WITH
GREAT POWER THERE MUST ALSO COME - - GREAT RESPONSIBILITY!
Amazing
Fantasy #15 (August 1962) - The first Spider-Man story
"With
great power comes great responsibility." -Stan
Lee
Stand a little straighter.
Walk a little prouder.
Be an innovator.
Clap a little louder.
Grow forever greater.
We can show you how to.
Where will you be then?
You belong, you belong,
you belong, you belong
to the Merry Marvel Marching Society.
March along, march along,
march along to the song
of the Merry Marvel Marching Society.
If you growl, if you grown
with a down sour outlook,
if you howl, if you moan,
you can lose your sour grout
by keeping trim and in step
with the vim and the pep
of the Merry Marvel Marching Society.
Be an early riser.
Strive to be ambitious.
Speak a little wiser.
Try to be judicious.
Be a good advisor,
never ever vicious.
Where will you be then?
Face front...
Lift your head...
You're on the winning team...
’NUFF SAID!
You belong, you belong,
you belong, you belong
to the Merry Marvel Marching Society.
March along, march along,
march along to the song
of the Merry Marvel Marching Society.
If you growl, if you groan,
and your star is nearly zero,
do not howl, do not moan,
you can be a superhero,
marching right along
to the fighting song
of the Merry Marvel Marching Society.
You Belong.
Face
front, true believer!
Stan Lee is an American writer, editor, creator of comic
book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.
With several artist co-creators,
most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic
Four, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange ,
and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a
thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the
expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a
large multimedia corporation.
Stan Lee supported using comic
books to provide some measure of social commentary about the real world, often
dealing with racism and bigotry. "Stan's Soapbox," besides promoting
an upcoming comic book project, also addressed issues of discrimination,
intolerance or prejudice. In addition, Lee took to using sophisticated
vocabulary for the stories' dialogue to encourage readers to learn new words.
Lee has justified this by saying, "If a kid has to go to a dictionary,
that's not the worst thing that could happen."
In 1971, Lee indirectly reformed
the Comics Code. The US Department of Health, Education and Welfare asked Lee to
write a story about the dangers of drugs and Lee wrote a story in which
Spider-Man's best friend becomes addicted to pills.
The three-part story was slated
to be published in Amazing Spider-Man #96-98, but the Comics Code Authority
refused it because it depicted drug use; the story context was considered
irrelevant. With his publisher's approval, Lee published the comics without the
CCA seal. The comics sold well and Marvel won praise for its socially conscious
efforts. The CCA subsequently loosened the Code to permit negative depictions of
drugs, among other new freedoms.
It was on December 28,
1922 at Ninety-Eighth Street and West End Avenue in New York City, that a child
was born named Stanley Martin Lieber. That male child, born to proud and
impoverished parents Jack and Celia Lieber, both Romanian immigrants, has gone
on to impact the cultural lives of an entire planet. This family’s trials and
tribulations in coming to America and raising their children through the Great
Depression has truly been of great consequence. No matter how insignificant
their efforts and hard work may have seemed at the time, they contributed to the
development of a young boy, their son, who was able to grow up unhindered by
suppressive constraints. Their loving, supportive upbringing was pivotal in the
unbridling of Stanley’s imaginative and creative wizardry that has helped
soften the harsh realities of life for generations of readers.
Young Stanley was blessed with a
mother who encouraged his reading and never thwarted her young son’s dreams
and fantasies. Stanley’s father instilled in him a work ethic and from those
early days Stanley formed the foundation that led to his ability to produce the
volumes of inspirational and creative works that has impacted so many people
throughout the world.
As a young boy, Stanley grew up
during the Great Depression, as it manifested itself in New York City.
However, he also lived in his own world of make-believe into which he retreated
in spite of all the outside influences. His bike which was also his best friend
may have seemed—by observation of others—to be just a bike, but not to
Stanley. Oh No! To him it was a space ship he commanded or a noble steed upon
which he was transformed into a mighty knight. Stanley loved that bike, as it
gave him a feeling of freedom not only to traverse the back streets of New York
but to let his imagination go wild. While these types of imaginary adventures,
for many of us were part and parcel of our childhood, for Stanley those
fantasies somehow never faded away as adulthood set in and tried to substitute a
more prosaic form of reality. Stanley drew from his youthful fantasies and, as
an adult, went on to develop some of the most inspirational characters and
stories the world has come to know. Somehow, even today, he has never lost his
uninhibited imagination, wherein anything is possible, as long as one can
imagine it and take the steps to enter that world of imagery. Stanley not only
has maintained this state for himself, but he has—through his creative
writings and artistry—rekindled the imaginative and magical worlds of make
believe that exist within all of us.
The adult who had the most
influence on young Stanley in his early years at school was his favorite
teacher, Leon B. Ginsberg. Mr. Ginsberg helped Stanley to realize that learning
could be fun and that it was easier to communicate and get his point across to
others by making the subject entertaining and by the use of humor. Stanley never
forgot the lessons learned from that teacher and thereafter applied them to
everything he did. {Note: Mr. Ginsberg, we hope you realize just how much your
efforts as a teacher impacted this planet. Just one of your students— and
there might have been others— was so inspired and influenced by your teachings
that he passed on your mantra of lightheartedness by always adding an element of
humor to his life and aesthetic endeavors)
Stanley was nine years old when
his brother and only sibling Larry was born.
Larry Lieber himself would later become a well-known writer and artist. It was
at this time of his life, while Stanley’s parents were busy with their new
infant son, that Stanley discovered the magical and wonderful world of motion
pictures. His upper Manhattan hangout soon became 181st Street where within
three blocks of each other, five theatres dazzled his mind with big screen epics
that featured the likes of Errol Flynn, Charlie Chan and Roy Rogers. Stanley
later commented that going to the movies was one of the greatest events
imaginable and that he was in heaven as he watched classic stories like Sherlock
Holmes and Moby Dick. At any of those theatres could Stanley ever have imagined
that one day he would create the story lines and characters for some of the
greatest motion pictures of all time?
At the age of 15, Stanley decided
to enter “The Biggest News of the Week Contest” put on by one of New
York’s largest newspapers, the Harold Tribune. The editor sent him a letter
suggesting that he should consider becoming a professional writer. This
encouraging letter helped spark a never ending flurry of words that even today
are still flowing from this prolific writer’s infinite imagination. The
encouragement that editor gave a young boy helped motivate him into becoming one
of the world’s most acclaimed storytellers. It is worthy of note that Stanley
too has often taken the time to encourage other young writers as that editor, so
long ago, had encouraged him.
During the next few years, while
still in high school, Stanley worked several jobs including writing obituaries
for a news service and ad copy for a hospital. However, he nevertheless aspired
to greater heights and, after graduating from De Witt Clinton High School,
eventually landed a job at Timely, a publishing company that was owned by a
distant relative of his named Martin Goodman. Still in his teens, Stanley Lieber
made one of the most significant career moves of his life as Timely was the
precursor to what later evolved into Marvel Comics.
When Stanley began at Timely
there were only
a handful of people in the comics department and his job description could have
been summed up as “general gofer”. The comic book department at that time
consisted of editor Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the staff artist. As deadlines and
company expansion overloaded Joe Simon and Jack Kirby with more work than they
could handle, Stanley soon got his first break, a chance to write a two-page
text piece entitled “The Traitor’s Revenge”. It was Stanley’s first
published story, appearing in Captain America #3 which was dated May 1941. His
first actual comic book script came shortly thereafter in Captain America #5
dated August 1941 which was titled “Headline Hunter, Foreign Correspondent.”
He was barely out of high school and was now a full-fledged published author.
Stanley began writing under
various pen names, S.T. Anley, Stan Martin, Neel Nats and Stan Lee. It was the
name Stan Lee that soon dominated the credits of so many publications that he
eventually gave up the others. In fact, he became so well known a writer under
the pen name of Stan Lee that he later legally changed his name from Stanley
Martin Lieber to the now universally known Stan Lee.
This biography section although
brief has purposely emphasized Stan Lee’s foundational younger years with the
intent to show how certain events in his youth formed the patterns and basic
personality traits that set in motion perhaps the most published writer of his
time—or possibly of any time.
Starting with those early days,
Stan Lee has never stopped writing and his creative force eventually catapulted
Marvel Comics to the top of the industry and resulted in Marvel becoming the
corporate giant that it is today.
Stan Lee’s tenure with Marvel
Comics extends over six decades and aside from his countless creations, Stan Lee
has held the titles of Marvel’s Head Writer, Art Director, Editor-in-Chief,
Publisher, President and Chairman. Currently Stan Lee is Chairman Emeritus of
Marvel and is Executive Producer of their current films.
Stan Lee’s driving creative force initiated Timely’s name change to Marvel
Comics to represent the company’s new image as a whole new breed of Stan Lee
characters began to emerge. In 1961 Martin Goodman began to lift his constraints
over Stan Lee’s creativity and what ensued was a cast of characters and
storylines that changed the world of narrative storytelling.
THE
START OF “THE MARVEL AGE OF COMICS” In November of 1961
Stan Lee wrote issue #1 of the Fantastic Four and what followed
was revolutionary in the industry. The traditional overly simplistic
characterizations and plots evolved with the Fantastic Four into complex
personalities and character-driven stories.
Stan Lee regarded Jack Kirby as
one of the greatest visual storytellers of all time. Jack Kirby was the perfect
match to illustrate the Fantastic Four, Stan Lee’s newly created characters
that broke the mold of the stereotypical superheroes. The Fantastic Four had
human frailties, complex personalities and they didn’t always get along with
each other. They were, as Stan Lee daringly called them, “The World’s
Greatest Comic Magazine.” It was with the Fantastic Four that Stan Lee changed
the entire superhero genre, skyrocketing the popularity of this new all-American
art form. Sales soared and Marvel began to come of age.
Stan Lee next went on
to create the Hulk, who enjoyed an initial smashing metamorphosing success. Stan
Lee’s creativity was in full bloom now and he marched Marvel on with yet
another of his creations—Spider-Man.
Stan Lee chose Steve Ditko to illustrate his new web slinging character and as
Stan Lee’s words conveyed the drama of his entirely new type of super-hero,
Steve Ditko’s artistry masterfully brought Spider-Man to life. Even then, Stan
Lee could not have predicted the monumental success that Spider-Man would bring
to Marvel Comics. This was the start of Stan Lee’s “Marvel Age of Comics.”
Spider-Man first went to print on a trial basis in the last issue of Amazing
Fantasy in August of 1962. It took until March of 1963 before Marvel officially
published Spider-Man as a regular feature. That year Marvel Comics exploded and
sales of Marvel’s new gallery of superheroes almost doubled. Since that time,
Spider-Man has gone on to become one of the most successful characters in comic
book history and when Spider-Man graced the big screens of the motion picture
industry, Spidey broke all time box office records.
It is noteworthy to mention at
this time, that although Stan Lee is renowned for all the lead characters he
created, Stan “the Man” Lee also dreamed up hundreds of supporting
characters, along with the many, many colorful villains we love to hate.
How do you top the top of the industry? Well, Stan Lee— the production machine
that he is— was on a roll and he once again turned to Jack Kirby to illustrate
an entirely new set of Superheroes which Stan Lee had dreamed up, a group of
mutants that become known as the X-Men. So Stan Lee, together with Jack
Kirby’s magnificent and artistic delineations of each character, published The
Uncanny X-Men issue #1. The X-Men series today is the best-selling group of
comic books in the world.
In the months that followed, Stan
Lee, as Marvel’s head writer, editor, art director and top creative force,
gifted the world with character after character, dazzling the reading public
with the Avengers, Thor, Iron Man, Daredevil, Silver Surfer, S.H.I.E.L.D., Dr.
Strange and hosts of other characters and stories that are too numerous to list
in this short biography.
Stan Lee started to be referred
to as “Mr. Marvel” and became one of the most sought after speakers on
college campuses throughout the U.S.A. and later the world. An article in
Esquire magazine quoted students on campus as saying “We think of Stan Lee as
today’s Homer.” Stan Lee has spoken in Japan, Italy, Canada, Germany,
Poland, Spain, Denmark, France, Portugal, China, Mexico and at virtually every
college and university in the United States, plus countless conventions and
corporate events.
Stan
Lee and Kevin Smith "Webslinging"
When Martin Goodman sold Marvel
to Cadence Industries, the new management would not go through with the purchase
unless Stan Lee came with the deal. Cadence management realized that it was Stan
Lee’s amazing creativity, his rapport with his audience and his genius for
promotion that had turned Marvel’s characters into pure gold, thus they made
him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Stan Lee, who had always worked under a
handshake agreement, for the first time was given an official contract with
Marvel.
Artists, writers, owners and management came and went throughout the years at
Marvel but there was one force that remained constant and that was the creative
force of Stan Lee. Even Jack Kirby left and went on to illustrate for DC Comics.
Stan Lee later reunited with Jack Kirby on a project that Stan Lee had wanted to
do for years, a novel-length version of Silver Surfer, one of Stan Lee’s
favorite characters. Stan Lee also branched out by creating and writing a
syndicated Spider-Man newspaper comicstrip that started in 1977, appearing in
newspapers around the world. As with everything Stan Lee does, the strip soon
became the most popular, most successful and now the longest running strip
featuring a superhero. Stan Lee still writes it today while his artist brother,
Larry Lieber, does the penciling for the dailies.
With Marvel running smoothly and
profitably, the Stan Lee family moved out to the west coast and Stan Lee headed
up Marvel Productions in Hollywood. Establishing Marvel’s presence in the film
and television industry, he became the head of operations for Marvel’s newly
organized Marvel Films. Stan Lee set in place the foundation that eventually
took his superheroes to the Big Screen. As with every other creative endeavor
Stan Lee has done, his creations have exploded to the top of the motion picture
industry. Stan Lee is now regarded as one of Hollywood’s most distinguished
icons, since films based on his creations have broken all time box office
records.
As Marvel began establishing its
presence on the big screen, control and management changed again at Marvel and
Stan Lee negotiated the right to go out on his own, while still maintaining his
connection with Marvel as “Chairman Emeritus”. He is also executive producer
of the many films that he helped set in place while at Marvel.
Stan
Lee Super Hero Action Figure
The
Legendary Stan Lee with TheWeekendGamer Comic-Con 2007
Today, Stan Lee has moved on to
form his own company, POW!
Entertainment Inc. POW is an acronym, as you may already know,
that stands for “Purveyors of Wonder.” POW! Entertainment Inc. already has
some 40 movie, TV, DVD, video game and other projects in various stages of
development and, since Stan Lee has always batted 1,000, we feel that the best
of Stan Lee is yet to come. His new company has taken off with so much momentum
that he recently took it public. Its symbol is POWN. Now any fan can be in
partnership with Stan Lee by simply picking up some stock in his new company.
Lee is producer and host of the
reality-TV show Who Wants to Be a Superhero?, which premiered on the Sci Fi
Channel July 27, 2006, and had its second season in summer, 2007.
Credit: Marvel, The Stan Lee web,
The SCIFI Channel
Data
compiled from The British Antarctic Study, NASA, Environment Canada,
UNEP, EPA and
other sources as stated and credited Researched by Charles
Welch-Updated dailyThis
Website is a project of the The Ozone Hole Inc. a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit
Organization
However, he also lived in his own world of make-believe into which he retreated
in spite of all the outside influences. His bike which was also his best friend
may have seemed—by observation of others—to be just a bike, but not to
Stanley. Oh No! To him it was a space ship he commanded or a noble steed upon
which he was transformed into a mighty knight. Stanley loved that bike, as it
gave him a feeling of freedom not only to traverse the back streets of New York
but to let his imagination go wild. While these types of imaginary adventures,
for many of us were part and parcel of our childhood, for Stanley those
fantasies somehow never faded away as adulthood set in and tried to substitute a
more prosaic form of reality. Stanley drew from his youthful fantasies and, as
an adult, went on to develop some of the most inspirational characters and
stories the world has come to know. Somehow, even today, he has never lost his
uninhibited imagination, wherein anything is possible, as long as one can
imagine it and take the steps to enter that world of imagery. Stanley not only
has maintained this state for himself, but he has—through his creative
writings and artistry—rekindled the imaginative and magical worlds of make
believe that exist within all of us.
Larry Lieber himself would later become a well-known writer and artist. It was
at this time of his life, while Stanley’s parents were busy with their new
infant son, that Stanley discovered the magical and wonderful world of motion
pictures. His upper Manhattan hangout soon became 181st Street where within
three blocks of each other, five theatres dazzled his mind with big screen epics
that featured the likes of Errol Flynn, Charlie Chan and Roy Rogers. Stanley
later commented that going to the movies was one of the greatest events
imaginable and that he was in heaven as he watched classic stories like Sherlock
Holmes and Moby Dick. At any of those theatres could Stanley ever have imagined
that one day he would create the story lines and characters for some of the
greatest motion pictures of all time?
a handful of people in the comics department and his job description could have
been summed up as “general gofer”. The comic book department at that time
consisted of editor Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the staff artist. As deadlines and
company expansion overloaded Joe Simon and Jack Kirby with more work than they
could handle, Stanley soon got his first break, a chance to write a two-page
text piece entitled “The Traitor’s Revenge”. It was Stanley’s first
published story, appearing in Captain America #3 which was dated May 1941. His
first actual comic book script came shortly thereafter in Captain America #5
dated August 1941 which was titled “Headline Hunter, Foreign Correspondent.”
He was barely out of high school and was now a full-fledged published author.
Stan Lee’s driving creative force initiated Timely’s name change to Marvel
Comics to represent the company’s new image as a whole new breed of Stan Lee
characters began to emerge. In 1961 Martin Goodman began to lift his constraints
over Stan Lee’s creativity and what ensued was a cast of characters and
storylines that changed the world of narrative storytelling.
Stan Lee chose Steve Ditko to illustrate his new web slinging character and as
Stan Lee’s words conveyed the drama of his entirely new type of super-hero,
Steve Ditko’s artistry masterfully brought Spider-Man to life. Even then, Stan
Lee could not have predicted the monumental success that Spider-Man would bring
to Marvel Comics. This was the start of Stan Lee’s “Marvel Age of Comics.”
Spider-Man first went to print on a trial basis in the last issue of Amazing
Fantasy in August of 1962. It took until March of 1963 before Marvel officially
published Spider-Man as a regular feature. That year Marvel Comics exploded and
sales of Marvel’s new gallery of superheroes almost doubled. Since that time,
Spider-Man has gone on to become one of the most successful characters in comic
book history and when Spider-Man graced the big screens of the motion picture
industry, Spidey broke all time box office records.
How do you top the top of the industry? Well, Stan Lee— the production machine
that he is— was on a roll and he once again turned to Jack Kirby to illustrate
an entirely new set of Superheroes which Stan Lee had dreamed up, a group of
mutants that become known as the X-Men. So Stan Lee, together with Jack
Kirby’s magnificent and artistic delineations of each character, published The
Uncanny X-Men issue #1. The X-Men series today is the best-selling group of
comic books in the world.
Artists, writers, owners and management came and went throughout the years at
Marvel but there was one force that remained constant and that was the creative
force of Stan Lee. Even Jack Kirby left and went on to illustrate for DC Comics.
Stan Lee later reunited with Jack Kirby on a project that Stan Lee had wanted to
do for years, a novel-length version of Silver Surfer, one of Stan Lee’s
favorite characters. Stan Lee also branched out by creating and writing a
syndicated Spider-Man newspaper comicstrip that started in 1977, appearing in
newspapers around the world. As with everything Stan Lee does, the strip soon
became the most popular, most successful and now the longest running strip
featuring a superhero. Stan Lee still writes it today while his artist brother,
Larry Lieber, does the penciling for the dailies.
