X-Men - Paperback

The legendary Stan Lee is the most recognized name in the history of comic books. He is the creator of such top superheroes as Spider Man, The Incredible Hulk, The Fantastic Four, Dr. Strange, The Savage She-Hulk, The Silver Surfer, The Avengers, The Invincible Iron Man, and The X Men. Publisher Emeritus of Marvel Comics, he lives in Los Angeles.

Born Jacob Kurtzberg in 1917 to Jewish-Austrian parents on New York's Lower East Side, Jack Kirby came of age at the birth of the American comic book industry. Horrified by the rise of Nazism, Kirby co-created the patriotic hero Captain America with Joe Simon in 1940. Cap's exploits on the comic book page entertained millions of American readers at home and inspired US troops fight­ing the enemy abroad. Kirby's partnership with Simon continued throughout the 1940s and early '50s; together, they produced com­ics in every popular genre, from Western to romance. In 1958, Kirby began his equally fruitful collaboration with writer- editor Stan Lee, and in 1961 the two men co-created the foundational text of the modern Marvel Universe: The Fantastic Four. Over the next de­cade, Kirby and Lee would introduce a mind- boggling array of new characters-- including the Avengers, the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, the Silver Surfer, and the X-Men. Kirby's groundbreaking work with Lee formed the foundation of the Marvel Universe. In the early 1970s, Kirby moved to DC Comics, where he created his intercon­nected Fourth World series, as well as freestanding titles such as The Demon. He returned to Marvel in 1975, writing and illustrat­ing The Black Panther and Captain America, and introducing series such as Devil Dinosaur, and The Eternals. Kirby died in 1994. Today, he is generally regarded as one of the most important and influential creators in the history of American comics. His work has inspired multiple generations of writers, artists, designers, and film­makers, who continue to explore his vast universe of concepts and characters. He was an inaugural inductee into the Eisner Hall of Fame in 1987.

Roy Thomas is an American comic book writer and editor who was Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. Along with Elric, he is also best known for his lengthy writing stints on X-Men, Avengers, DC's All-Star Squadron and for introducing Conan the Barbarian to American comics, helping to launch a sword-and-sorcery trend in the field. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2011.