I was already reading Fantastic Four and Spider-Man monthly, but my first introduction to Stan the person was the opening bits to the “Marvel Action Hour” he always had such enthusiasm for introducing the episodes and it always made me excited to watch.
I’ll miss you Stan you were my childhood
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minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
edited November 2018
I had never seen that video of Stan talking shit about about Rob Liefeld's feet drawing to his face, and it's so good.
minor incident on
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
If you get the chance you should watch other videos in that series because he’s actually a pretty good host. It’s called The Comic Book Greats. He interviews Liefeld, McFarlane, Jim Lee, Portacio, both Romitas, Bob Lane, and Chris Claremont.
What really hurts is that Stan was the last of the Golden Age guys. Sure, you maybe can count John Romita Sr. in there, but that is stretch, he got his start in 1949 at the tail end of that era.
It really brings home the fact that an important part of history, comics and in general, is fading from living memory. In a decade there won't be a lot of people left that where there.
There are still some alive, though none as big names as Lee, Kirby, Simon or Everett. Al Jaffee is probably the biggest name of the Golden Age artists still alive (he started out at Timely before moving to Mad Magazine, but he never did any of the superhero comics AFAIK).
It was nice he lived long enough to see the Marvel movies take over the world. Millions of people queuing up to see what this Infinity Gauntlet thingy is all about.
amateurhourOne day I'll be professionalhourThe woods somewhere in TennesseeRegistered Userregular
I'm going to miss seeing him pop up in Marvel movies.
I think he was a truly creative person, and like any artist he was always conflicted over the quality of his work.
I remember old interviews where he told people he had a completely different job at parties because it was considered almost blue collar to write comics at one point.
He said something along the lines of "we were originally told not to use words more than a few syllables because the only people that read comics were kids and morons"
I don't bring that up as a negative or anything, it always struck me as poetic because a lot of artists go through a struggle like that.
Friends of mine recall in the 90s when he was working for and against marvel how he'd do these little comic shop openings and just sign whatever you brought in. A Stan Lee autograph used to be the price of whatever comic you bought before X-Men got made.
The ups and downs he went through were really something and I think it's amazing that a war veteran who made millions of people smile and laugh and cry from his work got to see it turned into a billion dollar film franchise that made a whole new generation smile and laugh and cry.
I'm not a big celebrity person. When I go to a convention the last thing I want to do is stand in line for an autograph or pay $100 for a photo.
One of possibly two exceptions I would make would have been for Stan Lee (Mark Hamill is the other). I sadly didn't get the chance.
I don't have a lot more to say that hasn't already been said. I've been prepared for this for a while, but it still hurts.
2 years ago I was at a Con that Stan Lee was at.
I have mixed feelings about it now.
I had seen the videos online of him seemingly drugged or tired or hit with dementia, having people tell him how to spell his name. I knew he didn't stand for photos anymore, and his entire area was completely walled off. You couldn't see him at all. Through a small flap I saw his shirt. It wasn't like other guests at the Con - there were handlers and managers and everything seemed so...not like Stan Lee.
I had decided that his handlers, like the stories we all heard, had taken over and I shouldnt shell out the $100 to meet him because it was going to those assholes, and I didn't want him to not be "Stan" anymore. I didn't want it to be sad.
Well, by all accounts I was an idiot because he was 100% still Stan when it came to interacting with fans. Every photo I saw was a huge smile. The panel was great.
I really wish I met him that day, but I'm also glad that the people who were abusing him didnt get my money.
I ordered another copy of "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" today. I know my old, super worn down one is at my parents somewhere on a shelf. But especially now I feel like it's something I want to pass on some day, and when that day comes I want a copy here. It inspired me so much as a kid and drawing was a huge creative outlet for me.
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PSN: mxmarks - WiiU: mxmarks - twitter: @ MikesPS4 - twitch.tv/mxmarks - "Yes, mxmarks is the King of Queens" - Unbreakable Vow
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AtomikaLive fast and get fucked or whateverRegistered Userregular
edited November 2018
I was a Marvel kid growing up; thinking back on it, it’s kinda weird that I was—I grew up in the late 80s, and DC was King Shit back then thanks to big hits in print like The Killing Joke, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and The Dark Knight Returns, not to mention the hugely popular Superman and Batman movies. I always loved movies, and the Keaton/Burton films will always hold a huge place in my nostalgic little heart (as will the incomparable BTAS tv show that spun out of it).
So it may seem a little peculiar that Marvel meant so much more to me in my formative years, but looking back on it now it makes more sense. I always had offbeat tastes, but more than that I was a queer and creative kid without any real tools to understand or express who I was, and my parents were extremely abusive. My escapism wasn’t going to be found in Batman’s seedy crime world or in Superman’s invincible white knight gallantry; I needed to see heroes overcoming things that weren’t external and depersonalized. I needed Peter Parker. I needed Hank McCoy. I needed Rogue. I needed to know you can still have hope in a world that knocks you on your ass for just being who you are, and real heroism is getting up, moving forward, and not letting the hate of others define your own identity and erase what makes you good.
I always loved drawing, but the first time I can remember wanting to have a job in comics was after reading Stan Lee’s Bullpen Notes in the back of old issues. I never imagined you could be around a whole room full of people who loved comics and telling stories and not only was it okay to spend all day talking about Spider-Man and the X-Men, but you got paid for it! It seemed impossible, but there it was, one big room with John Romita and Joe Kubert and Chris Claremont and John Byrne and Marv Wolfman, in an office where Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko once created the world’s greatest characters. And that’s where I wanted to be: the house that Stan built.
I wrote Stan a letter telling him how much I liked Marvel and how I wanted to work there in his magical bullpen office when I grew up. He never responded, but later I realized I was responding to a Bullpen Bulletin in an issue of Howard the Duck* that was nearly 15 years old by the time I came into possession of it. Ah well. It still gave me hope in a rough time, and 20 years later I still have those lovely daydreams.
The best explanation I ever read was DC is for kids and Marvel is for teenagers. DC always had larger than life heroes who even if they had flaws were paragons. Marvel always approached their heroes are flawed people first and heroes second. It was Stan Lee and his team picking up on the counterculture of the 60s and using superheroes as an analogy for alienation of various types that set them apart.
I'm not a big celebrity person. When I go to a convention the last thing I want to do is stand in line for an autograph or pay $100 for a photo.
One of possibly two exceptions I would make would have been for Stan Lee (Mark Hamill is the other). I sadly didn't get the chance.
I don't have a lot more to say that hasn't already been said. I've been prepared for this for a while, but it still hurts.
2 years ago I was at a Con that Stan Lee was at.
I have mixed feelings about it now.
I had seen the videos online of him seemingly drugged or tired or hit with dementia, having people tell him how to spell his name. I knew he didn't stand for photos anymore, and his entire area was completely walled off. You couldn't see him at all. Through a small flap I saw his shirt. It wasn't like other guests at the Con - there were handlers and managers and everything seemed so...not like Stan Lee.
I had decided that his handlers, like the stories we all heard, had taken over and I shouldnt shell out the $100 to meet him because it was going to those assholes, and I didn't want him to not be "Stan" anymore. I didn't want it to be sad.
Well, by all accounts I was an idiot because he was 100% still Stan when it came to interacting with fans. Every photo I saw was a huge smile. The panel was great.
I really wish I met him that day, but I'm also glad that the people who were abusing him didnt get my money.
I ordered another copy of "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" today. I know my old, super worn down one is at my parents somewhere on a shelf. But especially now I feel like it's something I want to pass on some day, and when that day comes I want a copy here. It inspired me so much as a kid and drawing was a huge creative outlet for me.
I went to Denver Comic Con a few years ago and was lucky enough to get to stand in line and pay for an autograph. You didn't get much time to speak with him but he wasn't walled off or anything, it was pretty easy to see him interacting with fans and he was smiling and gracious the entire time. I told him I appreciated everything he had done and thanked him and it had meant a lot in my life and he smiled and signed my Spider-Man poster.
I didn't pay extra for the genuine confirmation of a real signature certificate thing because I was there so I know it's real and I don't plan to get rid of it or anything. It was expensive and didn't last long at all but I am still really glad I got to meet him, if only for a few moments.
MrVyngaardLive From New EtoileStraight Outta SosariaRegistered Userregular
"now I've got this mental image of caucuses as cafeteria tables in prison, and new congressmen having to beat someone up on inauguration day." - Raiden333
The thing that blows me away about Stan Lee, and the other creators of that era, is the fact that it seems like his creations will never be equalled or surpassed. With few exceptions (like Wolverine), the most iconic and popular characters in the superhero genre all come from the same era and continue to stay popular and relevant. And it seems plausible to me that that things might stay that way indefinitely. For example, I can't conceive of a future where there are no more new Spider-Man comics, or that the character fades from the comic zeitgeist.
How many other people in history can claim to have had such a long lasting and positive impact? Not many I would suspect.
Toxic ToysAre you really taking my advice?Really?Registered Userregular
I was at a Comic Con to get 2 paperback copies of Masterworks Vol. 1: ASM signed my Stan about 6 or 7 years ago, one of me and 1 for my brother-in-law. After a very long wait, the handlers told me to keep it quick as Stan wanted to get through every one who stood in line. I know there was a few hundred people behind me and at least a hundred that went before me.
He was very nice when I got to see him. He thanked me for waiting for him, looked at my books and said that these are some great choices. I told him it how those old stories are still pretty awesome even now. He looked up at me and said, "I know they are still awesome, I wrote them."
3DS code: 2938-6074-2306, Nintendo Network ID: ToxicToys, PSN: zutto
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minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
The thing that blows me away about Stan Lee, and the other creators of that era, is the fact that it seems like his creations will never be equalled or surpassed. With few exceptions (like Wolverine), the most iconic and popular characters in the superhero genre all come from the same era and continue to stay popular and relevant. And it seems plausible to me that that things might stay that way indefinitely. For example, I can't conceive of a future where there are no more new Spider-Man comics, or that the character fades from the comic zeitgeist.
How many other people in history can claim to have had such a long lasting and positive impact? Not many I would suspect.
I think a lot of creators miss the mark, but there are definitely people that take the humanity-first approach to character building that Stan championed. Probably my favorite comic book character right now is Ms. Marvel. And that's largely because she's the first character in a long time to really capture the essence of what Stan created with Spider-Man. Just a kid, in over her head, with real life knocking at the door while she's trying to do the best she can for her friends and family, and for her city. (See also: the bulk of Claremont's creations)
I think, as long as there are creators who really understand the importance of the humanity that someone like Stan Lee imbued his characters with (rather than the superficial trappings) he'll always have an ongoing legacy in the industry. And at the end of the day, if some lonely kid somewhere can find something to identify with in Kamala Khan the same way I was able to with Peter Parker when I was a kid, then I choose to believe that Stan would be happy with a legacy like that.
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
Like many people, I knew this day would come. Often dreaded it in the back of my mind whenever I saw one of Lee's cameo's in the latest marvel movie. I often wondered what I'd say when the time came, and now that it has I find myself strangely at a loss for words. Like many, Stan had a tremendous impact on my childhood. I still fondly remember pouring over the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe issues way back in the early 80's, exploring the mythology of the characters and the ways they intertwined.
I don't know if I could adequately express what I'm feeling right now, so I'll just say rest in peace Stan, and thank you. I will miss you.
I had never seen that video of Stan talking about about Rob Liefeld's feet drawing to his face, and it's so good.
Yeah it’s so fucking good, that video is legendary
I like how even while making fun of them, he's actually giving them real and valuable advice about making better characters, better comics, and better stories.
"You need to have a story behind all this paraphrenalia"
"Who is he when he takes off the armor"
"You don't show them getting dressed very much, it would take an hour! Other than the women, you show them getting dressed quite a lot..."
"How do you make these value judgements, why three rocket launchers and not four?"
"How does he carry this armor, does he have a gravity modifying power?"
All of their comments are about adding pointless stuff. Lets throw on some wires. Lets make him bigger. And so on. All of his comments point back to story and the world, and how the character will live in it. Thats why his characters are remembered for decades.
I had never seen that video of Stan talking about about Rob Liefeld's feet drawing to his face, and it's so good.
Yeah it’s so fucking good, that video is legendary
I like how even while making fun of them, he's actually giving them real and valuable advice about making better characters, better comics, and better stories.
"You need to have a story behind all this paraphrenalia"
"Who is he when he takes off the armor"
"You don't show them getting dressed very much, it would take an hour! Other than the women, you show them getting dressed quite a lot..."
"How do you make these value judgements, why three rocket launchers and not four?"
"How does he carry this armor, does he have a gravity modifying power?"
All of their comments are about adding pointless stuff. Lets throw on some wires. Lets make him bigger. And so on. All of his comments point back to story and the world, and how the character will live in it. Thats why his characters are remembered for decades.
I had never seen that video of Stan talking about about Rob Liefeld's feet drawing to his face, and it's so good.
Yeah it’s so fucking good, that video is legendary
I like how even while making fun of them, he's actually giving them real and valuable advice about making better characters, better comics, and better stories.
"You need to have a story behind all this paraphrenalia"
"Who is he when he takes off the armor"
"You don't show them getting dressed very much, it would take an hour! Other than the women, you show them getting dressed quite a lot..."
"How do you make these value judgements, why three rocket launchers and not four?"
"How does he carry this armor, does he have a gravity modifying power?"
All of their comments are about adding pointless stuff. Lets throw on some wires. Lets make him bigger. And so on. All of his comments point back to story and the world, and how the character will live in it. Thats why his characters are remembered for decades.
"tighten up those feet"
I about died
Well yes, sometimes you just need to tell people to learn to draw feet! I can't do it either, but also, I'm not a professional artist.
Stan Lee’s True Legacy Is a Complicated Cosmic Mystery
Marvel’s greatest showman was always misunderstood—by those who inflated his importance, and those who dismissed him as a boastful egomaniac.
...The auspicious branding made Lee his own pop-culture caricature long before he began his string of Marvel movie cameos. In the public eye, Lee, who died Monday at age 95, was generally perceived as the creator of Marvel’s best-known characters, the man who wrote the first decade’s worth of their adventures—injecting wild inventiveness and human depth into the stodgy old superhero genre. That’s not wrong in every way, but it’s definitely not correct. Lee’s work in his golden decade of 1961-1971 really was brilliant and groundbreaking—just not quite in the ways most people think.
But of all the characters with whom Lee is associated, his greatest—and the only one he created entirely on his own—was “Stan Lee”: an egomaniac who thought it was funny to pretend he was an egomaniac, a carnival barker who actually does have something great behind the curtain. Artist John Romita, who worked with Lee on Daredevil and Spider-Man, put it nicely in a 1998 interview: “He’s a con man, but he did deliver.”...
...Lee’s work with Marvel’s artists was unusually lopsided, as comics go, thanks to the “Marvel Method” that became his standard practice. Instead of writing panel-by-panel scripts for artists to draw, he turned the work of pacing and staging, and often plotting, over to his collaborators. Sometimes he’d jump up on his desk to act out a scenario he’d envisioned; sometimes he’d simply offer a suggestion of who might appear in the next issue. Both Ditko and Kirby eventually drew stories and handed them in with little or no prior input from Lee. After a story was drawn or at least penciled, he’d add text, sometimes elaborating on notes supplied by artists. As far as he was concerned, that was the “writing” part.
He didn’t pretend otherwise, either. A 1966 “Bullpen Bulletins” page explains: “Many of our merry Marvel artists are also talented story men in their own right! For example, all Stan has to do with the pros like JACK ‘KING’ KIRBY, dazzling DON HECK, and darlin’ DICK AYERS is give them the germ of an idea, and they make up all the details as they go along, drawing and plotting out the story. Then, our leader simply takes the finished drawings and adds all the dialogue and captions!”
It’s clear that Lee did something very important; it’s less clear what that thing was, exactly. First of all, and maybe most, he was a brilliant editor and talent scout; nearly all of the artists who worked with him more than briefly in the 1960s did the best work of their careers with him, even veterans like Kirby and Romita. And for all the credit Lee gave himself, he also made sure his collaborators got their names in lights. The credits that appeared in Marvel’s comics didn’t just list names and jobs—they called attention to themselves with little comedy routines:
Script: STAN LEE, D.H. (Doctor of Hulkishness)
Layouts: JACK KIRBY, M.H. (Master of Hulkability)
Art: BILL EVERETT, B.H. (Bachelor of Hulkosity)
Lettering: ARTIE SIMEK, P.H. (The Pride of Hulkdom)
those are just a couple of quotes from it. Its worth reading the whole thing.
DC is about gods trying to act like people, and Marvel is about people trying to act like gods.
It was like that for a long, long time but through the decades the two are more alike in those respects than not. One difference which did stay between the companies was that DC had a conservative feel to it, while Marvel had a liberal bent.
DC is about gods trying to act like people, and Marvel is about people trying to act like gods.
It was like that for a long, long time but through the decades the two are more alike in those respects than not. One difference which did stay between the companies was that DC had a conservative feel to it, while Marvel had a liberal bent.
well except for Green Arrow and Aquaman and Jon Stewart and Hawkman and Superman and
DC is about gods trying to act like people, and Marvel is about people trying to act like gods.
It was like that for a long, long time but through the decades the two are more alike in those respects than not. One difference which did stay between the companies was that DC had a conservative feel to it, while Marvel had a liberal bent.
well except for Green Arrow and Aquaman and Jon Stewart and Hawkman and Superman and
Green Arrow hasn't always been a super liberal guy, Aquaman is royalty and he's not usually defined by protecting the oceans (that's kind of Namor's niche), Hawkman is occasionally a creeper and essentially Conan the Barbarian with wings, Superman is the symbol of the status quo, Jon Stewart's been ignored for years over Hal Jordan/Cyborg etc.
The thing that blows me away about Stan Lee, and the other creators of that era, is the fact that it seems like his creations will never be equalled or surpassed. With few exceptions (like Wolverine), the most iconic and popular characters in the superhero genre all come from the same era and continue to stay popular and relevant. And it seems plausible to me that that things might stay that way indefinitely. For example, I can't conceive of a future where there are no more new Spider-Man comics, or that the character fades from the comic zeitgeist.
How many other people in history can claim to have had such a long lasting and positive impact? Not many I would suspect.
I don't really buy into the never equallled or surpassed thing, but it is going to be a long while.
The crowd is too big, and the established characters are too set in stone that it is lot harder to make a new character and make them stick.
It's kind of odd, that so many of our pop culture icons, are from the 60s and 70s, if not from the 40s.
The thing that blows me away about Stan Lee, and the other creators of that era, is the fact that it seems like his creations will never be equalled or surpassed. With few exceptions (like Wolverine), the most iconic and popular characters in the superhero genre all come from the same era and continue to stay popular and relevant. And it seems plausible to me that that things might stay that way indefinitely. For example, I can't conceive of a future where there are no more new Spider-Man comics, or that the character fades from the comic zeitgeist.
How many other people in history can claim to have had such a long lasting and positive impact? Not many I would suspect.
I don't really buy into the never equallled or surpassed thing, but it is going to be a long while.
The crowd is too big, and the established characters are too set in stone that it is lot harder to make a new character and make them stick.
It's kind of odd, that so many of our pop culture icons, are from the 60s and 70s, if not from the 40s.
It's the closest things we have to legends
we're a new country and while we do have some myths (Paul Bunyan, John Henry, and etc.), we don't have the history of (thinking off the top of my head) Robin Hood, King Arthur, and the like. Superheroes are ours
The thing that blows me away about Stan Lee, and the other creators of that era, is the fact that it seems like his creations will never be equalled or surpassed. With few exceptions (like Wolverine), the most iconic and popular characters in the superhero genre all come from the same era and continue to stay popular and relevant. And it seems plausible to me that that things might stay that way indefinitely. For example, I can't conceive of a future where there are no more new Spider-Man comics, or that the character fades from the comic zeitgeist.
How many other people in history can claim to have had such a long lasting and positive impact? Not many I would suspect.
I don't really buy into the never equallled or surpassed thing, but it is going to be a long while.
The crowd is too big, and the established characters are too set in stone that it is lot harder to make a new character and make them stick.
It's kind of odd, that so many of our pop culture icons, are from the 60s and 70s, if not from the 40s.
It's not that weird really if you think about the rise of mass media around that time. And also the control of creative output by large corporations.
The thing that blows me away about Stan Lee, and the other creators of that era, is the fact that it seems like his creations will never be equalled or surpassed. With few exceptions (like Wolverine), the most iconic and popular characters in the superhero genre all come from the same era and continue to stay popular and relevant. And it seems plausible to me that that things might stay that way indefinitely. For example, I can't conceive of a future where there are no more new Spider-Man comics, or that the character fades from the comic zeitgeist.
How many other people in history can claim to have had such a long lasting and positive impact? Not many I would suspect.
I don't really buy into the never equallled or surpassed thing, but it is going to be a long while.
The crowd is too big, and the established characters are too set in stone that it is lot harder to make a new character and make them stick.
It's kind of odd, that so many of our pop culture icons, are from the 60s and 70s, if not from the 40s.
It's not that weird really if you think about the rise of mass media around that time. And also the control of creative output by large corporations.
And nothing going into public domain.
Yes, i know why things are as they are, it just feels weird, that my little sisters kids, are reading stories of (or playing games with) the same heroes i read as a kid when at my grandparents.
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
This is too beautiful to not share in as many places as possible. An assistant or someone working for Stan Lee / his estate has control of his Twitter account and they shared this.
The thing that blows me away about Stan Lee, and the other creators of that era, is the fact that it seems like his creations will never be equalled or surpassed. With few exceptions (like Wolverine), the most iconic and popular characters in the superhero genre all come from the same era and continue to stay popular and relevant. And it seems plausible to me that that things might stay that way indefinitely. For example, I can't conceive of a future where there are no more new Spider-Man comics, or that the character fades from the comic zeitgeist.
How many other people in history can claim to have had such a long lasting and positive impact? Not many I would suspect.
I don't really buy into the never equallled or surpassed thing, but it is going to be a long while.
The crowd is too big, and the established characters are too set in stone that it is lot harder to make a new character and make them stick.
It's kind of odd, that so many of our pop culture icons, are from the 60s and 70s, if not from the 40s.
It's the closest things we have to legends
we're a new country and while we do have some myths (Paul Bunyan, John Henry, and etc.), we don't have the history of (thinking off the top of my head) Robin Hood, King Arthur, and the like. Superheroes are ours
Dude i really like that. I'm going to use that in discussions for sure.
Excellent point.
This is too beautiful to not share in as many places as possible. An assistant or someone working for Stan Lee / his estate has control of his Twitter account and they shared this.
I was down at the comic shop yesterday picking up a few things, and I overheard the following that made me grin a bit:
"...given the state of the world, I imagine God sacked his head writer and was looking for someone to pull us out of this spiral- and who better than Stan?"
There's never going to be another one like him. He single-handedly saved American comics with Marvel, giving DC some much-needed competition to keep both of them sharp, and he loved every single second of the journey. He loved his job, and I imagine, every time someone cracks open a fresh comic, or another wide-eyed fan takes those first steps into those stories, and reads about the creation of the X-Men, or the time Peter Parker got that spider-bite, he'll be patting them on the shoulder, and whispering "Welcome to the fold, True Believer."
I can has cheezburger, yes?
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ShadowenSnores in the morningLoserdomRegistered Userregular
Posts
I’ll miss you Stan you were my childhood
Yeah it’s so fucking good, that video is legendary
There are still some alive, though none as big names as Lee, Kirby, Simon or Everett. Al Jaffee is probably the biggest name of the Golden Age artists still alive (he started out at Timely before moving to Mad Magazine, but he never did any of the superhero comics AFAIK).
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
I think he was a truly creative person, and like any artist he was always conflicted over the quality of his work.
I remember old interviews where he told people he had a completely different job at parties because it was considered almost blue collar to write comics at one point.
He said something along the lines of "we were originally told not to use words more than a few syllables because the only people that read comics were kids and morons"
I don't bring that up as a negative or anything, it always struck me as poetic because a lot of artists go through a struggle like that.
Friends of mine recall in the 90s when he was working for and against marvel how he'd do these little comic shop openings and just sign whatever you brought in. A Stan Lee autograph used to be the price of whatever comic you bought before X-Men got made.
The ups and downs he went through were really something and I think it's amazing that a war veteran who made millions of people smile and laugh and cry from his work got to see it turned into a billion dollar film franchise that made a whole new generation smile and laugh and cry.
I hope wherever he is he's writing something new.
2 years ago I was at a Con that Stan Lee was at.
I have mixed feelings about it now.
I had seen the videos online of him seemingly drugged or tired or hit with dementia, having people tell him how to spell his name. I knew he didn't stand for photos anymore, and his entire area was completely walled off. You couldn't see him at all. Through a small flap I saw his shirt. It wasn't like other guests at the Con - there were handlers and managers and everything seemed so...not like Stan Lee.
I had decided that his handlers, like the stories we all heard, had taken over and I shouldnt shell out the $100 to meet him because it was going to those assholes, and I didn't want him to not be "Stan" anymore. I didn't want it to be sad.
Well, by all accounts I was an idiot because he was 100% still Stan when it came to interacting with fans. Every photo I saw was a huge smile. The panel was great.
I really wish I met him that day, but I'm also glad that the people who were abusing him didnt get my money.
I ordered another copy of "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" today. I know my old, super worn down one is at my parents somewhere on a shelf. But especially now I feel like it's something I want to pass on some day, and when that day comes I want a copy here. It inspired me so much as a kid and drawing was a huge creative outlet for me.
So it may seem a little peculiar that Marvel meant so much more to me in my formative years, but looking back on it now it makes more sense. I always had offbeat tastes, but more than that I was a queer and creative kid without any real tools to understand or express who I was, and my parents were extremely abusive. My escapism wasn’t going to be found in Batman’s seedy crime world or in Superman’s invincible white knight gallantry; I needed to see heroes overcoming things that weren’t external and depersonalized. I needed Peter Parker. I needed Hank McCoy. I needed Rogue. I needed to know you can still have hope in a world that knocks you on your ass for just being who you are, and real heroism is getting up, moving forward, and not letting the hate of others define your own identity and erase what makes you good.
I always loved drawing, but the first time I can remember wanting to have a job in comics was after reading Stan Lee’s Bullpen Notes in the back of old issues. I never imagined you could be around a whole room full of people who loved comics and telling stories and not only was it okay to spend all day talking about Spider-Man and the X-Men, but you got paid for it! It seemed impossible, but there it was, one big room with John Romita and Joe Kubert and Chris Claremont and John Byrne and Marv Wolfman, in an office where Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko once created the world’s greatest characters. And that’s where I wanted to be: the house that Stan built.
I wrote Stan a letter telling him how much I liked Marvel and how I wanted to work there in his magical bullpen office when I grew up. He never responded, but later I realized I was responding to a Bullpen Bulletin in an issue of Howard the Duck* that was nearly 15 years old by the time I came into possession of it. Ah well. It still gave me hope in a rough time, and 20 years later I still have those lovely daydreams.
*like I said, I was a weird kid
I went to Denver Comic Con a few years ago and was lucky enough to get to stand in line and pay for an autograph. You didn't get much time to speak with him but he wasn't walled off or anything, it was pretty easy to see him interacting with fans and he was smiling and gracious the entire time. I told him I appreciated everything he had done and thanked him and it had meant a lot in my life and he smiled and signed my Spider-Man poster.
I didn't pay extra for the genuine confirmation of a real signature certificate thing because I was there so I know it's real and I don't plan to get rid of it or anything. It was expensive and didn't last long at all but I am still really glad I got to meet him, if only for a few moments.
junchiu.tumblr.com/
How many other people in history can claim to have had such a long lasting and positive impact? Not many I would suspect.
He was very nice when I got to see him. He thanked me for waiting for him, looked at my books and said that these are some great choices. I told him it how those old stories are still pretty awesome even now. He looked up at me and said, "I know they are still awesome, I wrote them."
I think a lot of creators miss the mark, but there are definitely people that take the humanity-first approach to character building that Stan championed. Probably my favorite comic book character right now is Ms. Marvel. And that's largely because she's the first character in a long time to really capture the essence of what Stan created with Spider-Man. Just a kid, in over her head, with real life knocking at the door while she's trying to do the best she can for her friends and family, and for her city. (See also: the bulk of Claremont's creations)
I think, as long as there are creators who really understand the importance of the humanity that someone like Stan Lee imbued his characters with (rather than the superficial trappings) he'll always have an ongoing legacy in the industry. And at the end of the day, if some lonely kid somewhere can find something to identify with in Kamala Khan the same way I was able to with Peter Parker when I was a kid, then I choose to believe that Stan would be happy with a legacy like that.
I don't know if I could adequately express what I'm feeling right now, so I'll just say rest in peace Stan, and thank you. I will miss you.
[drawing a character with three fist cannons] "What makes you make those value judgements? Why only three; he's got four knuckles?"
savage
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
I like how even while making fun of them, he's actually giving them real and valuable advice about making better characters, better comics, and better stories.
"You need to have a story behind all this paraphrenalia"
"Who is he when he takes off the armor"
"You don't show them getting dressed very much, it would take an hour! Other than the women, you show them getting dressed quite a lot..."
"How do you make these value judgements, why three rocket launchers and not four?"
"How does he carry this armor, does he have a gravity modifying power?"
All of their comments are about adding pointless stuff. Lets throw on some wires. Lets make him bigger. And so on. All of his comments point back to story and the world, and how the character will live in it. Thats why his characters are remembered for decades.
"tighten up those feet"
I about died
Well yes, sometimes you just need to tell people to learn to draw feet! I can't do it either, but also, I'm not a professional artist.
I’m gonna choose to read that as the other half already being there.
those are just a couple of quotes from it. Its worth reading the whole thing.
It was like that for a long, long time but through the decades the two are more alike in those respects than not. One difference which did stay between the companies was that DC had a conservative feel to it, while Marvel had a liberal bent.
well except for Green Arrow and Aquaman and Jon Stewart and Hawkman and Superman and
Green Arrow hasn't always been a super liberal guy, Aquaman is royalty and he's not usually defined by protecting the oceans (that's kind of Namor's niche), Hawkman is occasionally a creeper and essentially Conan the Barbarian with wings, Superman is the symbol of the status quo, Jon Stewart's been ignored for years over Hal Jordan/Cyborg etc.
The crowd is too big, and the established characters are too set in stone that it is lot harder to make a new character and make them stick.
It's kind of odd, that so many of our pop culture icons, are from the 60s and 70s, if not from the 40s.
It's the closest things we have to legends
we're a new country and while we do have some myths (Paul Bunyan, John Henry, and etc.), we don't have the history of (thinking off the top of my head) Robin Hood, King Arthur, and the like. Superheroes are ours
It's not that weird really if you think about the rise of mass media around that time. And also the control of creative output by large corporations.
Yes, i know why things are as they are, it just feels weird, that my little sisters kids, are reading stories of (or playing games with) the same heroes i read as a kid when at my grandparents.
Dude i really like that. I'm going to use that in discussions for sure.
Excellent point.
I just saw this and had it copied to share here.
"...given the state of the world, I imagine God sacked his head writer and was looking for someone to pull us out of this spiral- and who better than Stan?"
There's never going to be another one like him. He single-handedly saved American comics with Marvel, giving DC some much-needed competition to keep both of them sharp, and he loved every single second of the journey. He loved his job, and I imagine, every time someone cracks open a fresh comic, or another wide-eyed fan takes those first steps into those stories, and reads about the creation of the X-Men, or the time Peter Parker got that spider-bite, he'll be patting them on the shoulder, and whispering "Welcome to the fold, True Believer."
I can has cheezburger, yes?