The Marvel Universe: Origin Stories: Designed by Dmitry Samarov

​A new illustrated edition of the novel featuring sixty Sumi ink paintings, cover, and interior design by Dmitry Samarov.

The Marvel Universe: Origin Stories details the lives and deaths of Wagner’s cast of characters: an orphaned billionairess, a black man wrongly convicted of murder, a schizophrenic child obsessed with the comic book character Wolverine, a cancelled TV star, and the love child of Elon Musk. Their intertwining stories take place during the pandemic, a year of tectonic social unrest, ushering in a new reality that surpasses anything any Hollywood franchise could hope to imagine. In The Marvel Universe, Wagner is able to make myths, delusions, hopes, dreams, grifts, longings, art, and commerce dance over the streets of Los Angeles. Samarov’s design and paintings match the brilliance of The Marvel Universe perfectly.

Dmitry Samarov was born in Moscow, USSR in 1970. He immigrated to the US with his family in 1978. He got in trouble in 1st grade for doodling on his Lenin Red Star pin and hasn’t stopped doodling since. After a false start at Parsons School of Design in New York, he graduated with a BFA in painting and printmaking from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1993. Upon graduation he promptly began driving a cab--first in Boston, then after a time, in Chicago-- which eventually led to the publication of his illustrated work memoirs Hack: Stories from a Chicago Cab (University of Chicago Press, 2011) and second cabbie book from a press not worth mentioning. Music to My Eyes (Tortoise Books, 2019) is his first non-cabbie-related book. Soviet Stamps (Pictures&Blather, 2020) is the second. All Hack (Pictures&Blather, 2020) is a summation of his cabbie-related work. Old Style (Pictures&Blather, 2021) is his first work of fiction. paint-by-numbers (Pictures&Blather, 2022) is his second. to whom it may concern (Pictures&Blather, 2023) is book of new answers to old letters. Making Pictures is How I Talk to the World (Pictures&Blather, 2024) is a survey of 40 years of art. In 2025, Samarov began designing and illustrating public domain books. Babbitt (Pictures&Blather, 2025) is now available; Moby Dick (Maudlin House, 2025) is forthcoming in May. He has exhibited his work in all manner of bars, coffeeshops, libraries, and even the odd gallery (when he’s really hard up.) He writes dog portraits and paints book reviews in Chicago, Illinois.

Bruce Wagner has written fourteen novels and bestsellers, including the famous ＂Cellphone Trilogy,＂ I’m Losing You (PEN USA finalist), I’ll Let You Go and Still Holding, Dead Stars, ROAR: American Master, The Oral Biography of Roger Orr, The Empty Chair, and the PEN/Faulkner-finalist Chrysanthemum Palace. He wrote the screenplay for David Cronenberg’s film Maps to the Stars, for which Julianne Moore won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. In 1993, Wagner wrote and created the visionary mini-series Wild Palms for producer Oliver Stone and co-wrote (with Ullman) three seasons of the acclaimed Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union. He has written essays and articles for the New York Times, Artforum and the New Yorker. He lives in Los Angeles.