Stanley Martin Lieber (Stan Lee) was an American comic book writer, editor and publisher who was born on 28th December 1922 in Manhattan, New York city to Celia and Jack Lieber. He had a younger brother named Larry Lieber. In his childhood he was influenced by superhero books and movies. He attended the “Dewitt Clinton High School” in Bronx. In his youth he enjoyed writing. He worked part-time jobs such as writing obituaries for a news service, delivering sandwiches for offices in Rockefeller Center and selling subscriptions to the “New York Herald Tribune” newspaper. He graduated early from high school in 1939 and joined the “WPA Federal Theatre Project”.
In 1939 Stanley Leiber became an assistant at the “Timely Comics” division of pulp magazine, and a comic-book publisher in Martin Goodman’s company with the help of his uncle. He made his first comic-book titled “Captain America foils the traitor’s revenge” in “Captain America comics #3” in 1941. He used the pseudonym Stan Lee which became his legal name years later.
He graduated from writing filler to actual comics with a backup feature named “Headline hunter, foreign correspondent”. His first superhero co-creation was “Destroyer” in “Mystic Comics #6”. Other co-created characters are “Jack Frost” in “USA Comics #1” and “Father Time” in Captain America Comics #6”.
Stan Lee entered the United States Army and served as a member of Signal Corps repairing communication equipment. After he returned from World War II military service, he was inducted into the Signal Corps Regimental Association and was given honorary membership of the 2nd Battalion of 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment. In the mid-1950s he wrote stories in genres such as romance, Western, humor, science fiction, medieval, adventure and horror.
In the late 1950s Martin Goodman assigned Stan Lee to come up with a new superhero team when DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz successfully published “Flash” and “Justice League of America”. Lee acted on that advice and introduced complex, naturalistic characters who have bad tempers, fits of melancholy and who worried about paying their bills, got bored or sometimes physically ill. “Fantastic Four” were the first superheroes Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created. Then he created “Hulk”, “Iron Man”, “Thor” and “X-Men” with Kirby, “Daredevil” with Bill Everett and with Steve Ditko he created “Doctor Strange” and “Spider-Man” who was the Marvel’s most successful character. Lee and Kirby gathered several of their characters into a team called “The Avengers”. According to them all these heroes lived in a shared universe.
In his comics, regular news about Marvel staff members and upcoming storylines were presented in a friendly chatty style on the Bullpen Bulletin page like the letter columns appeared in each title. He scripted, art-directed and edited most of the Marvel’s series, moderated the letters pages and also wrote a monthly column called “Stan’s Soapbox” throughout the 1960s. To maintain his workload, he used the “Marvel Method”.
Stan Lee and Kirby produced characters who have become the center of Marvel such as “Inhumans” and “Black Panther” who became mainstream comics’ first black (African) superhero. Stan Lee and John Buscema launched “The Silver Surfer” series in mid-1968. In the following year Lee and Gene Colan created “The Falcon” who was the first African-American superhero in “Captain America #117”. In 1971 he indirectly helped to reform the Comic Code which allows the comic book publishers to self-regulate the contents of comic books. Lee created a three-issue subplot in “The Amazing Spider-Man #96-98” in which Peter Parker’s (Spider-man’s) best friend becomes addicted to prescribed drugs when The U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare asked him to write a comic-story about the dangers of drugs. He also supported using his comic-books to provide social commentary about dealing with racism and addressed issues of discrimination, intolerance and prejudice.
In the late-1970s he made appearances at comic-book conventions lecturing at colleges and participating in panel discussions as a public face for Marvel comics. “The Silver Surfer: The ultimate cosmic experience” was published in 1978 which is considered to be Marvel’s first graphic novel.
He stepped away from regular duties at Marvel in the 1990s. Even after that he continued to receive an annual salary of $1 million as a Chairman Emeritus. In 2001 Stan Lee, Gill Champion and Arthur Lieberman formed “POW Entertainment” which became public in 2004, to develop film, television and video game properties. He also announced a superhero program that features former Beatle Ringo Starr. In the late-2000s he worked with the Eagle Initiative program to find new talent in the comic-book field.
He launched the “Just Imagine” series in which he re-imagined DC superheroes such as “Superman”, “Batman”, “Green Lantern”, “Flash” and “Wonder Woman”. At the “Comic-con International” in 2016 he introduced his digital graphic novel “Stan Lee’s God Woke” and it’s print-book version won the 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards’ Outstanding books of the Year Independent Voice Award.
The Stan Lee Foundation was created in 2010 to focus on literacy, education and arts. It included supporting programs and ideas that improve access to literary resources and promote national literacy, culture and arts. Lee had cameo appearances in most of the Marvel movies including The Marvel Cinematic Universe. Some of these appearances are self-aware and they refer to his involvement in creating certain characters.
He died at the age of 95 on 12th November 2018 in Los Angeles, California due to pneumonia. His creations are loved by people all around the world.
Dinithi Fernando
EBH 2022
