Marvel Value Stamps: A Visual History

From award-winning Marvel Comics writer, editor, and historian Roy Thomas comes the complete story of Marvel Value Stamps, the classic 1970s comic-book promotion, collected in a single volume for the first time and featuring a cover by acclaimed artist Alex Ross.

In 1974, Marvel Comics publisher Stan Lee devised an ingenious promotional campaign: Marvel Value Stamps, which appeared on the letters pages of Marvel’s monthly comics. Readers could cut out and collect all 100 superhero and supervillain stamps, placing them in a special mail-order booklet. Once complete, the stamp books could be redeemed for special discounts and exclusive merchandise. The program proved so successful that a second set followed in 1975.

Marvel Value Stamps: A Visual History brings together full-color reproductions of these long-unavailable original stamp books and stamps, along with surrounding ephemera and source material, offering fans and collectors a fascinating look back at one of Marvel Comics’ most memorable promotional campaigns.

Written with text and inside history from former Marvel editor in chief Roy Thomas, this 400-page, highly illustrated volume is an essential piece of Marvel history and a must-have for comic-book collectors and longtime Marvel fans.

Roy Thomas has been a comic-book writer and editor since 1965, working primarily for Marvel Comics and DC Comics. A former Marvel editor in chief, he was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2011 and is the longtime editor of Alter Ego magazine. He is also the author of 75 Years of Marvel Comics: From the Golden Age to the Silver Screen and The Stan Lee Story.