Our local comic store owner has kind of a lot of history in the industry, including getting into the comics field at least in part to his early run ins with Stan Lee and doing some press work with him. He posted this today.
Stepping outside the sphere of those two particular creators, it's also important to note that under Lee as editor, every issue of a Marvel comic credited the entire creative team, including the inker, letterer, and colorist. This was not standard practice in the industry, especially for those last three positions, and DC didn't start crediting writers and artists until nearly a decade later.
I wanted to single this out on a new page because this is something I didn't really know, but definitely noticed when I was a kid
I remember reading comics where equal credit was given to the writer, artist, inker, letterer, and colorist, their names would all exactly the same size, no one bigger than anyone else. Stan would give them all funny alliterative nicknames or absurd titles, and I would actually remember the names of those people, like Artie Simek and Sam Rosen
RankenphilePassersby were amazedby the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderatormod
I remember a couple years ago, watching one of the Marvel movies in the theater, and being struck by the sudden realization that some day I'd get the news that Stan Lee had died.
This was a tough one for me. I know there were some issues in his past, around product and IP ownership and stuff, but to my knowledge the good he did greatly outweighed the bad, which is as much as any of us could have ever hoped for. The guy left behind one of the most incredible and impactful legacies in pop culture. He was on the ground floor for inventing an entire pantheon of popular culture godhood, and was often a vocal proponent of social justice through his medium and empire.
The other side of Marvel being a bad actor in an industry full of bad actors when it came to creator compensation is that it ended up hurting Stan badly, as well. The reason why he would do anything for a buck after leaving the company is that he wasn't getting a fair share of the company's profits, either.
It's one area where DC and Warners need to step in, forcefully. The comics writers and artists are creating IP worth tens of millions for major corporations now. The era when the majority of them would end up impoverished,eaten up by medical debts, and hoping for a few bucks from a con table in their old age should be ending.
A: I don't think there could be a more complicated subject to tackle in a single column than this one, because as an industry and as an art form, I think we all have a lot of complicated feelings about Stan Lee. Depending on who you ask, when you ask them and what he's been up to lately, he's a conniving credit-stealer, a shameless self-promotion machine, a "driven little man who dreams of having it all!!!" and got it by coasting on the hard work of others, or he's a charismatic innovator who got put into that spotlight because he's a natural showman, a smiling ambassador of the medium and everybody's friendly comics grandpa. And it's further complicated because you can't really talk about him without talking about collaborators like Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, either.
That's what makes him hard to talk about, even if you've spent nearly your entire life being aware of him. There's just so much to get through that's filtered through so many angles, and as a result, I genuinely think that he's simultaneously the most overrated and underrated creator of all time.
Let's start with this: I say that he's underrated because it is almost impossible to overstate his contributions to the medium. There's a huge segment of die-hard fans and creators that fall all over themselves to minimize his contributions in favor of glorifying Kirby, and it's easy to see why: It's literally impossible to overstate Kirby's contributions, and he's the one who never got the attention that Lee's been reveling in for the past fifty years. But to claim that Lee wasn't a vital ingredient in those early years of Marvel, or that he didn't have value as a figurehead for the company well after he finally handed Amazing Spider-Man off to Gerry Conway is a disservice to both men, and it's something history doesn't really support. I mean, don't get me wrong, you're an absolute lunatic if you don't think Kirby was doing the vast majority of the work in their partnership, but still, it's not quite as one-sided for either man as some folks would have you believe.
This seems a good time to recommend "Marvel Comics - The Untold Story", it's a really good history of Marvel that does get into the not-great stuff that happened over the years. It's a pretty great read.
I just realized that I'd always kind of assumed I'd get to meet him at a convention or something
Fuck, man, now it hurts
I had the chance to a few years ago. But it was like $50 just to meet him and another $30 for an autograph and guys in line had stacks of books for him to sign so...I got a churro instead.
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Someone in control of Stan Lee's Twitter account shared this video. They were just kinda shooting the shit while setting up for the actual thing they were intending to film, and Stan started talking about his fans and shut up I'm not crying.
Posts
It was part of his charm
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
He posted this today.
You're extremely missing the forest for the trees, y'all
I wanted to single this out on a new page because this is something I didn't really know, but definitely noticed when I was a kid
I remember reading comics where equal credit was given to the writer, artist, inker, letterer, and colorist, their names would all exactly the same size, no one bigger than anyone else. Stan would give them all funny alliterative nicknames or absurd titles, and I would actually remember the names of those people, like Artie Simek and Sam Rosen
That ain't nothin'
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
This was a tough one for me. I know there were some issues in his past, around product and IP ownership and stuff, but to my knowledge the good he did greatly outweighed the bad, which is as much as any of us could have ever hoped for. The guy left behind one of the most incredible and impactful legacies in pop culture. He was on the ground floor for inventing an entire pantheon of popular culture godhood, and was often a vocal proponent of social justice through his medium and empire.
You had a good run, Stan. Get some rest.
It's one area where DC and Warners need to step in, forcefully. The comics writers and artists are creating IP worth tens of millions for major corporations now. The era when the majority of them would end up impoverished,eaten up by medical debts, and hoping for a few bucks from a con table in their old age should be ending.
http://comicsalliance.com/stan-lee-legacy-jack-kirby-steve-ditko-marvel-history/
RIP Stan :S
I had the chance to a few years ago. But it was like $50 just to meet him and another $30 for an autograph and guys in line had stacks of books for him to sign so...I got a churro instead.
I know he was 95 but everytime I saw him he was specifically made up and looking more mid 70's.
I thought he was maybe 65.