Stan Lee’s first superhero adventure had few images and no speech bubbles. When the publisher Marvel Comics was called Timely Comics, the young employee’s name was Stanley Martin Lieber. He was supposed to write a short story about the war hero Captain America, invented by his colleagues. Fearing that his involvement in comics would hinder his aspired career as a serious writer, young Lieber chose a pseudonym that was to remain: Stan Lee.
Today, people around the world associate this name with the adventures of Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, and countless popular superheroes he invented and starring in Marvel comics and in movies and TV series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU ) live on. Stan Lee would have been 100 on December 28th.
From errand boy to marketing genius
As a teenager he had started working in the publishing company as a messenger boy and copy helper. He later became editor-in-chief and eventually president. Lee revolutionized the comics industry. His characters were more complex and interesting than others. Like today’s MCU films, their stories were connected. Several authors worked on each comic, creating their own secondary characters. So a whole universe for superheroes grew up. Lee was also considered a marketing genius and knew how to praise his comics.
On the occasion of the milestone birthday, a gala will be held in Los Angeles in his honor. Marvel Comics has been paying tribute to the iconic creative head in numerous sections on its website for weeks. This commemorates some of Lee’s most popular stories – and his hilarious cameos in the comics. In a 1963 edition of the ‘Fantastic Four’ he invented, Lee and his colleague Jack Kirby are not admitted to Reed Richards and Susan Storm’s wedding as uninvited guests.
With cameo roles in front of the camera
The man with the distinctive mustache was also famous for his amusing cameos in films – as a courier service employee in “Captain America: Civil War” or as a bus driver in “Avengers: Infinity War”. Stan Lee made his first guest appearance in front of the camera long before the MCU existed. In 1989, he appeared as a courtroom juror in the made-for-TV movie The Incredible Hulk Trial.
In Germany, the book “Stan Lee” from the series “Popular Errors and Other Truths” has been published to coincide with the 100th anniversary. On almost 120 pages, the author Eric Hegmann tells entertaining anecdotes from the life and career of the comic creator and clears up mistakes. Contrary to popular belief, Stan Lee never owned Marvel Comics. He even had to sue to get his share of the success.
Biographies and an illustrated book
There is certainly no shortage of books about the comic genius. After his death, biographies by Bob Batchelor (“Stan Lee: The Man behind Marvel”) and Abraham Riesman (“True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee”) were published.
The powerful illustrated book “The Stan Lee Story”, which former Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas produced with Stan Lee while he was still alive, is almost overwhelming. The first edition from Taschen-Verlag, limited to 1000 copies, weighed more than 12 kilos, was personally signed by Lee and cost 5000 euros. But it’s long since sold out.
In the meantime, “The Stan Lee Story” has appeared in a somewhat more manageable edition, which is still stately with 600 pages. Using illustrations and personal photos, she traces Stan Lee’s impressive career. It was one of the pop culture icon’s last projects.
Stan Lee passed away on November 12, 2018. A new comic art of his is written on the Marvel website: “100 years and he still inspires us all.”
