Thursday 2 May 2013

1987: STAN LESS ANNOUNCES THE SALE OF MARVEL COMICS (Marvel Age Magazine)

"Marvel's gonna be a big-time player in the movie biz"

Turns out Stan was right... albeit a little premature.  With IRON MAN 3 going great guns at the international box office (and, at the time of writing, its not opened in the big US and Chinese markets yet) I thought it would be fun to unearth Stan's column from MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE issue 51 (June 1987) announcing the sale of Marvel Comics (including the branch offices in London and Los Angeles) to New World Pictures.

Marvel's first dalliance with Hollywood didn't go so well.  Despite owning Marvel, and producing a good slate of TV shows, the studio never seemed to get a grasp on the characters and only managed to churn-out a few underwhelming efforts (three reunions of the Hulk TV cast and the first Punisher movie) before the cash ran out and New World had to put the business back up for sale.

Marvel's post-NWwoes are the stuff of legend but now - finally - they're the Hollywood players Stan always dreamed they would become.

I've posted about New World and the purchase of Marvel before, notably here and here.


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