Stan Lee

Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber on December 28, 1922, at home at West 98th Street and West End Avenue, New York City) is an American writer, editor, and memoirist, who ? with several artist co-creators, especially Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko ? introduced complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. His success helped change Marvel Comics from a small publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

Early career

Lee was born in to Celia and Jack Lieber, Jewish immigrants from Romania. His father, trained as a dress cutter, worked only sporadically after the Great Depression. The family moved further uptown to Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood. When he was nine, his only sibling, brother Larry Lieber, was born. Lee attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. A voracious reader who enjoyed writing as a teen, he worked such part-time jobs as writing obituaries for a news service and press releases for the National Tuberculosis Center; delivering sandwiches for the Jack May pharmacy to offices in Rockefeller Center; working as an office boy for a trouser manufacturer; ushering at the Rivoli Theater on Broadway; and selling subscriptions to the New York Herald-Tribune newspaper. He graduated high school early, at age 16 1/2, in 1939, and joined the WPA Federal Theatre Project.

Related Topics:
Jewish - Romania - Great Depression - Manhattan - Washington Heights - Larry Lieber - High School - The Bronx - Obituaries - News service - Press releases - National Tuberculosis Center - Rockefeller Center - Broadway - New York Herald-Tribune - Newspaper - 1939 - WPA - Federal Theatre Project

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With the help of his uncle, Robbie Solomon, a relative of pulp magazine and comic-book publisher Martin Goodman, Lee was brought in as an assistant at Goodman's newly formed Timely Comics, the company that by the 1960s would evolve into Marvel Comics. Editor Joe Simon hired Lee, whose cousin Jean was married to Goodman.

Related Topics:
Pulp magazine - Publisher - Martin Goodman - Timely Comics - Joe Simon

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Lee's first published work, a text filler page under the pen name "Stan Lee", appeared in a Captain America comic book in 1941. He soon graduated from writing filler to actual comics. When Simon left in 1942, Martin had Lee, just under 20 years old, serve as interim editor. He would leave for World War II military service that winter, and fellow Timely editor Vincent Fago would fill-in until Lee returned in 1945 ? showing a knack that would lead him to remain in that position editor until 1972, when he succeeded Goodman as publisher.

Related Topics:
Captain America - 1941 - World War II - Military service - Vincent Fago - 1945 - 1972

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Lee had enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in the Signal Corps, writing manuals, training films, and slogans, and occasionally cartooning. His military classification was "playwright"; only nine men in the U.S. Army were awarded the title.

Related Topics:
U.S. Army - Signal Corps - Training films - Military classification

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In the mid-1950s, by which time the company was now generally known as Atlas Comics, a decency campaign led by psychiatrist Dr. Frederic Wertham and Senator Estes Kefauver blamed comic books for corrupting young readers with images of violence and sexuality. Comic-book companies responded by implementing strict internal regulations, and eventually adopted the stringent Comics Code.

Related Topics:
1950s - Psychiatrist - Frederic Wertham - Estes Kefauver - Comics Code

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During this period, Lee wrote comics in a various genres including romance, Westerns, humor, science fiction and suspense stories. By the end of the decade, he had become dissatisfied with his career and considered quitting the field.

Related Topics:
Genre - Romance - Westerns - Humor - Science fiction - Suspense

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