This is a very sad time for all comic book fans, collectors, and most importantly - readers!
The great Stan Lee, comic book creator, writer, publisher - and literal "face of the industry" for well over fifty years has passed away on November 12, 2018, at the age of 95.
Whether or not you like Marvel Comics, the fabled brand Stan Lee built from almost nothing to today's industry leader, you MUST have profound respect for Lee's impact on the comic book industry as a whole!
In the same way Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera "saved" animation, with different methods that found a huge audience, so did Stan Lee "save" the comic book industry by trying something different and finding a tremendously huge and enthusiastic audience... at exactly the time when the comic book industry needed a "shot in the arm"!
With Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Lee created, or otherwise defined, some of the biggest franchises the industry has ever known!
I continued to like Marvel Comics, when they looked like those below!
...And, of course, when they looked like this!
Alas, I have not liked (or read) them since they began to look like what follows - and when Marvel began to act arrogantly and irresponsibly toward the very industry that made it what it became!
Um, does that say "Part 3 of FOURTEEN"? Eeesh!
So, grotesque!
But, I don't hold Stan Lee responsible for ugly and repulsive imagery, the near-destruction of the direct-market comic book distribution system (that ultimately resulted in Steve Geppi's "Diamond Distributors" being the "last-and-only-one standing amid the wreckage"), and catering to the irresponsible rock-star creators who became so much larger than their meager talents should have allowed - later DEFECTING FROM the Marvel Comics that (er...) "spawned" them to form Image Comics!
No, that all happened after Stan's stewardship... but it goes a long way toward explaining this one fan's deep animosity toward Marvel Comics, post middle-1980s!
Then again, they were bought-up by Disney... so what do I know?
But we're here to celebrate the great Stan Lee - in my view one of the FIVE TRUE GENIUSES of comic books and graphic novels! I'll not attempt to rank them, but in alphabetical order they are:
Carl Barks, Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and Julius Schwartz!
And, of those geniuses, Stan Lee took it many marketing degrees further, as I said, becoming first "The Face of Marvel Comics" and then "The Face of Comic Books - Period 'Nuff Said"!
In those long-ago pages, he talked directly to his readers, giving them a sense of "belonging" that no other publisher did.
He even talked to you from his covers!
"Stan the Man" or "Smilin' Stan", as he was alternately known, was also, for lack of a better word, "hip", in a day most other comics figures leaned more toward stodgy!
Someone once said (and I wish it was me, but it wasn't) "Stan Lee wasn't your father, he was your cool uncle!"
Wasn't he though?
At times he even looked like Hugh Hefner - or the "comic-book version" of Hef!
Here's a post I did on Stan Lee back in 2009 which you may find interesting, regardless of your preferred comic book brand!
Rest In Peace, Stan Lee! There isn't anyone reading this - or anyone who has ever read a comic book, who is not in your debt!
Excelsior!
15 comments:
Well said, Joe! He was the last of the greats of that era to go, fittingly, and at least we'll always have all those great books to keep him in our hearts forever. Amazing that Steve Ditko lasted almost as long.
(Plus I back you 100% in your taste in comics! FF was always my favorite superhero book up until a bit after Byrne left. And Stan may not have had much to do with Howard the Duck but it was the first series I ever collected and my favorite non-superhero title!)
JoeC:
Thank you for those kind words, concerning one of the true all-time greats of comics!
Regardless of what you think of Marvel today – or, in my case, since about the end of the ‘80s, there is no denying the genius – and geniality – of “Stan the Man”!
Even during my past-period of Marvel fandom, I was something of an “odd duck” (not Howard)! My preferences were Fantastic Four and Captain America, over Spider-Man and X-Men! Even toe-dipping back into those titles when a good writer like Mark Waid temporarily took them over.
But, for me, Marvel’s best days were when Stan Lee was directly and intimately involved! And it was never the same after that!
…He simply was “everyone’s cool uncle”!
Well, the bad news, obviously, is that Stan is gone.
The good news is that he had a long life and a successful career. And he left behind a huge body of work that will be collected and enjoyed for years to come.
And he lived long enough to see many of the characters that he co-created (Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk) become familiar, not only to comic book fans, but to the general public. By the same token, he himself became a celebrity, recognized not only by comic book fans, but by movie audiences who know that old guy making cameo appearances in superhero movies.
And, while he didn't single handedly create the superhero genre, there is no doubt that it was Stan's showmanship that made Silver & Bronze Age Marvel "the 'cool' kids' table in the high school cafeteria."
I’m completely with you, TC!
By any measure, of which we fans are aware, Stan Lee had an extraordinary life – and made so many of our own lives all the better for having been “The Man”!
…And also being “The Cool Uncle” most of us never had! Yeah, I really like that “Cool Uncle” thing – can’tcha tell?
I was never too much into superhero comics (though on Elaine's suggestion I did start picking up Squirrel Girl a few months ago… it's good! it belies the downards in trend in Marvel comics that you deplore, Joe), myself, but there is no denying how influential Lee was… or, from everything I've seen of him, that he seemed to be a pretty swell guy all around. My sympahties to all who knew Lee and all the fans who mourn him.
Achille:
I’d say a key difference between American and European comic fans is that Europeans are less “superhero-centric” than we often narrow-minded Americans!
…And, I daresay you’re all the better for it!
Elaine appears to be quite the advocate for Squirrel Girl, as she (in-person, in a New York comic book shop) made the same suggestion to me! It was very enjoyable and completely lacking in the indecipherable grotesqueries that Marvel specialized in during the 1990s and beyond!
Again, I blame none of those (…all together now) “indecipherable grotesqueries” on Mr. Lee, and can only celebrate his great contributions – both ON and OFF the printed page – to the medium we fans, collectors, and, most importantly, readers ( be we “superhero-centric” or otherwise) so deeply love!
I haven't read a lot of Marvel Comics, except maybe Howard the Duck (which is a highly recommended book, at least Steve Gerber's original run on the book.), and some of their licensed titles from the 80s, like Heathcliff, ALF and The Smurfs (the less said about all of them, the better, although Heathcliff had some nice art by Harvey Comics artist Warren Kremer). I think one of the Boston newspapers ran the Spider-Man newspaper strip on Sundays. While I didn't follow superhero comics, I can't deny the cultural impact that Stan Lee and his staff had on pop culture. I'm saddened to hear of his passing, and with the rights resting at Disney, hopefully his legacy will continue to live on and inspire future creative people.
Deb:
Not so oddly, mostly because Stan Lee’s creations – or co-creations – tended to shine so brightly (and deservedly so), we don’t often think of Marvel as a publisher of licensed properties. But, they’ve had their share!
And, while I fully agree with you on the quality of the licensed titles you mention, there were also a fair number of licensed properties on which Marvel did a pretty good job!
The best of those, at least in my opinion, were the post-Charlton 1970s Hanna Barbera comics, which were more-or-less exclusively written by Mark Evanier and utilized a number of artists from the “Gold Key days” like Pete Alvarado, Jack Manning, Dan Spiegle, Roger Armstrong, Tony Strobl and Kay Wright! With others of note like H-B’s own Dick Bickenbach, post-Gottfredson Mickey Mouse comic strip artist Roman Arambula, Aquaman creator Paul Norris, longtime ADVENTURES OF BOB HOPE artist Owen Fitzgerald… and Scott Shaw! In fact, Tony Strobl’s first published credit in the pages of an actual comic book was in one of those H-B Marvel comics!
And, of course, how can there be a “best-list” of this sort without GROO THE WANDERER – again by Evanier and the great Sergio Aragones, a comic that continues to this day with the same creators at Dark Horse!
I liked the post-Gold Key version of STAR TREK, which reflected “Star Trek the Motion Picture”, rather than STAR TREK TOS! I never was a STAR WARS fan, but Marvel also brought that (now way-overexposed) property to comic books – at a time when comic books needed such a thing! Ironically, now they’re BOTH Disney acquisitions! The STAR TREK fan in me wants to look for a “Ferengi” joke to apply here… but, for all our sakes, I’ll let it be!
I was decidedly more mixed in my reaction to its BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD title, as it (VERY INAPPROPRIATELY) employed Marvel Comics references and imagery to take the place of those ubiquitous MTV music videos that the cartoon would always cut-away to! (…Yes, really!) But, the BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD material, outside of that needless exhibition of corporate-ego on Marvel’s part (which coincided with the period where I began to despise their core product – as mentioned in the post), was good enough on its own to keep me coming back!
I’ve always wanted to try Marvel’s version of MIGHTY MOUSE, as the covers make it look like something I’d enjoy in the vein of the Ralph Bakshi animated series! And, coincidently days before the news of Mr. Lee’s passing, I just purchased all ten issues from an online comics retailer for 17.00! An amount that would only net you 4.25 IDW Disney comics! Talk about a good deal!
I’ve also had my eye on their BULLWINKLE AND ROCKY title for some time. Maybe I’ll go for that one sometime in the future, if I find an equally good deal.
But, the point of this, as your comments served to remind me, is that even Marvel (as superhero-centric as it is) also has a notable history as a publisher of licensed properties… some of which are definitely worth a look!
@Deb: Wait, Marvel did its own licensed Smurfs comics once? Whuh? The Hanna-Barbera TV series was already an adaptation of a popular comic series, what sense in making new (and, apparently, bad) ones rather than localizing those?!…
@Joe: “Bullwinkle and Rocky”? Exactly what was going through Marvel's mind? That's like calling your cartoon “Jerry and Tom”, or your comedy “Hardy & Laurel”… had the marketing department hit a rocky patch? Or is it just a load of bull? (Wink!)
Achille:
I’m not a Smurfs fan, but I’ll try to take this one, and let Deb correct me, or better flesh it out…
Marvel did a three-issue mini-series at the end of 1982/beginning of 1983. I DO remember that, and SEEM to recall no Hanna-Barbera copyright or other attribution. The H-B SMURFS animated series, per the Internet, began in the USA in September, 1981 – so it was a “known property” when Marvel published it. Again, not being a fan, I can’t speak to its quality.
But, HERE is a link to the issues of the series. If you drill down, you can see that the first issue has an original story (presumably created by Marvel) with the balance of that issue, as well as # 2 and 3 being credited to Peyo!
Both you and Deb should be able to make still more sense of this than I can! But, then again… that’s why people who KNOW the comics and their characters are always the best persons to work with them!
…Oh, wait… We were discussing the Smurfs? …Not something else? Sorry! ;-)
As for Bullwinkle, I’ll take that query far more confidently!
The original TV series for these characters was called ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS (1959), which became informally known as “Rocky and Bullwinkle” - never the official title of the show, BTW.
Bullwinkle was the series’ breakout character! So much so, that he got his own “early Sunday evening show” on NBC, called THE BULLWINKLE SHOW, in 1961!
Shortly thereafter – and for a long time to follow – Bullwinkle apparently received “marketing-based-billing” over his plucky flying pal! That eventually changed back to the (again, informal) “Rocky and Bullwinkle”, but you can still see vestiges of it in the Post-1960s Gold Key and the Pre-IDW / Pre-American Mythology comics.
See THIS LINK for more!
There's a video of Mike W Barr on YouTube in which he admits he didn't mind having restrictions on the Star Trek stories he could tell within the constraints of a license limited to characters featured only in that first movie, because he was still telling new stories about Kirk & Co. It's kinda like writing a "Ducktales" comic book and still being able to write new stories about Scrooge, Donald, the nephews, Gyro and the Beagle Boys. The best "Ducktales" comic book scripts I've read are the ones that seem aware of this, like the William Van Horn stories.
Now...I wonder who's going to take over the writing of the Spider-Man newspaper comic strip?
I didn't know Venom had a "Wedding Issue". There's someone for everyone...even a cannibalistic alien parasite consuming a sleazy ill-mannered reporter for the Daily Bugle.
'Rehab:
Totally agreed on the approach to both DuckTales and Star Trek. I still prefer Carl Barks' Uncle Scrooge and Gene Roddenberry's TOS to those later incarnations but it's good to have each version.
Don't know (and happily so) how it worked out for Venom... But, even the Frankenstein Monster had a "bride". And, we all know how THAT worked out!
Stan Lee was a great talent, whose imprint on popular culture cannot be over-estimated. Making super heroes more like regular people seemed to be his mantra, and he succeeded marvelously, pun intended. Spider-Man is my favorite of his creations. I have not been a huge collector of Marvel Comics, but I have a great appreciation for them all the same. The stories were such page-turners that it made the abundant ads extremely annoying to have to get past. But the ads were so hugely annoying primarily because the stories themselves were so good!
However, considering that my Marvel collection consists primarily of The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Laff-a-Lympics, and Dyn-o-Mutt, it shows that I wasn't that much into the Marvel mainstream. However, it also shows that when they did a thing, they did it right! They also had awesome runs of Tarzan and Zorro. So Stan Lee will be missed, not only for the popular characters--heroes and villains--he created, but also for the peripheral publishing projects (whew, say THAT three times fast!) that Marvel undertook. And leave us not forget MGM's Marvelous Wizard of Oz and Marvelous Land of Oz Treasury Comics! Plus the Flintstones' Christmas Party and Yogi Bear's Easter Special! For a while, they even had their own version of Classics Illustrated. I guess they weren't called Marvel for nothing!
BTW, Happy Thanksgiving! I will be offline for a few days. (Still reading, just not able to respond.)
Scarecrow:
Marvel really did do a great job with the Hanna-Barbera comics but, considering that first Chase Craig and then (for most of it) Mark Evanier were behind it, how could it not be! They carried over, from Western Publishing, the sensibilities we enjoyed and appreciated.
It’s a pity they didn’t last longer, given how long those wretched Charlton H-B comics ran!
I don’t know how personally responsible Stan Lee was for that – and for the particularly lengthy run of Sergio Aragones and Evanier’s GROO THE WANDERER – but they did occur on his watch, so perhaps that’s just another debt we owe “Stan the Man”!
Happy Thanksgiving to you too!
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