Candid interviews, detailed script break-downs, and rarely seen concept sketches, character designs, story boards, and animation cels take readers behind the scenes of one of the most celebrated, revolutionary animated series of all time.

X-Men: The Art and Making of the Animated Series takes fans behind the scenes of the Emmy Award–winning cartoon that laid the groundwork for the dozens of Marvel Comics adaptations that followed. Interviews with series writers, producers, and executives reveal the razor’s edge that Marvel and Fox navigated in order to bring the XMen to television and detail the tough decisions, compromises, and brilliant solutions that resulted in a series that has been lauded by critics and fans for nearly three decades. Along the way, readers will encounter such comics and entertainment luminaries as Stan Lee, Avi Arad, and Haim Saban.

This book gives a firsthand account of what it’s like to develop, pitch, design, write, and direct an animated series, accompanied by rare original art, animated cels and still frames, and production and merchandising ephemera.