The Introducing series began life in Mexico in the early 1970s.

Rius was a legendary Mexican cartoonist who single-handedly produced a weekly comic called Los Agachados - The Underdogs. With humour, but nonetheless with deadly accuracy, Rius enlightened his public - the poor and underprivileged of Mexico - on every sort of social and political issue, so much so that his wit got him into trouble with the authorities. He then had the idea of introducing Karl Marx to his readers, and through Rius’ brilliant book the people of the barrios came to know the German heavyweight, “Carlito”. In a short space of time, Rius’ book had been translated into twelve languages and had sold over a million copies.

The English translation was first published in 1976 and was an instant hit. The publishers knew they were on to a winner when the local Conservative party HQ ordered half a dozen copies! Marx for Beginners became a badge of hip credibility in the late 1970s and early 80s, and no self-respecting student would be seen without a copy tucked under his or her arm. The success of the book indicated that a basic primer on Marx was needed not just for the poor of Mexico but in supposedly more advanced and sophisticated countries too. The editor of the series in English, Richard Appignanesi, commissioned more titles on Freud, Darwin, Einstein and so on, and the revolutionary idea of providing a readership hungry for information on big topics with non-fiction “comic” books was born.

Icon Books was formed in 1991 to bring back to publication these guides, which had languished out of print for various reasons in the 1980s. The idea of the company was to sell these brilliantly original books again, but also to build the series up, maintaining its integrity and quality. Slowly through the 1990s this was exactly what Icon did, adding many new titles which have since become huge bestsellers throughout the world - Postmodernism, Psychology, Philosophy, Quantum Theory, Stephen Hawking, Chaos, Buddha and many others. Called … for Beginners for much of this time, in 1999 the series name was changed to Introducing and in 2004 the jackets received a radical facelift which we hope brings the series into the 21st century.

Icon now sells the series in all markets of the world and the books have been translated into more than 30 foreign languages, from French and Japanese to Albanian and even, recently, Vietnamese.

New books are still being added to the series, and it now covers a huge array of challenging topics - big names like Marx, Freud, Einstein and so on have been joined by controversial figures like Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault and cutting-edge subjects like Evolutionary Psychology and Consciousness. Times change and people are interested in different subjects, but the principle on which Introducing was founded - books which educate in a way which is witty, intelligent and enjoyable as well as factually correct - remains key.

We also like to hear what you think of the books - let us know by emailing info@iconbooks.co.uk, or see our other contact details here.