man (1962) to the launch of The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men and many nore.

In his Afterword, Marvel Comics' Editor-in-Chief Joe Queseda promises: 'We're just getting warmed up...

'On a par with the likes of Homer and Shakespeare, Stan and company gave us a litany of characters and fables not seen since the stories of the all-powerful Greek and Roman pantheon of deities.

'The biggest difference is that the Marvel Universe is vastly superior, and given a few thousand years will still be on the tip of everyone's tongues, while Zeus and Hercules will have been as forgotten along with Betamax and Crystal Pepsi'.

+++++++++++

By the way. I'm not joking about the weight of it. You might need a JCB parked outside your favourite bookshop to be able to carry it home!