Parent company Marvel Comics Founded 2007 Headquarters location New York City | Predecessor Marvel Classics Comics Country of origin U.S. | |
Key people Roy Thomas, Eric Shanower, Nancy Butler, Skottie Young | ||
Marvel Illustrated is a Marvel Comics publishing imprint specializing in comic book adaptations of classic literature. Each novel's story is told in the form of a limited series, the issues of which are later collected as a trade paperback. Writer Roy Thomas has adapted many of the titles; the imprint is also known for its six adaptations of books from the Land of Oz series, all done by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young; and its four adaptations of Jane Austen novels by writer Nancy Butler.
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History
Marvel Illustrated was started in 2007, the first attempt by the company to adapt classic literature since the short-lived 1970s series Marvel Classics Comics. Their first title was a 64-page one-shot adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, by Mary Jo Duffy, Gil Kane, and P. Craig Russell, which collected material originally published in 1983 in Marvel Fanfare. Other titles launched in 2007 included The Last of the Mohicans, The Man in the Iron Mask, and Treasure Island, all of which were adapted by Roy Thomas.
2008 saw publications of The Iliad, Moby-Dick, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Three Musketeers, all adapted by Thomas.
In 2009 Marvel Illustrated published Kidnapped and Thomas' telling of the Trojan War, as well as the first of Nancy Butler's adaptations of Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice. That was the year they also released Shanower & Young's adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which has been followed by The Marvelous Land of Oz (2010), Ozma of Oz (2011), Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (2011–2012), and The Road to Oz (2012–2013).
In 2010, the imprint published Dracula, adapted by Thomas and Dick Giordano, which collected material originally published in the 1970s and mid-2000s. They also published Butler's adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, illustrated by Sonny Liew.
In 2011, they published Butler and Janet K. Lee's adaptation of Emma; since then the imprint has only released Oz adaptations.