Stan Lee Appreciation

[ouroboros]

I know, appreciation threads are usually for fictional characters-- but hasn't Stan become a Character in his own right? To his fans, he's Big Daddy Marvel, to his detractors-- well, pretty much the same thing.

I'll be curious to see if posters can only post positive things about Stan here, because he's such a lightning rod for controversy. Of course any member is equally free to start a "Stan Lee Detraction Thread."

I'll start by praising his ability to bring different styles of character-speech into the superhero genre, even though he was writing for young readers and consequently kept most of his material light and "patter"-y.

[gurkle]

One thing I find impressive about him is his ability to get the best work out of his artists. So many people did their best work with him as writer/editor, including seemingly risky choices like Romita on Spider-Man. Even before the superhero era he got some of the best work out of people like Dan DeCarlo (Millie the Model) and Al Hartley (Patsy Walker). One of the signs of a good editor is his ability to deploy artists and put them on the right titles, and he seemed good at this. I know it's a cliche to say this, but I think his greatest contribution to comics is as an editor.

[ouroboros]

Something I wrote in response to the tendency to devalue Lee's pre-Marvel work:
___________

Keep in mind, though, that if you're going to judge Stan only by his pre-Marvel work, Ditko also didn't garner a lot of fan-attention prior to Marvel. If for some reason he'd gafiated from comics up to that point, Ditko would be remembered as no more than a crafter of eccentric horror/SF stories-- and MAYBE for working on Captain Atom. Like Basil Wolverton, Ditko's early work appears all over the place, so he wouldn't benefit in fannish histories from being associated in a strongly edited format, as did the artists of EC. Of course this is no knock against Ditko; he was much younger than both Kirby and Lee. But still, it's impossible for a modern fan to look at his work for DC or Charlton, or his self-published works, without both falling under Marvel's large shadow.

Pre-Marvel Kirby does have more successful series to his credit than Stan Lee does, no question. But it's also hard to see some of that without the "spillover effect," and more, Kirby does not appear to have been a double-threat, able to write and draw the whole product, like Jack Cole. He *seems* to have benefited from the quality control of working for a studio, so it's hard to say who did what. We have Joe Simon's testimony that he provided the basic template for the most popular Simon-Kirby creation, Captain America. Should Kirby get full credit for later successes, like Boy Commandos and Newsboy Legion, or is his creativity also compromised by having input from a partner?

Also, I'm not sure that most Kirby-fans would be interested in many of his lesser ideas if it weren't for the spillover effect. The 1950s series Fighting American is fun, but there were a lot of rather tongue-in-cheek superhero concepts pervading the superhero boom of the 1940s. Is Fighting American really better than Quality's Spirit imitation MIDNIGHT, or does FA get more respect simply because it's wedged between Golden Age Cap and the Marvel Universe in Kirby's career-- and also, because there are no definitive collections of MIDNIGHT?

[Darkspellmaster]

What's really interesting about Stan is that even now he's still working on getting younger talent recognized, and he has managed to keep true to himself after all these years. Not to mention that, at his age, he's damn spry and he is very funny, never taking himself too seriously. I love the fact that he's always trying to come up with new ideas and really does have a love for both Timely and Marvel, and has a lot of respect for National and DC. People still look up to him in the industry.

[Kuwagaton]

Of course any member is equally free to start a "Stan Lee Detraction Thread."

Lol nah, no sense in setting out to rag on a ninety year old man.

Lee is the king of the silver age where I'm concerned. Yes, he did work with many of the best all time artists, but every book he came to, with maybe an exception in X-Men, he brought himself. He is just so evenly distributed in talent when it comes to mining melodrama, humor, epics, and offbeat small stories. His timing was so good, his storytelling was so definite for the era, that it's actually pretty timeless. You can go for his stuff and you know exactly what you're getting, and it's satisfying.

[dzub]

personally i find Stan's ability to make us relate to the characters and vice versa instrumental in Marvel's success.
take some of kirby's works without stan, e.g. the new gods and compare it to his work with stan: the Fantastic Four

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

“In this gorgeously illustrated, full-color graphic memoir, Stan Lee—comic book legend and cocreator of Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, the Incredible Hulk, and a legion of other Marvel superheroes—shares his iconic legacy and the story of how modern comics came to be. Stan Lee is a man who needs no introduction.
The most legendary name in the history of comic books, he has been the leading creative force behind Marvel Comics, and has brought to life—and into the mainstream—some of the world’s best-known heroes and most infamous villains throughout his career. His stories—filled with superheroes struggling with personal hang-ups and bad guys who possessed previously unseen psychological complexity—added wit and subtlety to a field previously locked into flat portrayals of good vs. evil. Lee put the human in superhuman and in doing so, created a new mythology for the twentieth century.
In this beautifully illustrated graphic memoir—illustrated by celebrated artist Colleen Doran—Lee tells the story of his life with the same inimitable wit, energy, and offbeat spirit that he brought to the world of comics.
Moving from his impoverished childhood in Manhattan to his early days writing comics, through his military training films during World War II and the rise of the Marvel empire in the 1960s to the current resurgence in movies, Amazing Fantastic Incredible documents the life of a man and the legacy of an industry and career.”

Colleen Doran;
The work is an adaptation and expansion of Stan Lee’s prose autobiography. Adaptation by Peter David.
Yes, Stan really did do writing on this and I have the script to prove it. All the changes and rewrites gave the art team a go, let me tell you.
Colors by William Farmer, Val Trullinger and Jose Villarubia. Letters by Allan Harvey.
Allan Harvey also did the restoration and clean up on a number of classic Marvel covers used for this project. Rantz Hoseley background assistant.

[theoneandonly]

I love his false sense of modesty which he has disguised under his sense of humor.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

http://screenrant.com/deadpool-stan-lee-popularity/

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

http://www.comicbookresources.com/ar...marvel-comment

[jackolover]

Stan Lee was under pressure his whole life in the Comicbooks industry. He changed his name because of the negative attacks from people, he lived through Jewish, and comicbook hardships through the 1950's and many disappointments sacking beloved artists. His wealth of experience of life from these negatives is what Stan was built on, from the frustrations of regrets he'd never write his novel, to the disenchantment with the drudgery of writing endless compilations of mystery, Sci-fi, led him to the desk one day on instruction from his boss to start over the return of super heroes. Stan dredged into his many experiences of life to write a different way than the standard formula that super heroes had been written. Stan instead wrote his characters from the heart, and it wasn't just him, he had co-conspirators in Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko who were riding the same train Stan was, so thought in the same way as he did.

Stan Lee added the humanised dimension to his characters as though he was writing his novel, and instead of waiting for the time he could put out a novel that never came, Stan just went and wrote his novel in his Comicbooks. I don't know where he got is advice from, but it seemed it was, "Don't lose the opportunity. Your novel hasn't happened and you have all these ideas. Write with those ideas in mind on this project, and just get it out". And I'm sure he put characters in his books that he personally knew in life. All their meanness, their troubles, their weaknesses, their small triumph, their compassion. That's what I experienced when I read Stan Lee all those many years ago.

Stan Lees Marvel Comics were a time capsule of that period, distilling the hopes and dreams of people emerging out of a dark and depressing time, called the Age of Anxiety, into the new hope. My Civil Rights movement didn't come till the 1980's, but Stan Lee saw the movement in the 1960's. It was the spirit that defined that period in American society, as well as the Marvel characters.

[Sandy Hausler]

I love his false sense of modesty which he has disguised under his sense of humor.

Yeah, underneath that veneer of modesty, he is a raging egomaniac. <sarcasm alert> Come on, he's done a lot for the comic field and is entitled to be proud of it, but he is always generous in his praise of others, and never says that he did it alone.

Sandy Hausler

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Stan Lee's Mighty 7 #1
'How it all Began!'
Stan Lee Comics presents Mighty 7, a sensational new superhero property from the creator of Spider-Man, the X-Men, and more! When a crew of sinister, alien prisoners and their jailers are blasted across the galaxy, their ship lands smack dab in front of legendary comic book creator Stan 'The Man' Lee! What does this alien arrival mean for planet Earth? Reality meets fantasy as the Mighty 7 journey begins!

Written by
Tony Blake
Paul Jackson
Stan Lee
Pencils
Alex Saviuk http://comicvine.gamespot.com/alex-saviuk/4040-7955/
Inks
Bob Smith
Colored by
Tom Smith
Lettered by
John Workman

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

I know, appreciation threads are usually for fictional characters-- but hasn't Stan become a Character in his own right? To his fans, he's Big Daddy Marvel, to his detractors-- well, pretty much the same thing.

I'll be curious to see if posters can only post positive things about Stan here, because he's such a lightning rod for controversy. Of course any member is equally free to start a "Stan Lee Detraction Thread."

I'll start by praising his ability to bring different styles of character-speech into the superhero genre, even though he was writing for young readers and consequently kept most of his material light and "patter"-y.

Stan 'The Man' is to me a GREAT character.

That is indeed to me praise worthy.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hea...ee-life-928087