Born: December
28, 1922
Where?: New York
City
Died: STILL ALIVE
Aesthetic Theory:
Emotionalism
Preferred Medium:
Penciling
Art movement:
Comics
1. Stan Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber. When he started writing comic books, he decided to use the
non de plume Stan Lee because he wanted to save his real name for the great novel he would write
one day. Something tells me that novel may never see the light of day.
2. One of Stan Lee’s first writing jobs was writing obituaries. Not exactly the way many great writers
would like to have started out but Stan Lee did this part-time for the National Tuberculosis Center.
Maybe that is the reason why Marvel’s characters never really stay dead. That would have quite an
effect on me as well.
3. Stan Lee joined the Army in 1942. He would serve in the Army for the duration of World War II until
1945 serving stateside as part of the Signal Corps where he would write manuals, training film scripts,
and slogans for the Army’s World War II home front efforts. Occasionally he would also do cartooning
while part of the Signal Corps.
4. Stan Lee is a quasi-movie star. Since 2000’s X-Men, Lee has appeared in 16 films based on Marvel
Comics characters – characters that he either created or helped create during his time with Marvel.
My personal favorite cameos of his are from Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, Captain
America: The First Avenger and The Amazing Spider-Man.
5. Stan Lee indirectly reformed the Comic Code Authority in 1971. When the US Department of Health,
Education and Welfare asked Lee and Marvel to write a comic book about anti-drug use, the CCA
refused to place their seal on the three-issue story because of the depictions of drugs. Martin
Goodman cooperated with Lee and still published the issues and eventually the CCA would loosen
the code a bit.
6.Lee is planning to live forever – or at least another 90 years. Stan Lee had a small medical scare in
2012 and had to have a pacemaker inserted into his body at the end of September. Thankfully it is nothing
serious – if you can call any medical procedure for a 90-year-old “nothing serious” – and Stan plans on
being with his fans for years to come.
7. You can experience being Stan Lee for yourself. That is, if you bought The Amazing Spider-Man video
game adaptation of the movie. One of the exclusive offers for the game was playing a short side-quest via
DLC where you play as Stan himself looking for lost pages of his manuscript while using all the powers at
Spider-Man’s disposal. For some fans, this is a dream come true.
8. Stan Lee is the recipient of the 2,428th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. You can find Stan Lee’s
star at 7072 Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Live Nation Building and he was awarded the honor on
January 4, 2011. Presenting him the award was POW! COO and president Gill Champion and comic book
artist Todd McFarlane.
9. Stan Lee owns his own comic book convention, sort of. In 2012, Stan Lee and Regina Carpinelli,
founder and CEO of Comikaze Expo, announced that Stan Lee would become a partner in the company
and soon after Comikaze was rebranded as Stan Lee’s Comikaze. Talk about getting closer to your fans. It
also helps that Elvira is a partner in that venture as well.
10. 1. Martin Goodman saw something in Stan Lee in 1941that we would all eventually see. When Stan
Lee was only 19 years old, Goodman named Lee interim editor at Timely Comics (as Marvel was known
at the time). Mainly due to the departure of Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, that Goodman felt that Stan Lee
was his best choice says a lot about his eventual potential as a creator.
How to recognize
his work:
-Drawings you
could see in a
comic book
–Very Detailed
-Mainly
Superhero art
-All are unique