The Super Hero's Journey

by Patrick McDonnell, Marvel Entertainment

Overview

The second book in Abrams’ Marvel Arts line, featuring the art of the multi-award-winning, bestselling beloved Mutts creator Patrick McDonnell and the greatest super heroes of the Marvel Universe.

“The Super Hero’s Journey is a genuinely moving treatise on the inspiration we can take from others, and an antidote for cynicism.” —Alex Ross, Fantastic Four: Full Circle

"McDonnell’s unexpected conceit flies high and makes a perfect landing.” — Publishers Weekly [Starred Review]

“A love letter to Marvel comics.”—NEWSARAMA

"A philosophical and spiritual look back at the Silver Age comics heroes that inspired him, McDonnell’s weaves his own path to cartooning by intersecting his own art and renditions of Marvel’s classic heroes with the original, iconic artwork of their comics, as the likes of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko’s works weaves throughout McDonnell’s history.”—io9

"McDonnell's graphic novel is a love letter to both Marvel's legendary creators and the valuable lessons found within their stories." — Screenrant

“Inspiration, fun, and joy are to be found a plenty in Patrick McDonnell’s all-new The Super Hero's Journey.”—AIPT Comics

“The Super Hero's Journey combines McDonnell's iconic cartooning style with work from legendary Marvel artists like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Don Heck to tell a story about positivity that's as biographical and spiritual as it is action-packed and bombastic.”—CBR

“A profound and moving reading experience.”—FORCES OF GEEK

“Combining the magic of Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and Steve Ditko with the lessons of the Dalai Lama, Patrick McDonnell’s metatextual The Super Hero's Journey is a unique addition to the graphic novel medium.”—CONSKIPPER

“A gorgeous graphic celebration of Marvel Comics […] What makes The Super Hero's Journey stand out is the way McDonnell marries the biographical elements of Lee, Kirby, and Ditko with his own autobiographical explorations of how their myth-making impacted on his life, as well as how those foundational superheroes resonated within the larger literary canon (hence the Joseph Campbell of it all)." — Boing Boing

Imbued with the creativity, artwork, and heart of Patrick McDonnell, this all-new graphic novel love letter features the classic Marvel super heroes including the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Black Panther, and Spider-Man, and is the synthesis of McDonnell’s positive, inspirational sensibility and Marvel’s blockbuster brand. Using the Marvel Universe as avatars, McDonnell muses on how comics changed his life and inspired him to become a cartoonist, instilling a moral sensibility that he carries through his work and his life.

Visually striking, The Super Hero’s Journey incorporates panels from classic Marvel comics as a tribute by McDonnell to his heroes—Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and the other creators of the Marvel Universe—alongside inspirational quotes from Eckhart Tolle, Thoreau, and others, presenting an adventure unlike any you have ever read.

Also Available:
Fantastic Four: Full Circle by Alex Ross

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419769108
Publisher:	Abrams ComicArts
Publication date:	09/26/2023
Series:	Marvel Arts
Pages:	112
Sales rank:	93,920
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

Patrick McDonnell is the bestselling author, illustrator, playwright, painter, and creator of the comic strip Mutts, which appears in more than 700 newspapers around the world. He has received numerous awards internationally, including a Caldecott Honor and the Reuben, the highest honor given by the National Cartoonists Society. The Art of Nothing, a career-spanning monograph, was published by Abrams ComicArts in 2019. He lives in New Jersey. Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media over 80 years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media. For more information visit marvel.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/11/2023

Syndicated cartoonist McDonnell (Mutts) celebrates in this joyous and invigorating blend of memoir and homage the Marvel Comics superhero saga, whose adventures have interconnected over the past 80+ years and formed a single, expansive fictional history. Opening with his childhood fascination with the classic Marvel comics, whose altar he worshipped at after church in the back comics rack at the local soda fountain, McDonnell seamlessly integrates his own fresh designs with original panels from classic comics by Marvel artists—Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and others. His remixed Marvel plot sends Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four on a colorful odyssey of self-discovery. McDonnell’s renderings of the Watcher (an omnipotent alien who observes every incident in Marvel’s history) are inserted to create a narrative where the Marvel heroes must fight against villains Dr. Doom and Galactus to define their own existence, which McDonnell parallels to an autobiographical chronicle of how he came to love drawing. The result honors not only the characters but the mythos of Marvel. In a final-act twist, it’s the myriad aspects of love—romantic, familial, companionable, the love of a creator for their creations, of a reader for a story and its characters—that save the day. In these simple stories where right triumphs over might, McDonnell suggests, fans’ appreciation for all creation grows. “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your heart,” says McDonnell’s Watcher. “Become like a child, see everything with awe.” McDonnell’s unexpected conceit flies high and makes a perfect landing. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

The Super Hero’s Journey is a powerful argument for how the comic book art form makes a positive impact in our lives. Patrick McDonell weaves the work of Jack Kirby and other Marvel artists together with his own to create a remarkable view into the wonder he felt as a young reader first experiencing these classic comics. It is a genuinely moving treatise on the inspiration we can take from others, and an antidote for cynicism.

author of Fantastic Four: Full Circle Alex Ross

Mutts cartoonist Patrick McDonnell has long sought to connect his own spiritual journey with the worlds that inspired him to become a comic artist in the first place—and while he got to do the former in Heart to Heart, a cartooning collaboration with the Dalai Lama, his next graphic novel comes at it from a more comic-booky angle, although no less spiritual… A philosophical and spiritual look back at the Silver Age comics heroes that inspired him, McDonnell’s weaves his own path to cartooning by intersecting his own art and renditions of Marvel’s classic heroes with the original, iconic artwork of their comics, as the likes of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko’s works weaves throughout McDonnell’s history.

io9

The Super Hero’s Journey is thrilling, hilarious, mind-blowing, weird and poignant—just like the stories that inspired it. Patrick McDonnell flexes the same artistic muscle that drew Kirby to collage, mashing up childhood memories, Silver Age stories, and his own works of fine art, fueling an explosion of creativity, wonder, and beauty. When I finished the first time, I immediately read it again to re-experience its generous heartbeat. After my own journey, all I can say is Make Mine McDonnell!

author of Carter Beats the Devil and Glen David Gold

The Super Hero’s Journey is a powerful argument for how the comic book art form makes a positive impact in our lives. Patrick McDonell weaves the work of Jack Kirby and other Marvel artists together with his own to create a remarkable view into the wonder he felt as a young reader first experiencing these classic comics. It is a genuinely moving treatise on the inspiration we can take from others, and an antidote for cynicism.”——Alex Ross, author of Fantastic Four: Full Circle

“The Super Hero’s Journey is thrilling, hilarious, mind-blowing, weird and poignant—just like the stories that inspired it. Patrick McDonnell flexes the same artistic muscle that drew Kirby to collage, mashing up childhood memories, Silver Age stories, and his own works of fine art, fueling an explosion of creativity, wonder, and beauty. When I finished the first time, I immediately read it again to re-experience its generous heartbeat. After my own journey, all I can say is Make Mine McDonnell!”——Glen David Gold, author of Carter Beats the Devil and I Will Be Complete

“Mutts cartoonist Patrick McDonnell has long sought to connect his own spiritual journey with the worlds that inspired him to become a comic artist in the first place—and while he got to do the former in Heart to Heart, a cartooning collaboration with the Dalai Lama, his next graphic novel comes at it from a more comic-booky angle, although no less spiritual… A philosophical and spiritual look back at the Silver Age comics heroes that inspired him, McDonnell’s weaves his own path to cartooning by intersecting his own art and renditions of Marvel’s classic heroes with the original, iconic artwork of their comics, as the likes of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko’s works weaves throughout McDonnell’s history.”——io9

From the Publisher

The Super Hero’s Journey is a powerful argument for how the comic book art form makes a positive impact in our lives. Patrick McDonell weaves the work of Jack Kirby and other Marvel artists together with his own to create a remarkable view into the wonder he felt as a young reader first experiencing these classic comics. It is a genuinely moving treatise on the inspiration we can take from others, and an antidote for cynicism.

author of Fantastic Four: Full Circle - Alex Ross