Quote Originally Posted by Revolutionary_Jack View Post
Stan Lee is more the manager or producer of Van Halen's records. He's Col. Tom Parker or Brian Epstein to Kirby and Ditko's Elvis and the Beatles. The most specific analogy is Malcom McLaren and the Sex Pistols.

David Lee Roth was the lead vocalist of the band whereas in the comics, the equivalent to the lead vocalist would be the character-designs and powers and abilities, which Kirby and Ditko did by themselves. They also designed the art which is the rhythm, bass, drum sections all by themselves. In addition to that they also came up with most of the plots and stories and Lee worked as a script doctor punching up the dialogues in their boxes, had a say in choosing the cover of the comics and maybe the lettering and types. So at best Lee would get a co-credit for songwriting, still sticking with the band analogy. About the only thing he is guaranteed to have contributed to Spider-Man is the hyphen, the name comes from Kirby and Joe Simon, the concept of the hero staying with his Aunt and Uncle from Kirby, the everything else from Ditko.

Andy Warhol produced the first album of The Velvet Underground and Nico. He insisted Nico be the "chanteuse" on the first album even if she didn't contribute anything else. He designed the cover of the first album but otherwise didn't have anything to do with the music and lyrics or content. He lent his celebrity to promote a band and then got out of the way and never took credit for the songs or lyrics.

If Stan Lee had behaved the way Warhol did on that album, he'd be far more respected and held in greater esteem and we would have none of this controversy and most likely Jack Kirby and even Steve Ditko would have continued to stay in Marvel.
I was going for minimal talent, stealing all the limelight while the real artists just did their thing.