Marvel Fanfare


Marvel Fanfare was an anthology comic book series published by American company Marvel Comics. It was a showcase title featuring a variety of characters from the Marvel universe.

Volume one

Marvel Fanfare featured characters and settings from throughout the Marvel Universe, and it included stories of varying lengths by an array of creators. The title was published every two months and ran for 60 issues, cover dated from March 1982 to December 1991. It was edited throughout its run by Al Milgrom, who also wrote and drew an illustrated column, entitled "Editori-Al", in most issues. Marvel Fanfares original working title was Marvel Universe, which was later appropriated by Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter for the encyclopedia series The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.
The series began with a Spider-Man/Angel team-up story by Chris Claremont and Michael Golden. Other Spider-Man appearances in the title included team-ups with the Scarlet Witch in issue #6 and the Hulk in issue #47. Several characters appeared in multiple issues including Doctor Strange, Weirdworld, the Warriors Three, the Black Knight, and Shanna the She-Devil. Writer Roger McKenzie wrote several stories for Marvel Fanfare including a two-part Iron Man vs. Doctor Octopus tale drawn by Ken Steacy. A Captain America backup story in issue #29 featured early work by artist Norm Breyfogle.
Marvel Fanfare was envisioned as a showcase of the comics industry's best talent. Each issue featured 36 pages of material with no advertisements and it was printed on magazine-style slick paper. It was more than twice as expensive as standard comic books.
Editor Milgrom wrote of his experience with the series:
Examples of inventory stories which saw publication in Marvel Fanfare include a comics adaptation of The Jungle Book in issues #8–11, the Black Widow serial in #10–13, the Hulk story in #29, and the Silver Surfer story by Steve Englehart and John Buscema in #51.

Stories in Volume 1

Volume two

Marvel Fanfare volume two was published monthly for six issues, dated September 1996 to February 1997. This version of the title was edited by James Felder.
Like the first volume, the title featured different creative teams in each issue and starred different characters from around the Marvel universe. However, the talent were mostly newcomers, the paper was cheap and it cost half the price of most other comics.
The title features the early work of writer Joe Kelly and penciller Scott Kolins.

Stories in Volume 2

Collected editions

In 2024, Marvel Comics announced it would be collecting the entire series of Marvel Fanfare in three omnibus volumes.
VolumeYears CollectedMaterial CollectedPagesRelease dateISBN
11982-1984Marvel Fanfare #1-19736May 13, 2025
21985-1988Marvel Fanfare #20-40784February 3, 2026978-1302962654
31988-1992Marvel Fanfare #41-60792August 25, 2026978-1302968465

Other Collected Editions