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Paul Levitz Announces His Next Book, Titled "Marvel Explodes"

Paul Levitz announced his next book, titled "Marvel Explodes", with all the news and gossip from Marvel Comics fifty years ago

At San Diego Comic-Con, former DC Comics President and Publisher Paul Levitz, announced his next book project, Marvel Explodes, which he calls "an exploration of what happened during the years 1967-1975 that transformed one of the smallest American comic publishers into a cultural force. It's not about the stories, but what took place behind the curtain." This will be part of Bloomsbury's Age of Marvel Comics series. No release date yet, as he has only just started writing it. At his San Diego Comic-Con spotlight panel, he said that;

"One of the Marvel guys I'm friendly with, Sven Larsen [Vice President, Licensed Publishing at Marvel Entertainment] asked me, "would you enjoy that?" It's work for hire, the pay is better than fanzines but not to be confused with real writing. And I said, "Sure!" I'm very much at that stage of life where I'm the fire station Dalmatian dog sitting sitting there napping most of the time until somebody says, "there's a fire down the hall! Oh goody!" I'm doing a book on the history of Marvel from '67 to '75, the period I call Marvel Explodes. and it's fanzine work. I'm calling all my friends for research. I was just on the phone with Gerry Conway for an hour at the beginning of the week, talking about the absurdity that he sold his first novel when he was 16 and the body of work that he had created. And trying to piece out all the things that actually happened at Marvel. Hopefully, you guys will find it an interesting book. It doesn't focus on the characters, it's not about how the stories at Marvel changed at that time, it's about how the function of Marvel changed, about the business, and how the old world of the newsstand worked, how sales reports affected things, how Martin Goodman thought and how that affected the business. It rather politely points out, without saying it bluntly, how he ignored the fact that it was traditional in the comic book industry to violate the antitrust laws and act in collusion, and by doing that, made Marvel become the number one company. Acting legally can pay, occasionally."

So we are looking at a time period of Marvel Comics, while Paul Levitz was writing comics news and gossip for fanzines. Basically, it's Bleeding Cool from fifty years ago. And also, about leaving as the publisher of DC, he gave a warning,

"I don't believe there's ever been a head of DC Comics who left entirely of their own timing and choosing in life. I'm not sure if there's been one at Marvel who did that. Unless you own the business, you're not likely to have that happen and even if you own the business, there's a lot of things that can impact things." Indeed.

Paul Levitz was first known in comic books for The Comic Reader,  the first regularly published comics industry news fanzine. And there was plenty of comics gossip in there as well. He then started to get work from DC Comics, becoming an editor, working at the publisher for over 35 years in a wide variety of roles. Of late, he wrote Will Eisner: Champion of the Graphic Novel for Abrams ComicArts, which appropriately was nominated for an Eisner, joined the board of directors of Boom Studios, and has written comics for both DC and Marvel.

The Marvel Age of Comics is a series of eighteen books exploring the history of more than 85 years of Marvel Comics with a variety of writers, critics, pop culture experts, educators, and intellectuals, exploring the catalogue and characters from Marvel Comics history based on Bloomsbury's 33 1/3 music titles. Books in the series will range from deep dives into a singular comic storyline, notable runs and works produced by creators who have made a noteworthy contribution to Marvel stories, the origins and evolution of a particular character, or social and progressive themes and historical moments that have been reflected in Marvel Comics. While each book in the series will primarily be narrative nonfiction prose, they will use curated artwork from the comics and reproduced materials from Marvel's digital archives. The books will be available in paperback, hardback and audio. The first three books will be launched in November;

• Doctor Strange: A Decade of Dark Magic by Stuart Moore (13th November 2025) tells the story of one of Marvel's most bizarre, otherworldly heroes, discussed against the turbulent backdrop of the 1960s.
• The Mighty Avengers vs. the 1970s by Paul Cornell (13th November 2025) looks at one of Marvel's key comics of the 1970s as an extraordinary mirror of an extraordinary decade full of rapid social change.
• Daredevil: Born Again by Chris Ryall (13th November 2025) dives into the compelling and original 1980s story arc and graphic novel, its gorgeous and unique artwork, and its overall influence in the decades since its release.
• Spider-Man: Miles Morales by Ytasha L. Womack (May 2026) explores the hugely successful reimagining of one of the most popular super hero characters of all time as Afrofuturist and Latinx.

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