The Secret History of Marvel Comics: Jack Kirby and the Moonlighting
Artists at Martin Goodman's Empire digs back to the 1930s when Marvel Comics
wasn't just a comic-book producing company. Marvel was but a small part of owner
Martin Goodman's publishing empire, which had begun years before he published
his first comic book. Goodman mostly published lurid and sensationalist story
books (known as pulps) and magazines, featuring sexually charged detective and
romance short fiction and celebrity gossip scandal sheets. Artists like Jack
Kirby, who was producing Captain America for eight-year-olds, were dipping their
toes in both ponds. The Secret History of Marvel Comics tells this parallel
story of 1930s/40s Marvel Comics sharing offices with those Goodman publications
not quite fit for children.