Showing posts with label Stan Lee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stan Lee. Show all posts
Excelsior! Stan Lee at 95
Stan Lee turned 95 on Dec. 28, which fell during our holiday break, and we'd be remiss not to observe the occasion now that we're back online!
While I'm among those who have a problem with Stan getting ALL the credit for creating the Marvel Universe, he did co-create nearly all of its best-known characters. And Marvel wouldn't have been Marvel without him.
Yes, he must share the credit with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others for Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor, the Hulk, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, the X-Men and all the rest. His artist collaborators, in many cases, generated the initial ideas for characters, their look and even the plots of stories. But they wouldn't have been the same without Stan's dramatic, funny and often over-the-top dialogue.
He's also the guy who made Marvel seem like an exclusive club for readers with his conversational blurbs, Soapbox columns, No-Prizes and outsize personality. His voice on Marvel's cartoons and Fantastic Four radio series, and his appearances on TV and in the Marvel movies have made him, fairly or unfairly, Marvel's public ambassador. While that has earned him more than his fair share of credit, I'm not sure who else from the House of Ideas could have filled this role. His personality is perfectly suited to the job.
Rather than chip away at his legend, I'd rather celebrate it, but make sure, also, that his fellow creators get the credit they also deserve. I do that on a regular basis here at Pop Culture Safari, celebrating the art of Kirby, Ditko and many more. But, today and for the remainder of the week, let's celebrate Stan!
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| Stan and his wife, Joan |
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| Stan with Jack Kirby |
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Stan with Lou Ferrigno          |
Video: Stan Lee & Jack Kirby: Creators of the Marvel Universe
From Robert Kirkman’s "Secret History of Comics."
Joan Lee passes
It was sad to hear of Joan Lee's passing, at age 93, today. Joan was married to Marvel Universe co-creator, Stan Lee, for 69 years, which is more amazing than Spider-Man.
You can read more about her here.
You can read more about her here.
Video: Check out Stan Lee's Cosmic Crusaders
The Man - surprise, surprise - takes center stage in a new series of animated web short created for the Hollywood Reporter.
When Stan the Man took to his Soapbox - against bigotry
Shared on Marvel editor Tom Breevort's Tumblr today, a memorable "Stan's Soapbox" missive from the the great Stan Lee.
Stan Lee sends video message to teen injured in school shooting
Here's as video message comics creator Stan Lee sent to a Taft, Calif., high school student wounded in the recent school shooting in that community.
Stan Lee documentary now streaming on Netflix
"With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story" is now available for streaming via Netflix.The film aired during some film festivals last year, I recall. I'll need to give it a look.
Here are details from the Netflix site:
Here are details from the Netflix site:
Arguably the most recognized name in comics, Stan Lee has co-created over 500 legendary pop culture characters, including Spider-Man and the X-Men. Explore the life of Stan Lee from his Depression-era upbringing through the Marvel age of comics!
A peek at the Stan Lee Archives
Marvel Comics scribe Stan Lee several years ago donated his papers to the American Heritage Center at, of all places, the University of Wyoming.
There's nearly 100 boxes of stuff, including script pages, art proofs and memorabilia. It could prove fertile ground for knowledgeable comics historians seeking out new details regarding Marvel's early days and Lee's contributions to the characters he co-created with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others. I'd like to poke around that stuff, myself, actually.
In the meantime, here's a teaser of what's in all those boxes from the Casper Star-Tribune.
There's nearly 100 boxes of stuff, including script pages, art proofs and memorabilia. It could prove fertile ground for knowledgeable comics historians seeking out new details regarding Marvel's early days and Lee's contributions to the characters he co-created with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others. I'd like to poke around that stuff, myself, actually.
In the meantime, here's a teaser of what's in all those boxes from the Casper Star-Tribune.
Those who look inside Lee's boxes will find manuscripts and notes on Lee's Soapbox column, character outlines for the Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer proof sheets.
Photocopies of proofs for the Spider-Man comic strip show notes written in the margins.
"Not too dramatic a pointing gesture," is written to the artist in one panel.
"Make more imaginative," appears on a Silver Surfer pencil sketch.
Lee kept boxes of fan mail: drawings of the X-Men done in red marker by young boys, letters written on lined school paper.
There are some written by the famous, like one sent to Lee and his wife by Linda McCartney: "Just a note to say that our 4 year old son James thinks he's Spider-Man at the moment, and loves Hulk and a few of the others as well -- so ‘keep rocking'!"
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