So really what is there left to say? People who knew Stan Lee have weighed in with memories of The Man. People who met him and worked with him and spent time with him. I didn’t. I’m just one of the multitudes whose life was shaped in part by his work. Directly…but more so, indirectly.

Stan was no longer writing or actively editing when I started buying my own comics. He’d since moved on to be Publisher of Marvel Comics. The first three books I bought were DC…because…Batman. But I soon branched out to Marvel, particularly Spider-Man. And while Stan wasn’t actively writing books…his work was still on the newsstands in the late 70s when I started buying. Among the first books I bought were issues of Marvel Tales with work by Stan and John Romita. And issues of Marvel’s Greatest Comics with Stan and Jack’s work from the glory days of Fantastic Four. And Marvel Double Feature with Cap and Iron Man. At age 8 I didn’t know a reprint from a hole in the ground. They were all new comics to me.

Beyond that, Stan’s influence was felt in the new comics coming from each company. There was a new generation of writers who were, by and large doing what they were doing because it was what Stan did. There was no longer a “Marvel method.” It was just superhero comics now…no matter the company.

There is almost nobody whose cultural footprint is larger than Stan Lee’s. And I say that not to take anything away from Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko or any of the others who co-created with Stan. He sold us so much more than comics. And so much more than Stan Lee. And maybe he oversold us Stan. But I wouldn’t have him any other way.

R. I. P. Thank you for so many hours of joy. Thank you for reminding us that with great power there must also come great responsibility. Thank you for reminding us that families squabble and don’t always get along…but come together when Doom comes knocking. Thank you for helping make the world amazing, fantastic, and uncanny.

Excelsior!

Nuff’ Said.

RiP to Stan Lee

This is what I posted on Facebook a few hours ago:

Word has come down that Stan Lee has passed away at 95. I've been expecting this news ever since his wife Joan passed a year or two back. With the possible exception of Walt Kelly, no one person was more responsible for my interest in comics as both hobby and career than Smilin' Stan. For all the criticisms that have and will be leveled against him (many justified), nobody can deny Stan played a critical role in overturning the 1950s image of comic books as a sleazy, cheap medium for mouthbreathers, degenerates, and subliterates. Without him and such brilliant co-creators as Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Don Heck, Bill Everett, John Romita, Marie Severin, and Gene Colan, the current dominance in pop culture of comic book-born superheroes would never have happened. I had two chances to talk to Stan the Man over the years but had to pass up both, to my now eternal regret. Thank you, Stan, for Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, Dr. Strange, The Fantastic Four, Ant-Man, Daredevil, Nick Fury, The Black Panther, The X-Men, The Silver Surfer, The Inhumans, Hawkeye, The Black Widow, and so many icons of my childhood. Rest in peace.

Cei-U!
Nuff said!

I held back the sadness today. I always knew it would come. I never betrayed Stan, so am guilt-free. I still read his comics- literally- I've been reading Marvel chronologically for years. I never bashed him online or tried to prove he didn't create characters. Yes, I have critically examined his stuff but context is everything.

None of the early obits (TMZ, AP + Marvel.com) really talk about his writing, just that he was a creator, ambassador, and helped spawn movies. The Marvel/Disney one was too corporate- and much too short. Stan was never a stuffed shirt. I wish he had penned his own to show his jovial and wordy nature!

I always felt Stan's best scripting was his Amazing Spider-Man run. The way he crafted the personalities of Peter Parker and J. Jonah Jameson remains absolutely perfect and timeless. Stan was running on all cylinders with ASM, regardless of who the artist was.

Stan's Silver Surfer run was his genuine philosophy of life. I know he put his heart and soul into that series.
I'm amazed how much of a new following Stan has received just based on the movie cameos. I admit it frustrates me a bit that millions of Marvel newbies never read one comic of his, but saw all of his movies.......but that's neither here nor there.

I got over the negative stuff about Stan some time ago. Stan never meant to hurt Kirby and Ditko and it broke his heart that they had heat with him. And, for as much as it is interesting to read things like "The Case for Kirby" the anti-Stan stuff will forever be speculative and pretentious to me. When you hear and see Stan talk about the controversies, he doesn't come off as malicious or deceitful. He really went out of his way in the last few decades to let us know how great the entire Bullpen was. He defended himself over the years, and I just had to let it go. Life is complicated.

chadwilliam ... Thanks for sharing it and it was so FUNNY and I enjoyed the short clip here.

RIP Stan Lee

There will never be another Stan Lee. His contributions to comics as a medium, as a cultural phenomenon, and as a legitimate entertainment field were enormous. For many, his name is synonymous with comics.

We need more people with the courage Stan had to face ills our world faces...



Face Front!

-M

Glen Weldon, of NPR has a pretty good and fair piece about Stan, at the NPR website. Glen writes regularly about comic topics and he writes a nice and accurate piece, that goes beyond the media personna. Stan was a complicated guy, who did good and could have done more; but, on the entire balance, was a positive force for comics and one the key figures in the entire history of the industry and art form.

I wasn't surprised, as I have been waiting to hear this, especially after Joan passed away. It's pretty common for husbands to follow closely on their wives death, if they pass away first, especially when they were married as long as Stan and Joan.

Also, lest we forget, on Veterans Day, that Stan was a veteran of the Signal Corps, though "playwright" doesn't quite have the heroic ring that Kirby's infantryman had, or Bert Christman's status as one of the Flying Tigers; but, everyone does their part.