When I think of Stan Lee, I hear his voice from the pages of Marvel's original "best of" compilations, produced in the 1970s, long before I'd ever heard the words "Graphic Novel" or "Trade Paperback". My brother and I had the whole set: Origins of Marvel Comics, Son of Origins, The Superhero Women, Bring on the Bad Guys, and our favorite: Marvel's Greatest Superhero Battles.
We got a great introduction to the classic superhero stories of the 1960s in the pages of those books, but for me, there was more than just the comics. I would read all of Stan Lee's introductory essays, discussing the behind-the-scenes origins of the characters. How it seemed obvious that the team-name for a team of mutants should be "The Mutants", until his editors worried that kids wouldn't know what that word meant, leading to a session of brainstorming that resulted in the X-Men. How when thinking about how every superhero had a list of special abilities and one weakness, he thought of the idea of putting the focus on the weakness, and came up with the concept of a blind superhero. How superhero characters were becoming so powerful that you may as well make God a superhero. But if you couldn't get away with that, then how about a superhero who is a god?
There was a lot of history there, admittedly clouded by Stan's ego, as I would see later in life that he enjoyed being the voice of Marvel, and that he wasn't always about sharing the credit.
But what his words between the comic pages in those books meant most to me was that here was a man who was creating stories, writing fantastic adventures, and he was making a living doing it, and having fun making a living.
Thank you for all of the stories. The stories within the comics, and the stories between.
Rest in peace.
We got a great introduction to the classic superhero stories of the 1960s in the pages of those books, but for me, there was more than just the comics. I would read all of Stan Lee's introductory essays, discussing the behind-the-scenes origins of the characters. How it seemed obvious that the team-name for a team of mutants should be "The Mutants", until his editors worried that kids wouldn't know what that word meant, leading to a session of brainstorming that resulted in the X-Men. How when thinking about how every superhero had a list of special abilities and one weakness, he thought of the idea of putting the focus on the weakness, and came up with the concept of a blind superhero. How superhero characters were becoming so powerful that you may as well make God a superhero. But if you couldn't get away with that, then how about a superhero who is a god?
There was a lot of history there, admittedly clouded by Stan's ego, as I would see later in life that he enjoyed being the voice of Marvel, and that he wasn't always about sharing the credit.
But what his words between the comic pages in those books meant most to me was that here was a man who was creating stories, writing fantastic adventures, and he was making a living doing it, and having fun making a living.
Thank you for all of the stories. The stories within the comics, and the stories between.
Rest in peace.
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