But I don't want to buy more Marvel comics, dammit!

POPP'D translates something from a German interview with Jonathan Lethem (The Fortress of Solitude) that suggests the author may be doing some work for Marvel Comics in the near future.

I'd like to reprint something I wrote in a column a while back:

I can’t sing this book’s praises enough, but I’m rather biased. Not because I have any connection with Lethem in any way, but because The Fortress of Solitude deals with topics I’ve got an interest in: comic books (particularly, Marvel comics from the ‘60s and ‘70s), graffiti culture, hip hop music, punk music, racism, magic realism and the bonds of friendship. The prose is, at times, a little purple (especially in the first part of the book), but there’s a reason for it – the book is split up into two sections. The first is a third-person account of childhood, and the liberties taken with the language make more sense in contrast to the more realistic, concise prose of the novel’s second half.

I actually prefer the book to Kavalier and Clay, to be honest. Looking at Amazon shows that the book has now been released as an affordable paperback, making it a good time to check it out.

Thanks, David, for pointing this out to me. I'm going to have to start looking at Marvel solicitations now, to see if and when this happens.