Episode 86 – 'All of the Marvels' w/ Author Douglas Wolk
In his magnificent second book on comics, the great critic Douglas Wolk has synthesized 60 years of continuous storytelling from Marvel Comics authors and declared it, collectively and thusly, the longest, greatest, most sustained narrative in human history — longer than any daily soap opera, Remembrance of Things Past, or the Mahābhārata. From its origins, written and drawn by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Jack Kirby, multiple creators have expanded and expounded its creation to synthesize multiple genres — action, super-hero, horror — to a hybrid-genre that would, ultimately, take over movies. On this episode, I’m joined with Ted Haycraft as we discuss with Wolk:
Wolk’s origins as a comic reader, from his first comics to his career working for a direct market store during his college years;
how the Marvel Universe story works its magic through broad collaboration and improvisation,
especially in a story that will never end or begins, nor is intended to ever end.
Also:
Which Marvel characters merited chapters in early drafts that didn’t make it to the final draft;
why the hardest Marvel character for Wolk to read was the Punisher;
where the extra-Marvel universes of IP licenses like Conan or G.I. Joe,
newuniversal,
or 2099 played into his comprehensive reading;
and why his son and the next generation’s ethos or justice was the integral inspiration to the entire project.
Douglas Wolk has been a National Arts Journalism Fellow at Columbia University and a Fellow in the USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program, who has written about comics and music for magazines, newspapers and web sites including Time, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, The Believer, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice, Slate and Pitchfork. His books include Reading Comics and 33 1/3: Live at the Apollo. He currently teaches at Portland State University and hosts the podcast Voice of Latveria. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
Wolk’s All of the Marvels is available online and at book-and-mortar booksellers everywhere.