- Sep 26, 2000
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Stan, The Man Behind The Heroes
If a real superhero stands atop the comic industry, he's Stan Lee.
Lee -- whose original name was Stanley Lieber -- leapt far to become the boss of Marvel Comics (NYSE:MVL - News).
He started out at the publisher as a general assistant in 1940, just before his 18th birthday.
When he was asked to compose his first comic book script the following year, Lieber used the pseudonym to protect his identity. Comic books weren't respectable -- for a long time he told people he was a commercial artist -- and he wanted to save his real name for the Great American Novel he planned to write, he recalled in "Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee," co-authored with George Mair.
A dispute with the company owner caused the main writer and artist to leave later that year, so Lee was in charge until a replacement could be found.
One never was, and Lee went on to became such a legend in comics, he eventually felt compelled to change his legal name.
Stacking Them Up
As editor and publisher at Marvel, Lee co-developed characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men, the Hulk, the Silver Surfer and Daredevil with his table of artists, helping sell more than 2 billion comic books.
Lee, 86, continues to write the Spider-Man comic strip seven days a week, and it's syndicated in 500 newspapers.
Movies based on his characters have grossed $6 billion worldwide, with more to come. The Atlantic Monthly in 2007 ranked Lee as the 26th most influential living American, ahead of Bill Clinton and Martha Stewart in global impact.
"Lee wasn't just an innovator in terms of how those comics were written -- and their acerbic tone and wink-wink sensibility definitely were innovative -- he understood what the great comic artists like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were doing and how to communicate all of it to other writers and artists in the Marvel stable," Tom Spurgeon, co-author with Jordan Raphael of "Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book," told IBD. "Like Walt Disney, he turned a lightning flash of creativity into a sustained, companywide effort built for the ages, a way of combining dynamic action with attention to character and theme that makes those comics, and now movies, come alive today."
As a child, Lee illustrated his own stories. He was a voracious reader, skipped grades and graduated from high school in New York City at 16.
The owner of what was then called Timely Comics (Marvel was one of its lines) was a distant relative and hired Lee to help the small staff.
Lee left in 1942 to serve three years in the Army Signal Corps. He produced manuals in the form of comic books, which got GIs to read them.
After his return to Marvel, the staff was cranking out 82 different comic books a month in a range of genres, from horror to Westerns.
Lee wrote the copy and in 1961 was named editor. But he tired of simplistic dialogue and predictable plots, to the point where he planned to tell the owner, Martin Goodman, that he was quitting.
Good news changed Lee's mind. Goodman saw how rival National Comics had a team of superheroes jumping its pages, and he wanted the same for Marvel.
Lee shared his delight with his wife, Joan, who responded: "If Martin wants you to create a new group of superheroes, this could be a chance for you to do it the way you've always wanted. You could dream up plots that have more depth and characters who have interesting personalities, who speak like real people. The worst that will happen is that Martin will get mad and fire you, but you want to quit anyway, so what's the risk?"
Lee began scribbling notes about new characters who didn't just have special powers, but also flaws and complicated relationships within offbeat story lines.
The result was the Fantastic Four. As soon as they hit comic stands in November 1961, Marvel saw they had a smash. The company's sales jumped from 7 million copies to 13 million within a year.
By 1972, when Lee became publisher, Marvel was selling 90 million comic books worldwide.
He was a pioneer in writing self-aware, humorous dialogue. His thought balloons showed the hero's internal turmoil, making comics appealing to more than kids, wrote Raphael and Spurgeon.
Lee was quick with praise and even mentioned staffers in the comics, making them stars. No wonder many in the industry wanted to work for him. "He was the best editor in comics history," said John Romita, a Lee illustrator.
Lee said, "I'm willing to call myself co-creator of all the characters I've dreamed up, sharing a grateful world's plaudits with the artists who did me so proud."
Lee moved to Los Angeles in 1980 to stimulate Hollywood's interest in making cartoons, TV series and movies about Marvel characters. The marathon process led to the first "Spider-Man" flick in 2002, and the wait was worth it. The film -- with Lee in a cameo rescuing a girl from the Green Goblin -- grossed $821 million worldwide.
The dough rolled on: 2004's "Spider-Man 2" did $784 million, 2007's "Spider-Man 3" $891 million.
On To TV
Marvel went through several ownership changes and declared bankruptcy in 1996, long after Lee was involved in actual management, although he kept the publisher title.
He later co-founded POW! Entertainment and has been involved in dozens of projects, including a reality series for TV's Sci Fi Channel.
"My father used to say, 'Stan Lee is to comics what Elvis Presley and Col. Tom Parker were to music,'" Ryan Liebowitz, general manager of Golden Apple Comics, a legendary Hollywood store, told IBD. "I agree. Without him, there wouldn't be a modern comic book industry."
the Atlantic Monthly in 2007 ranked Lee as the 26th most influential living American, ahead of Bill Clinton and Martha Stewart in global impact
Stan the Man
Stan, The Man Behind The Heroes
If a real superhero stands atop the comic industry, he's Stan Lee.
Lee -- whose original name was Stanley Lieber -- leapt far to become the boss of Marvel Comics (NYSE:MVL - News).
He started out at the publisher as a general assistant in 1940, just before his 18th birthday.
When he was asked to compose his first comic book script the following year, Lieber used the pseudonym to protect his identity. Comic books weren't respectable -- for a long time he told people he was a commercial artist -- and he wanted to save his real name for the Great American Novel he planned to write, he recalled in "Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee," co-authored with George Mair.
A dispute with the company owner caused the main writer and artist to leave later that year, so Lee was in charge until a replacement could be found.
One never was, and Lee went on to became such a legend in comics, he eventually felt compelled to change his legal name.
Stacking Them Up
As editor and publisher at Marvel, Lee co-developed characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men, the Hulk, the Silver Surfer and Daredevil with his table of artists, helping sell more than 2 billion comic books.
Lee, 86, continues to write the Spider-Man comic strip seven days a week, and it's syndicated in 500 newspapers.
Movies based on his characters have grossed $6 billion worldwide, with more to come. The Atlantic Monthly in 2007 ranked Lee as the 26th most influential living American, ahead of Bill Clinton and Martha Stewart in global impact.
"Lee wasn't just an innovator in terms of how those comics were written -- and their acerbic tone and wink-wink sensibility definitely were innovative -- he understood what the great comic artists like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were doing and how to communicate all of it to other writers and artists in the Marvel stable," Tom Spurgeon, co-author with Jordan Raphael of "Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book," told IBD. "Like Walt Disney, he turned a lightning flash of creativity into a sustained, companywide effort built for the ages, a way of combining dynamic action with attention to character and theme that makes those comics, and now movies, come alive today."
As a child, Lee illustrated his own stories. He was a voracious reader, skipped grades and graduated from high school in New York City at 16.
The owner of what was then called Timely Comics (Marvel was one of its lines) was a distant relative and hired Lee to help the small staff.
Lee left in 1942 to serve three years in the Army Signal Corps. He produced manuals in the form of comic books, which got GIs to read them.
After his return to Marvel, the staff was cranking out 82 different comic books a month in a range of genres, from horror to Westerns.
Lee wrote the copy and in 1961 was named editor. But he tired of simplistic dialogue and predictable plots, to the point where he planned to tell the owner, Martin Goodman, that he was quitting.
Good news changed Lee's mind. Goodman saw how rival National Comics had a team of superheroes jumping its pages, and he wanted the same for Marvel.
Lee shared his delight with his wife, Joan, who responded: "If Martin wants you to create a new group of superheroes, this could be a chance for you to do it the way you've always wanted. You could dream up plots that have more depth and characters who have interesting personalities, who speak like real people. The worst that will happen is that Martin will get mad and fire you, but you want to quit anyway, so what's the risk?"
Lee began scribbling notes about new characters who didn't just have special powers, but also flaws and complicated relationships within offbeat story lines.
The result was the Fantastic Four. As soon as they hit comic stands in November 1961, Marvel saw they had a smash. The company's sales jumped from 7 million copies to 13 million within a year.
By 1972, when Lee became publisher, Marvel was selling 90 million comic books worldwide.
He was a pioneer in writing self-aware, humorous dialogue. His thought balloons showed the hero's internal turmoil, making comics appealing to more than kids, wrote Raphael and Spurgeon.
Lee was quick with praise and even mentioned staffers in the comics, making them stars. No wonder many in the industry wanted to work for him. "He was the best editor in comics history," said John Romita, a Lee illustrator.
Lee said, "I'm willing to call myself co-creator of all the characters I've dreamed up, sharing a grateful world's plaudits with the artists who did me so proud."
Lee moved to Los Angeles in 1980 to stimulate Hollywood's interest in making cartoons, TV series and movies about Marvel characters. The marathon process led to the first "Spider-Man" flick in 2002, and the wait was worth it. The film -- with Lee in a cameo rescuing a girl from the Green Goblin -- grossed $821 million worldwide.
The dough rolled on: 2004's "Spider-Man 2" did $784 million, 2007's "Spider-Man 3" $891 million.
On To TV
Marvel went through several ownership changes and declared bankruptcy in 1996, long after Lee was involved in actual management, although he kept the publisher title.
He later co-founded POW! Entertainment and has been involved in dozens of projects, including a reality series for TV's Sci Fi Channel.
"My father used to say, 'Stan Lee is to comics what Elvis Presley and Col. Tom Parker were to music,'" Ryan Liebowitz, general manager of Golden Apple Comics, a legendary Hollywood store, told IBD. "I agree. Without him, there wouldn't be a modern comic book industry."
the Atlantic Monthly in 2007 ranked Lee as the 26th most influential living American, ahead of Bill Clinton and Martha Stewart in global impact
Stan the Man
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