Dark Horse and Marvel’s partnership is continuing to grow with the announcement of two new hardcover series, Marvel’s Most Villainous, and The Best of Marvel’s Vampire Tales. The former will kick off with Marvel’s Most Villainous: Magneto, a celebration of the X-Men’s greatest foe, presenting classic stories from 1963 to 2003, new scans of original art, and essays and commentary from John Lind and Chris Ryall discussing the character’s history and development through the years.
Magneto storytellers whose work is featured in the book will include creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby; Roy Thomas and Neal Adams; Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, Brent Eric Anderson, John Bolton, Butch Guice, John Romita Jr., and Jim Lee; and Grant Morrison and Phil Jimenez.
The Best of Marvel’s Vampire Tales, on the other hand, is a new edition of the black-and-white horror magazine that ran from 1973 to 1975. Volume One, collecting the first six issues, will reprint the first solo Morbius, Blade, and Lilith stories, and the debut of Satana Hellstrom. Edited by Lind and Ryall, and designed by Chris Shadoian, the book will include an introduction and discussion of the series by Ryall, new, full-color scans of the covers by Bob Larkin, Esteban Maroto, and Boris Vallejo, and “a number of Marvel’s most horrific monster-comic covers.”
Creators featured consist of Lee, Thomas, Claremont, Maroto, Alfredo Alcala, Rich Buckler, Ernie Chan, Gerry Conway, Bill Everett, Gardner Fox, Steve Gerber, Carmine Infantino, Jenny Blake Isabella (credited with her permission as Tony Isabella), Gil Kane, Don McGregor, Pablo Marcos, Doug Moench, Tom Palmer, John Romita, Jim Steranko, Tom Sutton, and Marv Wolfman.
The Best of Marvel’s Vampire Tales Vol. 1 will be released first on August 18, and retail at $65 for 360 pages. Marvel’s Most Villainous: Magneto will retail at the same price for 376 pages when it releases on October 6. Another book, Marvel’s Mightiest Monsters, will be released on October 13; for a broader look at all of Dark Horse’s upcoming Marvel releases, search the publisher’s official website.
