Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: marvel, Matthew Reinhart

Marvel Super Heroes: The Ultimate Pop-Up Book Coming This Fall

Published Mon, 21 Feb 2022 13:32:09 -0600

Coming this November, Marvel and Abrams Books have tapped "renowned paper engineer" Matthew Reinhart to create Marvel Super Heroes: The Ultimate Pop-Up Book. The oversized book will feature "contemporary comics art and remarkable three-dimensional paper engineering on every page," which Marvel insists "will delight Marvel fans of all ages." In other words: Biff! Bam! Pow! Pop-up books aren't just for kids anymore!

Reinhart talked about Marvel Super Heroes: The Ultimate Pop-Up Book at length in a press release on Marvel.com:

I've been dreaming about making this book for over a decade (especially the design for the Spider-Man pop-up) actually even tough I've been a Marvel Comics fan since I can remember. One of my favorite memories as a third grader was being able to go to the nearby Navy Exchange—my father was in the military—and buy comics on my own," reflects Reinhart. "The squeak of that rotating comics rack, all of those amazing Marvel covers and stories to choose from—I'll never forget how exciting when new comics came in and how difficult it was to choose with my limited allowance!

Marvel, to me, embodies a universe of endless possibilities. So I was honored when I got the opportunity to finally make the Marvel Universe pop! When it came to conceptualizing this pop-up book, it was a little tough to edit down my ideas. I had TOO many to cram into just one book!

He also discussed how he goes about the task of "paper engineering."

My favorite part of creating a pop-up book is usually the initial design phase of cutting, folding and taping together the original working pop-up 'sketch' before it gets more refined and the color artwork is applied.

This time, however, getting the pencil sketches of my (amazing) comic artist collaborators, Aaron Lopresti, Paul Pelletier and Stacy Lee Phillips, was the most exciting to me. Typically, when I collaborate with another illustrator on a pop-up book, I send them rough artist guides that outline basic shapes to fill with characters, objects or backgrounds. Seeing those boring guidelines come back as living breathing comic art, even without the inking and color applied, just blew me away. I was taken back to being that kid picking out comics in the third grade! There's so much energy in those first pencil sketches, and I couldn't wait to piece them into the pops I had already created.

Marvel Super Heroes: The Ultimate Pop-Up Book will be out on November 15th, but you can pre-order it now. Check out a gallery of some of the artwork below.