“Lost Your Way in the Dark?” — Read Our Exclusive Preview of “At The Stroke of Midnight!” from TOWER OF SHADOWS, A “Lost Marvels” Anthology from Marvel & Fantagraphics

"Since its founding in 1939 as Timely Comics, Marvel has published some of the most iconic series in American comic book history [...] For over 45 years, Fantagraphics has published the very best comics and graphic novels that the medium has to offer [...] Now these two publishing titans are teaming up for Lost Marvels, an ambitious series of hardcover releases featuring never-before collected comics by masters of the Silver Age, including Neal Adams, John Buscema, Howard Chaykin, Stan Lee, Jim Steranko, Barry Windsor-Smith, and other masters of the Silver Age."

Fantagraphics, collaborating with Marvel Comics, will publish three hardcover volumes in the Lost Marvels series this year, with more to follow in the years to come. These EC-style stories have been banned since the Comics Code went into effect in the 1950s, and we are very excited to share with Daily Dead readers At The Stroke of Midnight! from the upcoming Lost Marvels No. 1: Tower of Shadows. Keep reading, if you dare...

In April, Fantagraphics will publish Lost Marvels No. 1: Tower of Shadows, collecting all nine issues of the series. In 1969, with its revolutionary superhero line well established, Marvel took a chance on the kind of supernatural, EC-style anthology series that had been banned since the formation of the Comics Code in the 1950s. Tower of Shadows featured a staggering array of artists and writers, including Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Gene Colan, Wally Wood, Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, John Romita, Johnny Craig, Marie Severin, Gerry Conway, and Bernie Wrightson, to name a few. Freed from the conventions of the superhero adventure, these creators brought their storytelling skills to a more quietly sinister genre, producing atmospheric gems of twisted suspense and sardonic horror, including Roy Thomas and Tom Palmer’s adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s "Pickman's Model"

In July, Fantagraphics will publish Lost Marvels No. 2: Howard Chaykin Vol. 1: Dominic Fortune, Monark Starstalker, and Phantom Eagle. When Howard Chaykin broke into comics in the 1970s, there was nothing quite like him. His original characters Dominic Fortune and Monark Starstalker took classic pulp heroes and ran them through a postmodern blender. This new volume collects some of the most exciting, sought-after work by Chaykin from 1975 to 2008, including retro-science-fiction bounty hunter Monark Starstalker’s debut appearance and all the Dominic Fortune stories, including the character’s unexpurgated Max series, published a generation later. Completing the package is the collision between pulp heroism and the devastating, bloody realities of World War I in Chaykin’s 111-page collaboration with The Boys writer Garth Ennis on War Is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle. As the artist behind Marvel’s comic adaptation of the first Star Wars movie and the creator of iconic, influential series like the sci-fi satire American Flagg! and the adults only vampire saga Black Kiss, Howard Chaykin has earned his reputation as a prolific and essential cartoonist.

[Editor's Note: Updated Description for Vol 3] In November, "The latest volume in Fantagraphics’ Lost Marvels series, collecting all eight issues of the long-out-of-print, tough-minded 1980s run of Savage Tales, will hit you like a punch in the face. For 13 months in the mid-1980s, Marvel assembled some of its strongest artists and writers to tell gritty, harrowing, and blackly humorous adventure stories ranging from gangster noir to historical battlefields to the deadly old West to post-apocalyptic futures. Unseen for nearly 40 years, here is some of the most shocking work of artists John Severin, John Buscema, Sam Glanzman, Val Mayerik, Ron Wagner, Gray Morrow, Wayne Vansant, Herb Trimpe, Michael Golden, Joe Jusko, Mary Wilshire, Arthur Suydam, Will Jungkuntz, Vincent Waller, and Ken Steacy, and writers Chuck Dixon, Bill Wray, Don Kraar, Robert Kanigher, Denny O’Neil, Doug Murray, and Archie Goodwin. Stories include Severin and Dixon’s “By Rail to Vladivostock,” Murray and Golden’s “The Nam, 1967,” Glanzman’s “Of War and Peace: The Trinity,” Jungkuntz’s Blood & Gutz series, and Trimpe’s Skywarriors series. Savage Tales of the 1980s reprints all 8 issues of the magazine’s run, the first time they have seen print since 1986 — nearly 40 years ago! They are reproduced in facsimile format, including color covers."

The Lost Marvels series is dedicated to introducing these vital stories to a new generation of readers and restoring them to their rightful place in comics history. Lost Marvels No. 1: Tower of Shadows will be available from Fantagraphics on April 29, 2025; Lost Marvels No. 2: Howard Chaykin Vol. 1 will be available on July 8, 2025; and Lost Marvels No. 3: Savage Tales will be published on November 18, 2025.

To learn more and pre-order the Lost Marvels volumes for yourself, visit Fantagraphics: https://www.fantagraphics.com/collections/lost-marvels