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.

Marvel revolution

In the late 1950's, DC Comics revived the super hero genre and experienced a significant success with their updated version of the Flash (comics), and later with their super team the Justice League of America. In response, publisher Martin Goodman assigned Lee to create a new superhero team. Lee’s wife urged him to experiment with stories he preferred since the threat of getting fired was meaningless. He acted on that advice, and suddenly, Lee's career changed completely.

Related Topics:
1950's - DC Comics - Flash (comics) - Justice League of America

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Lee gave the superhero a flawed humanity, a change from the ideal superheroes that were typically written for pre-teens. His heroes had bad tempers, melancholy fits, vanity, greed, etc. They bickered amongst themselves, worried about paying their bills and impressing girlfriends, and even were sometimes physically ill. Before him, superheroes were idealistically perfect people with no problems: Superman was so powerful that nobody could harm him, and Batman was a millionaire in his secret identity.

Related Topics:
Superman - Batman - Millionaire

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Lee's superheroes captured the imagination of teens and young adults who were part of the population spike known as the post World War II baby boom, and sales soared.

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The superhero group Lee and artist Jack Kirby produced was the superhero family the Fantastic Four. Its immediate popularity led Lee and Marvel's illustrators to produce a cavalcade of new titles. Lee created the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, the Mighty Thor and the X-Men with Kirby; Daredevil with Bill Everett; and Doctor Strange and Marvel's most successful character, Spider-Man, with Steve Ditko.

Related Topics:
Fantastic Four - Incredible Hulk - Iron Man - Mighty Thor - X-Men - Daredevil - Bill Everett - Doctor Strange - Spider-Man

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Throughout the 1960s, Lee scripted, art-directed, and edited most of Marvel's series, moderated the letters pages, wrote a monthly column called "Stan's Soapbox", and wrote endless promotional copy, always signing off with his trademark phrase, "Excelsior!" (which is also the New York state motto). To maintain his taxing workload yet still meet deadlines, he used a system that was used previously by various comic book studios, but due to Lee's success with it, is now known as the "Marvel method" or "Marvel style" of comic book creation. Typically, Lee would first brainstorm a story with the artist and then prepare a brief synopsis rather than a full script. Based on the synopsis, the artist would then fill the alloted number of pages by determining and drawing the panel-to-panel storytelling. After the artist turned in penciled pages, Lee would write the word balloons and captions, and then oversee the lettering and colouring. In effect the artists were co-writers, whose first drafts Lee built upon.

Related Topics:
1960s - New York - Marvel method - Word balloons - Captions

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Because of this system, the exact division of creative credits on Lee's comics is still disputed, especially in the cases of comics drawn by Kirby and Ditko. Although Lee has always effusively praised these artists, some observers argue that their contribution was greater than they are given credit for. The dispute with Ditko over Spider-Man has sometimes been especially acrimonious.

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In 1971, Lee indirectly reformed the Comics Code. The US Department of Health, Education and Welfare asked Lee to write a story about the dangers of drugs and Lee wrote a story in which Spider-Man's best friend becomes addicted to pills. The three-part story was slated to be published in Amazing Spider-Man #96-98, but the Comics Code Authority refused it because it depicted drug use; the story context was considered irrelevant. With his publisher's approval, Marvel published the comics without the CCA 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.

Related Topics:
1971 - Comics Code - Department of Health, Education and Welfare - Comics Code Authority

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