About This Project

This blog serializes the first draft of a book in progress, Marvel in the 1970s: The World Inside Your Head (under contract with Cornell University Press).

Marvel in the 1970s saw a transformation that initially looked seamless on the surface, but proved almost as dramatic as Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk. The new, younger writers who took over the titles shifted the emphasis and perspective from the “world outside your window” to the “world inside your head.”  In a thoroughly visual medium and a decidedly action-oriented genre, these writers went beyond mere quirks of characterization and and angst-filled monologues to a quixotic attempt at interiority. 

After a chapter about humanism in the era of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko, this book/blog focuses on the work of five writers: Marv Wolfman (Tomb of Dracula), Doug Moench (Planet of the Apes, Werewolf by Night, Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu) , Steve Englehart (Avengers, Captain America, Captain Marvel, and Doctor Strange), Don McGregor (Black Panther and Killraven), and Steve Gerber (Howard the Duck, Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown, The Defenders). The comics they produced at Marvel during the 1970s were a crucial step forward in the evolution of the medium, but the peculiarities of the industry and market at the time have been an obstacle to a broader readership in the era of self-contained graphic novels.