Former IDW Publishing President and Publisher Chris Ryall, now the guiding force behind the Syzygy Publishing imprint at Image Comics, has just released the new deluxe, collector’s edition of the Origins of Marvel Comics in time for the book’s 50th anniversary. In addition to the complete contents of the original, including Stan Lee’s text, this edition also includes a new Alex Ross take on John Romita, Sr.’s cover, essays by Ryall, Tom Brevoort, Ross, and Larry Lieber, as well as an interview with Fireside editor Linda Sunshine, and more.

Gemstone’s J.C. Vaughn talked to Ryall about the project.

Scoop: How did the project come about?
Chris Ryall (CR): It originally came something like a decade ago when I was doing these reprint books at IDW. You start sort of mining your childhood. What did I love as a kid that I would love to see back in print that maybe other people can experience in the same way that I did? So, naturally, Origins from Fireside Books was one of them.

But, like a lot of these older books, there’s not a clear chain of title, or the paperwork is messy, or there are legal issues. There’s a long checklist of reasons why some stuff goes out of print and stays out of print and for a long time. And then Marvel and Simon & Schuster, which owns Fireside imprint, had to work things out.

Once I was out of IDW, I started having that discussion with Marvel and then with Simon & Schuster directly. When they said they worked it out, they asked me to head up the whole thing.

Scoop: Origins of Marvel Comics and its sequels seem like they were foundational for a lot of collectors in that era even though Marvel was only 13 years old at that point (not counting Timely or Atlas, of course). It was a time when collectors where spending 25¢, so even a $100 comic seemed impossible, and all of a sudden you could get these stories in a book for $6.95. Were they as foundational as they seem to me?
CR: Yeah. You know when you’re a little kid reading comics, you don’t know anything about anything. You know your world is tiny, and it’s sort of just contained with the stack of comics next to you on the couch, and that’s all, you know. I wasn’t aware these kinds of books weren’t available in bookstores and libraries prior to this book coming out. There was the Jules Pfeiffer book, but otherwise if you went to a library or you went to a bookstore to try to find any kind of comics, they weren’t there. You just didn’t see this kind of stuff.

When you’re dropping 25¢ on a comic book, to try to convince your parents that you needed them to spend $10 of or whatever, it was impossible. They thought of this stuff as disposable. When this book first appeared in bookstores, when parents went to a store to buy Jonathan Livingston Seagull or whatever, then they saw suddenly this nice bookstore edition of Marvel comics. Then they start going, “Huh, maybe this stuff isn’t just disposable kids’ fare.” It was stacked on a table alongside other books. Maybe comics are book worthy, too. Then they felt better about bringing the stuff home.

The point I was trying to make in the introduction was as a reader you’d see these editorial notes that refer back to Amazing Fantasy #15 or Fantastic Four #1, which you couldn’t afford even if you could find it. Suddenly you have it in your hand. You could read the origin stories that you’d only sort of heard about.

Scoop: It’s hard to ignore the level of legitimacy that being in book form brought. You could look at your parents and say, “It’s a book.”
CR: Well, and you see the characters on the painted cover. People were used to two-dimensional flat colors, and suddenly, John Romita does this painted cover that brings them to life in this vivid style, as close to photo realistic as we had at the time. It just made the characters seem more real. And then when you’re reading Stan Lee’s text pieces in between all the stories, it made the Marvel Bullpen seem more real. And it made you feel like you were part of things because he had such a good, colloquial, conversational approach.

Scoop: People have talked about whether Stan was taking too much credit or things along those lines, but the thing he succeeded at was making Marvel a movement, not just a thing.
CR: That’s what we wanted with this book to celebrate that and to celebrate the art of collaboration. You know, between writers and artists and the Marvel Bullpen as a whole, I know the book is controversial for that reason. From the text, you know more about Stan’s efforts than the artists’ effort, but as a kid you didn’t think about that. You just felt drawn more into Marvel as a whole. You just felt like you were being included in things.

I’m careful not to try to sound like an apologist for it, but at the same time, credit and who did what wasn’t as important 50 years ago as it is now, and there weren’t the sort of financial components attached to it there are now. I don’t know that it was a matter of trying to be dismissive to the other talents as much as just trying to write a fun thing that involved people. And, you know, the guy writing the book talked like he was the hero of his own story.

It was a foundational thing that mattered to so many people. In many ways, it kickstarted the entire idea of bookstore graphic novels, which just didn’t exist before that. I think Alex Ross’s cover perfectly sums up our approach. The original cover shows Stan Lee’s hands on a typewriter, and all the characters springing out of it. Alex’s cover shows Stan Lee’s hands at the typewriter and Jack Kirby’s hand finishing Thor and Steve Ditko’s hand finishing Doctor Strange. The broader point is we weren’t in the room. We don’t know who all did what. But together these guys made magic and together they created this universe that still resonates for, you know, millions of fans today. And I think that was what was important to me, was celebrating the work all of these guys did, not apologizing for what Stan wrote, enhancing it by talking up everybody’s efforts.

Scoop: The new deluxe, hardcover version is beautiful. In it, through essays from you, Alex Ross, Tom Brevoort, and Larry Lieber, and with other new material, you were able to add the depth, context, and insight you’re talking about. One of the highlights is your interview with Linda Sunshine, who as the editor for Fireside Books started the project. Did you know of her before you started the project?
CR: Other than the Marvel credits, the [Fireside] books don’t have any credits in them. So, I didn’t know who put them together until Rob Salkowitz, who writes for Forbes and Publishers Weekly did an interview with Linda a few years ago. So, when the chance to do these books came together, I thought, “She has to be involved.” Rob got me in touch with her. She happened to live in LA and was happy to talk about it. She was, I think, 23 at the time. She had been a junior editor at Crown, left Crown to go to Fireside, and had the thought that this stuff had never really been presented in book form before (other than a few notable exceptions). She and Stan started talking and it just came about from there. For her, it was a relatively short blip in a decades-long career, but for so many of us – and pretty much for the industry as a whole – it started a movement and graphic novel presentation in bookstores that is now thriving, essential part of the business.

Scoop: You’ve also got a piece in there from Alex Ross and you’ve got Larry Lieber. What did they bring to the equation?
CR: It was more than enough for me to have Alex Ross do the cover. Alex Ross is doing the cover of my book? Amazing! He did this wonderful take on John Romita’s cover, and he has talked in the past about what this book meant to him. That alone would have been more than enough, but then he got involved in not only doing a piece on his process for the back section of the book. He wanted to show the figures, the different lighting, his poses, and everything he does that goes into his process. Seeing every step of the coverage development was great. But then he wanted to do a piece that discussed sort of the collaborative process that built on editor Tom Brevoort’s piece.

Tom had talked about the Marvel method and sort of told some stories from within Marvel, and Alex built on that. Those two pieces together are nice companion discussions of the way these guys worked together, the way comics are made. All of that made it really special.

And then having Larry Lieber participate was incredible. As far as I can tell, Larry is the last living person that worked on the stories in this book. Larry turned 93 just a couple days ago. I wanted him to discuss his involvement in the creation of Thor (Journey Into Mystery #83) in this book. He also worked on the first issue of Iron Man (Tales of Suspense #39). He is credited with naming things like Uru (the metal that Thor’s hammer is made of) and giving Tony Stark his name. So, I wanted a piece about kind of collaborating with Stan and Jack on the story. What he did, though, was just this really sweet remembrance of working with his brother. He turned it into this very emotional kind of public goodbye from Larry to Stan.

When I was in town for the New York Comic Con, I got Larry to meet me at Marvel’s offices. We were able to take some pictures with the book. We got to walk around Marvel. They have this great display of old Bullpen material, Bullpen Bulletins, photos of the old staff and people who Larry worked with. Seeing him remembering and sharing some old stories, talking about those days, was just kind of a really unique thrill, the kind of thing that just doesn’t happen much anymore because those guys aren’t around. It was great to be able to do that.

I feel a responsibility working in comics not only to help foster the next generation of creators, but also celebrate the people that built the foundation, the reason that we’re all doing this, the people who created these stories and characters that we’ve loved for decades like me. I love being able to do that. So, having Larry involved, like having all the people involved, was so great.

Scoop: What, if anything, surprised you in the process?
CR: The things I always love are the behind the scenes stuff, not only the stories, but unearthing the early Marie Severin cover sketches where they play with different approaches to the cover. There are the weird little details, like when you see an ad from an old Marvel comic – probably in 1974 – that advertised in the coming of this book. When you look closely at the image, it’s the non-painted version, Marie’s original mock-up… But the Silver Surfer’s on there! Well, what happened to the Surfer? Why did he go from being on the cover to not make it into the final book? And then Alex was really instrumental in helping point out a lot of the original references that John used for the characters. There was this great Esquire spread that Jack Kirby did, from which most of the figures were pulled. Then finding Subby was from a Defenders spread or The Thing from a Marvel Treasury Edition, and then how those are all composited into the final cover.

The one other oddity I got into the book was Ray Bradbury’s review of the book from the Los Angeles Times. It’s so weird. He spends probably the first 1,000 words just kind of talking about why comics are low art or sort of trash culture; it’s very odd, but in that sweet kind of wistful Ray Bradbury way.

Scoop: You’ve got plenty of other irons in the fire, Chris. Let’s talk about what else you’re doing.
CR: I’ve got the imprint, Syzygy Publishing, at Image. And I have a story in this horror one-shot, a Christmas horror anthology called Dread The Halls, that comes out December 4. The Marvel Calendar Book at long last will be out sometime before the holidays. It’s either happening in November or early December. Abrams is very happy with the book and wants to get it out there for the holiday season. And I’ve completed manuscripts on a couple of other things that I can’t quite announce yet.

Origins of Marvel Comics: The 50th Anniversary Edition is now on sale.