The Marvel Super Heroes On TV! Book One: IRON MAN: A Complete Episode Guide To The 1966 Grantray-Lawrence Cartoon Series

Very well done and researched book. I was never aware that entirely new art was done for the second episode of a story that wouldn’t be released in comic book format until two months after the final episode aired. I thought every episode was just art from the comic books with some added extra art for the simple animation. I have all of these on bootleg DVD and VHS. I will have to go re-watch and compare the comic book art and animation to the Grantray-Lawrence art and animation. Good old Stan made sure he had his fingers in the production of these. I wonder if they resented him at Grantray-Lawrence? Most of his input was actually beneficial. I loved these shows in the 7O’s when I was old enough to enjoy them. It was on every day after school Monday through Friday and I looked forward to it. These 1966 cartoons are some of my most cherished possessions and fondest memories from my childhood. Very well done!Two things though.1) This book was released four years ago. WHERE IS THE NEXT VOLUME? I want them all. Does anyone have any idea if Ballman is even continuing this project?2) When is Disney going to remaster all of these like some youtubers have and give these gems an official release? It’s been 55 years since they originally appeared and still no official release. Instead we get all this modern Marvel animation garbage that doesn’t have the gorgeous art of Kirby, Ditko, Heck and the rest of the Marvel artist legends. Not to mention the characterization that was a Stan Lee trade mark.

During the peak creative era of the 1960's, Marvel Comics' very first TV adaptation of their superheros were released into syndication. I, and I'm sure many others of the baby boomer generation were introduced to comic books because of these cartoons. Animation of comic book panels and stories directly from the actual published comics and the dynamic music and voice actors performing the dialogue completely straight was irresistible to the 8-12 year old audience in 1966. But until now even the vast resources of the Internet has been unable to give proper credit to the people who created this minor masterpiece. The author here has unearthed primary source material held in private hands for over 50 years and compiled it in book form. Stan Lee himself was editing every script. Disney animators worked on the project. Original art and stories have been found. Working scripts, storyboards and hand written notes uncovered.This particular book focuses on Iron Man, one of the five Marvel characters featured in the "Marvel Super Heroes" tv show, but also on the series production as a whole. I encourage all fans to buy this book if only to encourage the creation and publication of more volumes. There's still Captain America, Hulk, Thor and Sub-Mariner volumes to come. I'm hoping the author will create volumes for Spider-Man 1967 and Fantastic Four 1967 too.Now that Disney has recovered and consolidated the rights for all these characters, I'm also hoping for a proper home video release of everything -- something that isn't a "kiddie" video. The author of this book has created a scholarly work that could and should be adapted into liner notes for a home video box set too.

I first encountered these cartoons at Captain Video in Omaha NE at the tender age of 8 while renting the Marvel Comics Video Library ‘Iron Man’ volume and have been hooked ever since. This book functions like the special features of a DVD that gives you all the behind the scenes information that we crave. I was amazed at all the pictures which enhanced the experience of reading this first of what I hope are at least five volumes (why not a 67’ Spider-Man one as well). If you love these cartoons or just Marvel or animation history in general then I HIGHLY suggest you pick up this volume and settle in for a good time! The Marvel Super Heroes Have Arrived!

A great, detailed reference for Marvel history buffs or any Silver Age fan! The bios are especially interesting as I never saw the credits until a few years ago on a poor 16mm YouTube video. I can hardly wait for the next several volumes to come out!

When I opened my copy, the text was upside down.I then found that not only was each page upside down, but the page was around the wrong way.So e.g. a storyboard double spread displays the 2nd half on the left hand side, with the 1st half on the right hand side.The publisher is Create Space.I was intending to order others in the series because the author's work appears promising, but if this is an example of what I might expect, I am now somewhat reticent.