Mega Tales #1 (2nd Printing) Digital Copies FREE at IndyPlanet. Finally we have the revised 2nd printing as a pdf download again at IndyPlanet. To celebrate you can go to IndyPlanet and download a free copy for the couple more days. This is a limited time offer so don’t delay. The special sale ends THIS Sunday, December 16th at midnight. Unless, of course we forget to turn the sale off. But don’t count on that with ol’ Mark Scrooge hanging around! So grab all the free stuff you can while it’s legal! And that includes Humants #1 and Project: NewMan #1 too. YES! Ho,Ho, Ho and GO! GO! GO!

And don’t forget we have all kinds of Mega Merchandise for your Christmas Gifts:

Mega Graphics POD T-Shirt Shop

Try as we did we just couldn’t do it. Blame it on the Holidays and all that Thanksgiving Turkey or maybe it was the extra posts we did this month… whatever the reason we could not get the blog posted by last Friday. So rather than more for November, we just kept what we started for last week and so this will be the first for the month of December. What? That means Christmas is almost here! WOW!

Speaking of Christmas… Check out the deals we have available for the fan on your Christmas gift list:

Credit Where Credit Is Due

By Mark Poe

A rare photo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Most likely this was during an ’80’s San Diego Comics Con.

This is probably the last installment of our tribute to Stan Lee and his life. We started out listing his accomplishments, in remembering the Marvel Comics legend. In so doing we found it necessary, more or less, to come to his defense, for lack of a better way of phrasing it. Most have been respectful of the dead but others… Well, I ran across several on social media who could not let go of their bitterness and saying how bad Stan Lee treated Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko as well as others. This is due to debates in the past 40 years or so, on who created what at Marvel in the ’60’s, in order to give Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others credit where credit is due. That part is fine. However, in so doing, whether intentionally or not, some have diminished and in some cases attempted to completely discredit Stan Lee’s contributions to the creation of the Marvel Universe. That is the problem. It’s not fair and not accurate. That’s going from one extreme to the other. In giving credit where credit is due if we find we have to tear down the character of someone or discredit them, that should be a red flag. So this is not so much a defense of Stan Lee or any individual so much as it is a defense of fairness and truth.

Over the years we have read many interviews and articles of how Jack, Steve and  others were cheated out of credit and extra pay by Stan Lee. Maybe Stan could have done better in certain instances. But there has been a lot of speculation and judging Stan Lee’s intentions and character even by those who knew and worked with him. If these assessments of Stan were fair, even those from Jack, Steve and other Marvel Bullpen members, they would also give Stan the benefit of the doubt. That’s something only a very few have given Stan.  In other words, no one is seeing this from Stan’s viewpoint. That’s another red flag. Therefore, we can only go on experience guided by intelligence, the character and established track records of those involved. When we look at the big picture it may reveal more than focusing on isolated events and running the risk of taking something out of context.

That point also brings up the question on just how accurately interviewers may have quoted Jack, Steve and other Bullpen members. That’s fair in these days of Fake News. We have learned reporters are not and have not been as unbiased as they were thought to be. This of course doesn’t just apply to this situation but any occurrence whether of history or current events. Fair enough?

Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko Should Have Gotten More

Stan wasn’t afraid to give credit to others for their writing. Wally Wood gets credit as a wordsmith as well as artist in Daredevil #10.

It’s true! Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and other Marvel Bullpen creators should have gotten credit where credit was due for plotting and co-writing or a writing assist or full writing where it applied. They also should have gotten paid more for the extra work they did. Furthermore, they should have gotten royalties as well for reprinted and repackaged work they did. That is the comic book industry of today, but that was NOT the comic book industry in the 1960’s. These creators helped blaze a trail for creators of today to get those benefits. If you are a writer, artist or whatever working for the mainstream publishers today you owe these guys a debt of “Thanks” for the benefits you enjoy today.

Stan probably should have given them more credit. But, we cannot effectively judge the past by the standards of today. I say “Probably” because this was a different era and Stan was giving credit which was a new thing then. Very rarely did more than 1 or 2 people get their names credited to a comic book story before Stan adapted the policy. This policy was Stan’s idea, not that of Martin Goodman or anyone else. We have no information that Jack or Steve suggested having credits on the stories. This of course was NOT a totally selfless action on Stan’s part. He would benefit from the credits as well as the others. During the ’60’s Stan adjusted the credits at the request of the artists. Wally Wood was perhaps the first to ask for this. He wanted credit for scripting Daredevil beginning with issue #10. (Sidenote: It’s unknown whether Wally gave Stan a typed out script. We can suppose he may have used margin notes similar to how Jack added margin notes, but that is speculation.) Wally not only did the script but the finished pencils and inks as well over the layouts of Bob Powell. The point here is that Stan did give credit where credit was due even, possibly, if reluctantly, doing so. But this one example showed Stan was willing to work with his fellow creators. So if Stan didn’t give writing credit to Jack maybe there a was reason for it, other than Stan trying to steal the credit from Jack as some have speculated. Stan did eventually drop the writer artist credit for the books he collaborated on with Jack. Those were credited as “By Stan Lee and Jack Kirby” or “A Stan Lee – Jack Kirby Production” giving Jack equal credit for plotting and writing. Some still don’t see this as equal credit for some reason. Why is that?

Maybe there was a time when it was necessary to draw more attention to the fact that Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others did more than just the art for titles like the Fantastic Four and the Amazing Spider-Man.  Sometimes to get someone’s attention more emphasizes on certain points are used. Such was the thought of those who felt Stan was taking credit for more than his fair share. That was a good thing to get the debate going and iron out the differences. That mission was accomplished. Whereas, there still is a need to remind others that Jack and Steve share in the creation of these Marvel Characters, there is no justifiable cause to demean and discredit Stan Lee’s contribution in so doing.

Written Evidence

Jack Kirby’s pencil art with margin notes from The Mighty Thor #147. Click the thumbnail for a larger image then the browser back button to return here.

In the past several years we have had the good fortune to have seen many copies of Jack Kirby’s pencil art including his margin notes which were not available before. A lot of these can be found somewhere on the web. After Jack passed on these files became available through a few sources, mainly Two Morrows Publishing. The Jack Kirby Collector, which was started and still maintained by publisher John Morrow, has been the premier publication for Jack Kirby Fans for more than 20 years. Mr. Morrow has published many insightful articles over the years. TwoMorrows has done a lot to give credit to Jack Kirby where due, WITHOUT taking away from Stan Lee’s part. Many of their articles have helped clarify exactly where the split in credit resides. Case in point: One of the best series of articles is entitled A Failure To Communicate by Mike Gartland. In this series of articles, Mike compares Jack’s margin notes with Stan’s script. What is revealed is what Jack had in mind for the story told by his art was often at odds with what Stan had in his mind for the story. This is something Mike first noticed when he was reading Fantastic Four Annual # 3. He noticed in one panel some of the action of the art seemed as if Jack had drawn it with something in mind that didn’t exactly match the dialog. This is something I have noticed many times over the years when reading Stan and Jack’s Marvel Comics. It is also noticeable in some of the other Marvel books as well. This is in fact a tale tale sign of the Marvel Method which Stan employed his artists to use. It is also another indicator that Stan wrote his own stories which explains the difference. Had Stan merely reworded the script supplied by Jack’s margin notes there would not have been a discrepancy between dialog and drawings. No, there were actually often two stories in every book, the story the artist envisioned and the story the writer,in most cases Stan, interpreted or else wrote around the art. So crediting Jack for both the story and the art is somewhat off target. Clearly Jack did a story but it was not the finished story which made the final cut in the printed books. Let’s look closer at how these books came about.

The Marvel Method

Jack’s Pencils for the Inhumans Origin page 2. Read Jack’s notes first then read Stan’s dialog which Sam Rosen has so masterfully lettered onto the penciled pages before sending to Joe Sinnott for inking embellishment. 

Stan did not originate the Marvel Method but he did fine tune and upgrade it. Other comics studios had employed a similar method before Stan and the Marvel Bullpen made it famous. The process was conceived to make shorter work of the task of producing a finished comic book story and art. The concept is simple: The editor or writer, Stan in this case since he wore both hats, would come up with the plot for a story. Sometimes it was more complex and at other times if was maybe a paragraph of an idea. Stan has said at first he would type out a page or a paragraph for Jack or another artist. Often he would have a story conference with the artist and the typed synopsis would be the product of the meeting. As they grew more accustomed to working this way Stan would not bother to write it down but just discuss it with Jack or Steve or whoever was working on a particular book. From there the artist would go home and begin to breakdown the pages of the story. This part was different for every artist and still is. Some pencilers prefer to do small thumbnail sketches of the whole  issue then breakdown the panels on the full size art boards. Other, more experienced hands, like Jack Kirby would visualize the story so strongly in his mind, he would sit down with the full size bristol boards and start drawing in full detail one page at a time. His experience guided him in how to pace the art panels and others who watched him draw pages often remarked it was one of the most fascinating displays to behold as Jack  start at the top corner and draw, with nearly no sketching, to the lower corner of the page and have a complete piece of pencil art ready for the inker when he finished. One observer remarked it was as if the art was already there and Jack was just bringing it out of the paper, uncovering it magically for all to see. As he would go, Jack would write out his margin notes to refine his story telling so Stan would know exactly what he had in mind. Or so Jack thought.

Jack’s Pencils for the Inhumans Origin page 3. 

*(Side Note: It has been reported that Steve Ditko and others have given slightly different versions of this process. Steve has gone so far as to say Stan didn’t give him any plot whatsoever and that he never had story conferences with Stan. Some critics have sighted Stan’s recollections of events as faulty due to an admitted bad memory. That’s possible. Isn’t it also possible Steve and Jack’s memories were faulty as well? Jack did admit to having a bad memory as well as Stan.)

Jack would finish up his pages and deliver them to Stan, go over what was next and head back home with a new idea from Stan for the next issue. Of course Jack had his own ideas on any ideas Stan gave him. While Jack made his way home, Stan would sit down with Jack’s marvelous pencil art and begin to imagine the dialog and captions. He would take pencil and paper and start writing out dialog to fit the spaces in the art. He would word a balloon or caption, erase it, refine his idea, reword it and jot it down again. This would happen over and over until he felt he had punched up the story script to make it the best, most dramatic tale possible. He would lightly draw out and number the word balloons in Jack’s panels to correspond with the dialog he had written and numbered with directions, his own margin notes, for the letterer. All this would neatly be typed up before sending the script and art pages off to the letterer. Even after the finished lettered art would come back he might refine some of his wording and Sol Brodsky or the letterer would white out the old word balloon and re-letter the revisions. Sometimes Stan would also have pencil art altered to make it fit the story he had in mind better. Also on copies of some of Jack’s pencils you can see places where characters were erased or an arm erased or some such for repositioning by Jack, if he happened to around the office, or Sol or the inker.

Jack’s Pencils for the Inhumans Origin page 4. 

Both Men worked hard to bring about what they envisioned for the story. It would seem neither Stan nor Jack understood just how much each of them had invested into the actual story itself. It’s seems clear Stan did not follow or possibly did not even notice some of Jack’s notes. This is not an unusual occurrence when people are working together on a project with a tight deadline. Something has to give and usually, in such pressure, communications  is the first casualty. Had Stan realized it, he might have done things differently so as not  to alienate Jack and Steve or Wally or anyone else. Stan as editor would have seen the value in giving Jack and Steve co-plotter credit and very likely would have tried to get them a few more bucks pay to compensate their extra work. Stan was the editor but Martin Goodman was the publisher with final say and the one who signed the checks in the ’60’s. Stan very likely did not perceive Jack’s margin notes as a script. It was not in a recognizable form to a writer. Most likely Stan saw the notes as just… well… notes, suggestions. Something Jack wrote to explain why he drew something in the panels. Stan may have thought the notes unnecessary, not in disrespect to Jack’s ideas or attempt to communicate, but with the thought the art spoke for itself and did not need farther explanation. Not much higher respect than that can be given to a comic book artist, that is to say, “His art speaks louder than words.” But clearly Stan saw himself as the writer. He wrote the captions and word balloons even if some of the ideas were a springboard off of Jack’s. As far as Stan knew that was the way it was suppose to be… the way they started working as a team. Put yourself in Stan’s place. What would you have thought?

Will We Ever See There Like Again?

Jack’s Pencils for the Inhumans Origin page 5. 

Stan Jack and Steve along with the rest of the early Marvel Bullpen were a cultural phenomenon.  Keep in mind they knew they were succeeding, but they probably did not realize at the time they were a phenomenon.

Some of today’s talents are exceptional. Today we see many great talents in the comic book industry of every station, writers, pencilers, inkers, colorists and letterers. We don’t realize how key each of these positions are until we lose one. One thing we don’t see much of any more is creative teams like Stan and Jack or Stan and Steve. Possibly talented creators are afraid of not getting proper credit, like Jack and Steve didn’t at times. Perhaps in this Me Generation we are all just a little too selfish to share the credit and perhaps there was a little of that where Stan, Jack and Steve were concerned too. Maybe that’s why they couldn’t stay together. It may be a long time before we see another Bullpen to Marvel at. 😉

Stan, Jack and Steve may be gone but they will never be forgotten, not by a long shot. They taught us much. Some of the lessons were taught on purpose and some not so much. But if we can learn from another’s successes as well as perceived mistakes, all the much the better. Learning is the key!

A heart warming cartoon which made the rounds on Facebook last week. It’s signed but we could not identify the artist.

The world still mourns the passing of Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee. Stan was 95 years old and had some health issues the past year so it was not a big shock that he passed away. It was more or less expected but not something any of us was looking forward to of course. We had just lost Steve Ditko and Marie Severin a few months before, and Flo Steinberg last year. To those of us who grew up reading these guy’s work and admiring their art, this is a sad time. Jack Kirby, Sol Brodsky, John Buscema, Don Heck, Wally Wood, John Severin, Chic Stone, John Verpoorten, Gil Kane, Frank Giacoia, Mike Esposito, Gene Colan, Ross Andru, Bob Brown and Dan Adkins all passed on years ago. There may be others as well we can’t recall at the moment.  There are not many of the original Marvel Bullpen of the ’60’s and ’70’s left.  Our generation’s heroes are passing away and an era is coming to an end. 🙁

Roy Thomas and Stan Lee Together Again

Roy Thomas visited Stan Lee on November 10 just 2 days before Stan passed away. Long time Marvel fans will recall Roy was the first full time writer with the Bullpen Stan hired back in 1965. Roy worked on several fillers at first and had long stints on Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, X-Men, Avengers and Conan. He later wrote nearly every series at one time or another for Marvel and succeeded Stan as the 2nd Editor In Chief over the Marvel line in 1972 once Stan became Publisher.

In an article on the HollwoodReporter.com Roy wrote:

 

This may be the last photo of Stan taken before he passed on 2 days later. It’s great that old friends Stan and Roy got to visit again one last time.

“I was just with Stan on Saturday. It was arranged a week earlier for me to come from back east. I was told Stan said he didn’t want to see anybody, but when they mentioned my name, he said, “I’d like to see Roy.” Which was very flattering. I was just with him for half an hour, less than 48 hours before he passed away. He was on the sofa, facing the swimming pool, had kind of a view. He was nattily dressed and so forth. He just didn’t have the energy that he had the last time I saw him. He looked frail, but he could get around when he needed to.”

Roy always complimented Stan’s style in his own writing and often ghosted for him on Bullpen Bulletin pages as well as the Spider-Man newspaper comic strips. As Editor-in-Chief Roy maintained the spirit of the Marvel Age of the ’60’s during his tenure. In short he came closer than any of the Chief Editors in doing it like Stan would have. It’s was good to know Roy got to see Stan again before he passed on.

Roy has another article on the HollwoodReporter.com: Roy Thomas on Life at Marvel in the 1960s you might enjoy.

The Marvel Creator Controversy

Who created what? Do the artists deserve more credit than Stan gave them?

Depending on just how much you know of the comic book industry history, you may or may not have ever heard of this controversy. For a number of years there has been a debate in fandom concerning how much of the Marvel Universe Stan Lee created and wrote as opposed to how much Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko contributed as well as other Marvel Bullpen members. Average fans would probably logically conclude it was a 50/50 split. However, there are those who say that is not so. Some very devoted Kirby fans say Jack wrote all the stories and Stan just did a little editing and put his name on it. Why would they say that? Because Jack was reported to have said similar things in several fanzines for several years, mainly in the ’80’s. Did Jack actually say these things? The interviewer may have merely exaggerated or else misunderstood what Jack was saying. That had happened on more than one occasion with Jack on various subjects. Jack was known to have an opinion about most things but he also had a strong sense of professionalism, so Jack giving an opinion in private or in what he thought was a private conversation was often different than what he would say publicly. This was fairly common practice in the World War II Generation. There were similar rumblings from fans of Steve Ditko over the years but we are not sure whether Steve ever made similar complaints to those of Jack. Steve Ditko was a very private man and as a rule didn’t give interviews. He did not often like to talk about past work, he was more interested in what was next.

A Good Article On the Subject

Daniel Best is a comics fan, writer, author, historian and public speaker. Daniel is a good friend of Bob Almond of The Inkwell Awards (see the ad to the right of this blog). Bob has also inked a lot of Marvel Comics and others for about the past 20 years. Daniel knows a lot of folks in the comics industry in addition to Bob. He has some great insight into all this he has shared in a great article on his blog regarding the controversy. Here’s a couple excepts:

“The Fantastic Four were the flagship of the Marvel line and clearly both Stan and Jack had a fondness for the characters. They were the first in a long line of super-heroes, and they marked the longest continuous collaboration that the two men had, as they worked on the title for 102 issues, plus a handful of annuals from its inception in 1961 through to 1970, creating a volume of work and characters that is still unmatched today.  The characters and concepts that were introduced make up the foundations of the Marvel Universe as we know it – the Silver Surfer, Galactus, The Black Panther, the Inhumans, Adam Warlock and countless others all had their introductions in the Lee/Kirby run.  Even so there is still conjecture as to who did what on the title.

“In one corner are those who firmly believe that Stan Lee had a strong hand in the writing and editing of the book.  This would also mean that Lee had the controlling say over the direction of the title and Lee also took more than an active hand in the creation of the characters.  In the other corner are those who equally believe that Jack Kirby did it all.  This means that Kirby wrote, or, at the very least, plotted every issue, suggested dialogue, created all of the characters alone and controlled the direction of the title.  While it’s true that there are strong arguments to be had for both sides of the fence, such as the fact that Stan Lee never created characters as strong away from Kirby as he did with him, and Jack Kirby’s dialogue left a bit to be desired without Lee’s editing, the absolute truth may never be known as Kirby and Lee were certainly at odds when it came to giving the other man credit for their efforts, although Lee has been more charitable when it comes to giving Kirby his due than Kirby did for Lee.”

You can read the rest of Daniel’s opinions on the research he has done at his blog: OhDannyBoy.blogspot.com

The Return of Jack Kirbys Original Art

An example of Jack Kirby’s pencil art. This was for a Marvel Calendar for, perhaps, 1978.

During the late ’70’s through the mid ’80’s the feud heated up as professionals and fans were taking sides. Lawyers were hired by Marvel and by Jack Kirby and a legal battle ensued. Beginning sometime in the ’70’s it became customary for publishers to return the original art of comic book artists after an issue was published. However  due to some copyright disputes regarding whether or not Jack retained some of the rights to some of the Marvel characters , Marvels legal department held hostage several hundred pages of Jacks original art. It was important to Jack to get his art back. A nice income could be had from the sale of those original art pages to the relative new original art collectors who began to surface in the ’70’s. Jim Shooter was the Marvel Editor In Chief at this time. He wrote on his blog concerning the return of the art:

 

Jim Shooter was the Editor In Chief of Marvel from 1978 until 1987.

“So then because he was suing Marvel, the lawyers felt that the artwork couldn’t be returned — it’s complicated, but doing so could tend to support his claims. In fact, they wouldn’t let me return artwork to anyone while the case was pending. Imagine the frustration of guys like Joe Sinnott and the Buscemas.

“The legal sparring went on a long time. Starting, as most lawsuits do, with a period of threats and legal maneuvering, in 1978 the Kirby side began an aggressive legal and PR attack on Marvel that ended (or lessened somewhat) in mid-1986 when the matter was settled. Though it was a complex case about who owned the characters the way it was pitched to the public by their side was that Marvel — and in particular, I wouldn’t give Kirby his art back.

“During this time, I’d run into Jack at conventions; he couldn’t have been nicer to me. If you look at what Jack said from the podium in those days, he’d acknowledge he had a dispute with Marvel, but he’d also say, “We’re trying to work it out.” He was very gracious about it. Some people around him would get pretty vicious. There was one time I was at a show; I’d sit in the back of the room if I ever went to a panel. Jack was on the panel so I went. There were some other people up there, some of the people who kind of gathered around him; some for genuinely noble reasons, some for self-serving reasons. I think it was Gary Groth who worked this crowd into a frenzy, shouting, “If you see anybody from Marvel, go after them with 2x4s!” I’m in the back of the room, and there’s 300 people between me and the door, and I thought, ‘Hmm, this is going to be interesting.’ “

So Jim Shooter was caught in the middle and took heat for something that was not really his fault. He had to do what the Marvel Legal Department told him got do to keep his job. But Jack did finally get his art back as Shooter recounts:

“So Jack, with his lawyer’s help, sent us a letter refusing to accept the artwork back unless he were given credit as sole creator on all the old stuff he and Stan worked on together. He specifically insisted that Stan would get no credit, and that Jack must get credit, or Jack would not accept his artwork back. That just blew my mind. Shortly after that, I met with Jack in San Diego, and I talked with him. I said, “Doesn’t Stan deserve some credit?” Jack said, “Yeah, he does.” And I said, “So you’d be okay if we put ‘Stan and Jack’?” He said yes. I said, “And another thing, Jack, in your letter you insist you created Spider-Man, and I know you developed a version of Spider-Man, but it wasn’t the one that was actually used. The one that was actually used was the one Steve did.” He said, “Yeah, you’re right, that’s his.” Jack was fine with it; he had no problem. So we settled, and he got his artwork back.

Another example of Jack Kirby’s original art. Thor # 154 form the late ’60’s.

“Finally, Kirby got his art back. But to this day, no one has a clue who Jim Galton was or his role in this. Very few people know the people behind the scenes who were calling the shots in this thing. To the average fan, Marvel was Jim Shooter, and why did he do this? I was in a position where, unless I was willing to get out there and badmouth one of our founding fathers, or badmouth the people who were paying my checks, what could I do? I wasn’t willing to talk bad about Jack certainly, and I felt honor-bound to represent Marvel as best I could, even though I disagreed; not with the legality of their stance, but with the intelligence of it. It was just an idiotic position. I kept hoping I could work something out. From my point of view, no one on this planet fought harder for Jack and his interests than me, ever. I’m the most vilified human being in the world when the subject of Jack Kirby comes up, and it wearies me. It really does. Probably no one will believe me, and at this point, so be it. I’m not interested in proving my case. I’m not interested in getting into a debate over it. I’ve said my piece. They can take it or leave it.”

This reckoning of these events does match other articles and books we’ve read of what really happened. There was a struggle over copyright and returning art which then evolved into who should get the credit for the creation of the characters.

Who Created What?

So did Stan create the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man or did Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko create them?  There is no way to know exactly. Outside of Stan, Jack and Steve there would only be a few others who would possibly know for sure. Some of those have already passed on as well, so the absolute truth in the matter may never be known. None of us were there so we only have second hand knowledge. It should be noted here many who claim they know, base their belief on second hand knowledge as well, so though their intentions may be honorable, their facts may or may not be completely accurate. It is with this in mind we examine the publicly known reports.

Conclusions

Jack Kirby and the Marvel Characters.

What have we learned? We have examined a few reports of the events which occurred leading up to the birth of the Marvel Age. So who created the Marvel Universe? As Daniel Best wrote there are strong arguments from both camps. Those who are ardent fans of Stan lee take his side while those who adore the work of Jack Kirby maintain he created it all. It’s remindful of some of the great Football Rivalries! Who’s the best? It depends on the fan viewpoint!

Monday we were told the sad news of Marvel Comics founding father’s passing. Stan “The Man” Lee died Monday, November 12,  2018 at the age of 95. We posted the news that day, just a plain black background with Stan’s signature, his date of birth and death and the word “Excelsior!” which we borrowed from the TheRealStanLee.com web site. We were so numbed by the news that’s really all we could think to do. But it seemed appropriate. Today, we want to do a bit more. We’ve started with the basic information from Wikipedia, and added our own memories from readings of articles and books about the Marvel Age and Stan Lee and added photos and pieces of art from all over.

Stan Lee • 1922–2018

A cool animated gif we found on the web. We could not find the artist’s name to credit him, but it’s so cool we just had to share it.

Co-Creator of

Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Ant-Man and the Wasp, the Mighty Avengers, Daredevil, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Dr. Strange, The X-Men and MORE characters and titles than we have room to list!

Stan and his Marvels!

Stan Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber on December 28, 1922. He passed on November 12, 2018. He was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher and briefly president of Marvel Comics Group, as well as fulfilling some of these roles for other companies. He is best remembered as the writer, co-creator and editor-in-chief presiding over the founding of Marvel Comics,  during the Marvel Age lasting from 1961-1970 and leading to its expansion from a small division of a magazine publishing house to a large multimedia corporation in itself.

Stan Lee working with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and several artists—co-created the fictional Marvel comic book characters: Spider-Man, the Hulk, Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Black Panther, the X-Men, and—with his brother, co-writer Larry Lieber—the characters Ant-Man, Iron Man, and Thor. He pioneered a more complex approach to writing superheroes in the 1960s, and in the 1970s challenged the standards of the Comics Code Authority, indirectly leading to it updating its policies.

After retiring from Marvel, Stan remained a public figurehead for the company, and frequently made cameo appearances in movies based on Marvel characters. Meanwhile, he continued independent creative ventures into his 90’s until his death in 2018.

Stan Lee was inducted into the comic book industry’s Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1995. He received the National Medal of Arts in 2008.

Early Life

Stanley Martin Lieber was born on December 28, 1922, in Manhattan, New York City, in the apartment of his Romanian-born Jewish immigrant parents, Celia (Solomon) and Jack Lieber. His father, trained as a dress cutter, worked only sporadically after the Great Depression. Stan had one younger brother named Larry Lieber. He said in 2006 that as a child he was influenced by books and movies, particularly those with Errol Flynn playing heroic roles.  By the time Stan was in his teens, the family was living in an apartment in The Bronx. Stan described it as “a third-floor apartment facing out back”. Lee and his brother shared the bedroom, while their parents slept on a foldout couch.

Stan attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. In his youth, he enjoyed writing, and entertained dreams of one day writing the “Great American Novel”. Stan said that in his youth he worked such part-time jobs as writing obituaries for a news service and press releases ; delivering sandwiches for the Jack May Pharmacy to offices in Rockefeller Center;  ushering at the Rivoli Theater on Broadway; and selling subscriptions to the New York Herald Tribune newspaper. He graduated from high school early, aged 16½ in 1939, and joined the WPA Federal Theatre Project.

Early Comics Career

One of the last series Stan wrote for Marvel was “Stan Lee Meets…”. This one featured Spider-Man. Other “meetings” featured the Thing, the Silver Surfer and Dr. Strange.

Stan Lee became an assistant in 1939 at the new Timely Comics, a division of Martin Goodman’s pulp magazine company, with the help of his uncle Robbie Solomon. Timely, by the 1960s, would evolve into Marvel Comics. Stan Lee, whose cousin Jean was Goodman’s wife, was formally hired by Timely editor Joe Simon.

Stan was not much more than a “go-fer” at first. “In those days the artists dipped the pen in ink, so I had to make sure the inkwells were filled”, Lee recalled in 2009. “I went down and got them their lunch, I did proofreading, I erased the pencils from the finished pages for them”. Marshaling his childhood ambition to be a writer, young Stanley Lieber made his comic-book debut with the text filler “Captain America Foils the Traitor’s Revenge” in Captain America Comics #3 (cover-dated May 1941), using the pseudonym, Stan Lee, which years later he would adopt as his legal name. This initial story also introduced Captain America’s trademark ricocheting shield-toss.

Two issues later, Stan graduated from writing filler to actual comics scrpting with a backup feature, “Headline Hunter, Foreign Correspondent.” Stan’s first superhero co-creation was the Destroyer, in Mystic Comics #6 (August 1941). Other characters he co-created during this era which fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books include Jack Frost, debuting in U.S.A. Comics #1 (August 1941), and Father Time, debuting in Captain America Comics #6 (August 1941).

When Joe Simon and Jack Kirby left in 1941, Martin Goodman promoted Stan, who was only 18 years old, to be the interim editor. Stan showed a knack for the business that led him to remain the comic-book division’s editor-in-chief, as well as art director from that time until 1972. 30 years as interim editor has to be a record! 😉 He remained in that capacity until he succeeded Goodman as publisher.

Stan Lee served in the U.S. Army Signal Corp. His function eventually was a writer of publications.

Stan Lee entered the United States Army in early 1942 as a member of the Signal Corps, repairing telegraph poles and other communications equipment. He was later transferred to the Training Film Division, where he worked writing manuals, training films, slogans, and occasionally cartooning. His military classification, he says, was “playwright”; he adds that only nine men in the U.S. Army were given that title. Vincent Fago, editor of Timely’s “animation comics” section, which put out humor and funny animal comics, filled in until Stan returned from his World War II military service in 1945. Stan was inducted into the Signal Corps Regimental Association and was given honorary membership of the 2nd Battalion of 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord at the 2017 Emerald City Comic Con for his prior service.

In the mid-1950s,  Stan wrote stories in a variety of genres including romance, westerns, humor, science fiction, medieval adventure, horror and suspense. In the 1950s, Lee teamed up with his comic book colleague Dan DeCarlo to produce the syndicated newspaper strip, My Friend Irma, based on the radio comedy starring Marie Wilson. By the end of the decade, Stan had become dissatisfied with his career and considered quitting the field.

The Marvel Revolution

In the late 1950s, DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz revived the superhero archetype and experienced a significant success with its updated version of the Flash, and later with super-team the Justice League of America. In response, publisher Martin Goodman assigned Stan Lee to come up with a new superhero team. Stan’s wife, Joan, suggested that he experiment with stories he preferred, since he was planning on changing careers and had nothing to lose.

Stan Lee and Marvel Cinematic Universe Characters

Stan acted on that advice, giving his superheroes a flawed humanity, a change from the ideal archetypes that were typically written for preteens. Before this, most superheroes were idealistically perfect people with no serious, lasting problems. Stan introduced complex, realistic characters who could have bad tempers, fits of melancholy, and vanity; they bickered amongst themselves, worried about paying their bills and impressing girlfriends, got bored or were even sometimes physically ill.

The first superheroes Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby created together were the Fantastic Four, inspired by the Kirby adventure team, Challengers of the Unknown, Jack did for DC Comics a year or so prior to returning to Marvel. The team’s immediate popularity led Stan and Marvel’s illustrators to produce a cavalcade of new titles. Again working with Jack Kirby, Stan co-created the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and the X-Men; with Bill Everett, Daredevil; and with Steve Ditko, Doctor Strange and Marvel’s most successful character, Spider-Man, all of whom lived in a thoroughly shared universe. Lee and Kirby gathered several of their newly created characters together into the team titled The Avengers and would revive characters from the 1940s such as the Sub-Mariner and Captain America.

Stan Lee’s Auto-biography: Excelsior

Comics historian Peter Sanderson wrote that in the 1960s:

DC was the equivalent of the big Hollywood studios: After the brilliance of DC’s reinvention of the superhero … in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it had run into a creative drought by the decade’s end. There was a new audience for comics now, and it wasn’t just the little kids that traditionally had read the books. The Marvel of the 1960s was in its own way the counterpart of the French New Wave… Marvel was pioneering new methods of comics storytelling and characterization, addressing more serious themes, and in the process keeping and attracting readers in their teens and beyond. Moreover, among this new generation of readers were people who wanted to write or draw comics themselves, within the new style that Marvel had pioneered, and push the creative envelope still further.

Stan meets the Thing in 2006.

Stan Lee’s revolution extended beyond the characters and storylines to built a sense of community between fans and creators. He introduced the practice of regularly including a credit panel on the splash page of each story, naming not just the writer and penciller but also the inker and letterer. The credits and even the story introductions and sometimes  the narration in the middle of the story spoke directly to the reader with a friendly, chatty style. Stan remarked that his goal was for fans to think of the comics creators as friends. A sign he was succeeding showed up in fan mail they received which began with “Dear Stan and Jack” rather than the customary “Dear Editor.” Letter columns became a focal point of each issue and fans would buy the books and quickly flip to the back to see if their letter made it into he letter sections. The letter pages grew from 1 to as many as 3 pages, some of which were filled with the latest news and goings on of the Marvel Bullpen. The regular news soon found its own page in each issue in addition to the letters page as the Bullpen Bulletins page. Another extension of this friendly policy was Stan’s recorded messages to the newly formed Merry Marvel Marching Society fan club in 1965. The record contained not only Stan’s voice but the voices of most of the Marvel Bullpen artists.

The Stan Lee meets the Thing cover was a homage to the classic FF # 51.

Throughout the 1960s, Stan acted as the head writer, art director and editor in chief for all of Marvel’s new super-hero and adventure titles. He moderated the letters pages, the Bullpen Bulletins pages which included his monthly column called “Stan’s Soapbox”, signing off with his trademark motto, “Excelsior!” (which he borrowed from the New York state motto) and wrote endless promotional copy for ads. Stan would probably never been able to pull this off without adapting a system that was used previously by various comic-book studios. Stan’s version and the success he had with using it, inspired it becoming known as the “The Marvel Method”. Typically, Stan would brainstorm a story with the artist either in his office or on the phone and then prepare a brief synopsis rather than a full script. Based on the synopsis, the artist would fill the allotted number of pages by determining and drawing the panel-to-panel storytelling. After the artist turned in penciled pages, Stan would write the word balloons and captions, and then oversee the lettering and coloring. In effect, the artists were co-plotters, whose collaborative first drafts Stan built upon.

Stan’s greatest innovation would come back to bite its master. Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko gradually became disillusioned with the Marvel Method and wanted credit and more pay for the extra work they were doing which they saw as actually writing the stories. They felt Stan was just filling in the words from their notes in the margins. There was a little more to it than that. Actually, Jack and Steve should have gotten paid more and plotting credit, which was something later artists would receive. But at this time in Marvel’s beginnings it just wasn’t happening. Martin Goodman was the publisher and the guy who signed the paychecks. He looked at the bottom line. He was not concerned with the way the books were produced as long as they produced a profit. He wasn’t going to give any of the artists any more than he had to. Stan has said many times he would have done things different if not for Publisher Goodman’s veto.

Stan Lee and Steve Ditko were great as a creative team on Spider-Man and Dr. Strange. Unfortunately, the two both had their own vision for the characters which eventually lead them in different directions altogether.

Following Steve Ditko’s departure from Marvel in 1966, John Romita Sr. became Stan’s collaborator on The Amazing Spider-Man. Within a year, it overtook Fantastic Four to become the company’s top seller. Lee and Romita’s stories focused as much on the social and college lives of the characters as they did on Spider-Man’s adventures. The stories became more topical, addressing issues such as the Vietnam War, political elections, and student activism. Robbie Robertson, introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man #51 (August 1967) was one of the first African-American characters in comics to play a serious supporting role. In the Fantastic Four series, the lengthy run by Lee and Kirby produced many acclaimed storylines as well as characters that have become central to Marvel, including the Inhumans and the Black Panther, an African king who would be mainstream comics’ first black superhero.

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s finest achievement was the “Galactus Trilogy” that ran in Fantastic Four #48-50 (March-May 1966). The continued storyline chronicled the arrival of Galactus, a cosmic giant who wanted to consume all the planets natural resources, proceeded by his herald, the Silver Surfer. Fantastic Four #48 was chosen as #24 in the 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time poll of Marvel’s readers in 2001. It seemed to many at the time and looking back years later that after only 4 years of the Fantastic Four, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were really just getting started. It was perhaps the pivotal milestone of the Marvel Age. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that “the mystical and metaphysical elements that took over the saga were perfectly suited to the tastes of young readers in the 1960s.” Stan  would soon discover the the story was a favorite on college campuses. Lee and artist John Buscema launched The Silver Surfer series in August 1968.

Stan “The Man” Lee in 1975

The following year, Stan Lee and Gene Colan created the Falcon, comics’ first African-American superhero in Captain America #117 (September 1969). Then in 1971, Stan indirectly helped reform the Comics Code. The U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare had asked Stan to write a comic-book story about the dangers of drugs and Stan conceived a three-issue subplot in The Amazing Spider-Man #96–98 (cover-dated May–July 1971), in which Peter Parker’s best friend becomes addicted to prescription drugs. The Comics Code Authority refused to grant its seal because the stories depicted drug use. The anti-drug context was considered irrelevant. With Goodman’s cooperation and confident that the original government request would give him credibility, Stan had the story published without the Comics Code seal. The comics sold well and Marvel won praise for its socially conscious efforts. The CCA subsequently loosened the Code to permit negative depictions of drugs, among other new freedoms.

Stan also supported using comic books to provide some measure of social commentary about the real world, often dealing with racism and bigotry.  “Stan’s Soapbox”, besides promoting an upcoming comic book project, also addressed issues of discrimination, intolerance, or prejudice.

In 1972, Stan stopped writing monthly comic books to assume the role of publisher. His final issue of The Amazing Spider-Man was #110 (July 1972) and his last Fantastic Four was #125 (August 1972).

Stan Lee Presents:

In the 1970’s Stan the Writer / Editor In Chief became Stan the Publisher.

In later years, Stan became a figurehead and public face for Marvel Comics. He made appearances at comic book conventions around America, lecturing at colleges and participating in panel discussions. Stan Lee and John Romita Sr. launched the Spider-Man newspaper comic strip on January 3, 1977. Stan’s final collaboration with Jack Kirby, The Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience, was published in 1978 as part of the Marvel Fireside Books series and is considered to be Marvel’s first graphic novel. Stan Lee and John Buscema produced the first issue of The Savage She-Hulk (February 1980), which introduced the female cousin of the Hulk and crafted a Silver Surfer story for Epic Illustrated #1 (Spring 1980).

Stan moved to California in 1981 to develop Marvel’s TV and movie properties. He was an executive producer for, and made cameo appearances in Marvel film adaptations and other movies. He occasionally returned to comic book writing with various Silver Surfer projects including a 1982 one-shot drawn by John Byrne, the Judgment Day graphic novel illustrated by John Buscema, the Parable limited series drawn by French artist Mœbius, and The Enslavers graphic novel with Keith Pollard. Stan was briefly president of the entire company, but soon stepped down to become publisher instead, finding that being president was too much about numbers and finance and not enough about the creative process he enjoyed.

Stan Lee’s The Traveler

Peter Paul and Stan Lee began a new Internet-based superhero creation, production, and marketing studio, Stan Lee Media, in 1998. It grew to 165 people and went public through a reverse merger structured by investment banker Stan Medley in 1999, but, near the end of 2000, investigators discovered illegal stock manipulation by Peter Paul and corporate officer Stephan Gordon. Stan Lee Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 2001. Peter Paul was extradited to the U.S. from Brazil and pleaded guilty to violating SEC Rule 10b-5 in connection with trading of his stock in Stan Lee Media. Stan was never implicated in the scheme. In 2001, Stan Lee, Gill Champion, and Arthur Lieberman formed POW! (Purveyors of Wonder) Entertainment to develop film, television and video game properties. Stan announced a superhero program that would feature Ringo Starr, the former Beatle, as the lead character. Additionally, in August of that year, Stan announced the launch of Stan Lee’s Sunday Comics, a short-lived subscription service hosted by Komikwerks.com. From July 2006 until September 2007 Stan hosted, co-created, executive-produced, and judged the reality television game show competition Who Wants to Be a Superhero? on the Sci-Fi Channel. On March 15, 2007, after Stan Lee Media had been purchased by Jim Nesfield, the company filed a lawsuit against Marvel Entertainment for $5 billion, claiming Stan had given his rights to several Marvel characters to Stan Lee Media in exchange for stock and a salary. On June 9, 2007, Stan Lee Media sued Stan Lee; his newer company, POW! Entertainment; and POW! subsidiary QED Entertainment.

In 2008, Stan wrote humorous captions for the political fumetti book Stan Lee Presents Election Daze: What Are They Really Saying? In April of that year, Brighton Partners and Rainmaker Animation announced a partnership POW! to produce a CGI film series, Legion of 5. Other projects by Stan announced in the late 2000s included a line of superhero comics for Virgin Comics, a TV adaptation of the novel Hero, a foreword to Skyscraperman by skyscraper fire-safety advocate and Spider-Man fan Dan Goodwin,  a partnership with Guardian Media Entertainment and The Guardian Project to create NHL superhero mascots and work with the Eagle Initiative program to find new talent in the comic book field.

Stan promoted Stan Lee’s Kids Universe at the 2011 New York Comic Con. In October 2011, Stan announced he would partner with 1821 Comics on a multimedia imprint for children, Stan Lee’s Kids Universe, a move he said addressed the lack of comic books targeted for that demographic; and that he was collaborating with the company on its futuristic graphic novel Romeo & Juliet: The War, by writer Max Work and artist Skan Srisuwan. At the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International, Stan announced his YouTube channel, Stan Lee’s World of Heroes, which airs programs created by Stan, Mark Hamill, Peter David, Adrianne Curry and Bonnie Burton, among others. Stan wrote the book Zodiac, released in January 2015, with Stuart Moore. The film Stan Lee’s Annihilator, based on a Chinese prisoner-turned-superhero named Ming and in production since 2013, was released in 2015.

Stan Lee Re-imagined Batman with Joe Kubert.

In his later career, Stan’s contributions continued to expand outside the style that he helped pioneer. An example of this is his first work for DC Comics in the 2000s, launching the Just Imagine… series, in which Lee re-imagined the DC superheroes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash. Manga projects involving Stan include Karakuri Dôji Ultimo, a collaboration with Hiroyuki Takei, Viz Media and Shueisha, and Heroman, serialized in Square Enix’s Monthly Sh’nen Gangan with the Japanese company Bones. In 2011, Stan started writing a live-action musical, The Yin and Yang Battle of Tao.

This period also saw a number of collaborators honor Stan Lee for his influence on the comics industry. In 2006, Marvel commemorated Stan’s 65 years with the company by publishing a series of one-shot comics starring Stan himself meeting and interacting with many of his co-creations, including Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, the Thing, Silver Surfer, and Doctor Doom. These comics also featured short pieces by such comics creators as Joss Whedon and Fred Hembeck, as well as reprints of classic Stan Lee-written adventures. At the 2007 Comic-Con International, Marvel Legends introduced a Stan Lee action figure. The body beneath the figure’s removable cloth wardrobe is a re-used mold of a previously released Spider-Man action figure, with minor changes. Comikaze Expo, Los Angeles’ largest comic book convention, was rebranded as Stan Lee’s Comikaze Presented by POW! Entertainment in 2012.

At the 2016 Comic-Con International, Stan introduced his digital graphic novel Stan Lee’s God Woke, with text originally written as a poem he presented at Carnegie Hall in 1972. The print-book version won the 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards’ Outstanding Books of the Year Independent Voice Award.

Cameos

Stan Lee received the National Medal of Arts in 2008 from President George W. Bush.

Stan Lee and his collaborator Jack Kirby appear as themselves in The Fantastic Four #10 (January 1963), the first of several appearances within the fictional Marvel Universe. The two are depicted as similar to their real-world counterparts, creating comic books based on the “real” adventures of the Fantastic Four.

Stan was parodied by Jack in comics published by rival DC Comics as Funky Flashman. Jack later portrayed himself, Stan, production executive Sol Brodsky, and Flo Steinberg as superheroes in What If #11 (October 1978), “What If the Marvel Bullpen Had Become the Fantastic Four?”, in which Stan played the part of Mister Fantastic. Stan also made numerous cameo appearances in many Marvel titles, appearing in audiences and crowds at many characters’ ceremonies and parties, and hosting an old-soldiers reunion in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #100 (July 1972). Stan appeared, unnamed, as the priest at Luke Cage and Jessica Jones‘ wedding in New Avengers Annual #1 (June 2006). He pays his respects to Karen Page at her funeral in Daredevil vol. 2, #8 (June 1998), and appears in The Amazing Spider-Man #169 (June 1977).

In 1994, artist Alex Ross rendered Stan Lee as a bar patron on page 44 of Marvels #3.

Stan Lee’s How To Draw SuperHeroes!

In Marvel’s “Flashback” series of titles cover-dated July 1997, a top-hatted caricature of Stan as a ringmaster introduced stories that detailed events in Marvel characters’ lives before they became superheroes, in special “-1” editions of many Marvel titles. The “ringmaster” depiction of Stan was originally from Generation X #17 (July 1996), where the character narrated a story set primarily in an abandoned circus. Though the story itself was written by Scott Lobdell, the narration by “Ringmaster Stan” was written by Stan, and the character was drawn in that issue by Chris Bachalo.

Stan and other comics creators are mentioned on page 479 of Michael Chabon’s 2000 novel about the comics industry The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Chabon also acknowledges a debt to Stan and other creators on the book’s Author’s Note page.

On one of the last pages of Truth: Red, White & Black, Stan appears in a real photograph among other celebrities on a wall of the Bradley home.  Under his given name of Stanley Lieber, Stan Lee appears briefly in Paul Malmont’s 2006 novel The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril.

In Stan Lee Meets Superheroes, which Lee wrote, he comes into contact with some of his favorite creations. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby appear as professors in Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #19.

Stan Lee’s Mighty 7!

In Lavie Tidhar’s 2013 The Violent Century, Stan appears – under his birth name of “Stanley Martin Lieber” – as a historian of superhumans.