Marvel Press

Marvel Books

Marvel Books division was set up in 1982[2] to initially published coloring books and sticker sets, and was intended to also publish prose novels.[3] Harry Flynn was hired as vice president of Marvel Books.[4] In 1986, Marvel reached an agreement with Fisher-Price to launch a Fisher-Price line with 15 books in 1986 and 32 books in 1987.[2]

Beginning in 1994, Berkley Boulevard and the since-defunct Byron Preiss Multimedia Company joined to publish Marvel prose novels until Preiss' legal troubles caused a temporary halt to the line in June 1999. Berkley completed the line in 2000 with a total of 45 novels and seven anthologies. The Preiss Company also teamed with Pocket Books from 1996 to 1997 for a young adult books line, including two choose-your-own-adventure books. In 2000 Preiss' BP Books/iBooks launched a new book line, distributed by Simon & Schuster, that ended in 2002.[1]

Marvel Press

In 2003, following publication of the prose young adult novel Mary Jane, starring Mary Jane Watson from the Spider-Man mythos, Marvel Entertainment announced the formation of the publishing imprint Marvel Press, saying in a press release it planned to launch with three prose novels, aimed at various ages, in 2004, and publish at least 12 in 2005.[5] With few books issued under the imprint, Marvel and Disney Books Group relaunched the Marvel Press imprint in 2011 with the Marvel Origin Storybooks line.[6]

Near the end of 2012, Marvel launched a line of prose novels based on adapting popular storylines in a loosely shared universe.[7] Hyperion Books announced in February 2013 a partnership with Marvel to publish in June two prose novels, She-Hulk Diaries and Rogue Touch.[8] In March 2013, Marvel and GraphicAudio will release a 6 hours audio version of the "Civil War" prose novel with sound effects, cinematic music and narration.[9]

Marvel Entertainment announced a new pre-school franchise, Marvel Super Hero Adventures, in September 2017 consisting of a short-form animated series along with publishing and merchandise during "Marvel Mania" October.[10][11] In the publishing field, Marvel Press issued chapter books beginning in September. The first early reader chapter books was Deck the Malls! teamed Spider-Man with Spider-Gwen written by MacKenzie Cadenhead and Sean Ryan and art by Derek Laufman. Three additional chapter books were planned continuing into 2018.[10] John Nee was appointed in January 2018 as publisher of Marvel Comics and Marvel Press.[12]

In addition to its Marvel Press division efforts,[13] Marvel Entertainment in 2019 agreed to two prose publishing licensing agreements.[14] In September 2019, Scholastic signed a young reader agreement with the first two books to be published in 2020.[13] The following month, Asmodee games company agreed to a multi-year novel publishing deal for its new fiction imprint, Aconyte, to debut in the fall 2020 in three formats: trade paperback, ebook and audio and distributed by Simon & Schuster in North America.[14]