Larry D. Lieber (center) scripted the first appearances of Thor (Journey Into Mystery #83) and Iron Man (Tales of Suspense #39).
When and What He Did at Timely/Atlas/Marvel: Just about everything—writer, artist, production—from 1941 until the mid-1980s. He also continues to this day to be the artist of the
Spider-Man daily newspaper comic strip, which he began drawing regularly in 1986.
Marvel-ous Accomplishments: Although legend has it that Stan Lee was responsible for scripting all of Marvel’s ground-breaking titles
with Kirby and Ditko doing much of the heavy lifting when it came to story plotting but Lee probably wouldn’t have survived to make it to the next decade if he wrote all those monthly comics along with performing his duties as Marvel’s editor.
That’s where his younger brother, Larry, came in.
Lieber is Stan and Larry’s family name; Stan changed it for his comic book work, hoping to use “Stan Lieber” for that respectable, great American novel that never came to be.
Lieber wrote the first 20th-century appearances of many of Marvel’s 21st-century movie mainstays, such as
Iron Man,
Thor,
Loki and
Ant-Man.
Depending on whose memory you rely on, Lieber scripted these comics either…:
1. from story plots by Lee
2. on his own, only in collaboration with the artists
3. or through some process in the middle.
Whatever the method,
Lieber doesn’t get nearly the credit he should, and his work is overshadowed by Lee’s bombastic—but not malicious—flair for self-promotion.