So what would be the worst super power to have? “My brother can manipulate space and time and can generate energy shields out of people’s souls. All I got is super-smell.” I think the absolute worst power to have, though, would have to be 20-20 Hindsight. “Oh, now I see! I should have caught the falling baby and then looked for the evil villain’s hideout!”
So what makes those of us who admire Stan Lee admire Stan Lee? The unflattering stories are many; He was a con man who took the credit for other people’s work. He never missed an opportunity for self-promotion. He never actually wrote a single thing in his life. Aside from the regular ins and outs of boss/employee relationships, I think the start of the animosity towards Stan started with an article in the New York Tribune, written by Nat Freedland, in 1965. By this time Marvel Comics had become increasingly popular since 1961, with the creation of The Fantastic Four. Marvel’s unique characterizations of heroes as regular people with problems of their own was something that was missing from the dominant source of superheros of the time, DC comics. Freedland portrayed an unflattering look at Marvel’s main artist Jack Kirby, while building up Stan’s accomplishments as the writer of dialog and the narration. Stan was embarrassed by the article, and it fed into Kirby’s public disgust over the fame that was focused on Stan.
In the 1960s Stan was writing the bulk of Marvel Comics himself, so they adopted a style of working that freed him up to be able to script each story, and it also provided work for the artists who would otherwise be waiting around for Stan to write new comics. The Marvel Method, in Stan’s own words in 1968, was
" ... And we talk it out. Lately, I've had Roy Thomas come in, and he sits and makes notes while we discuss it. Then he types them up which gives us a written synopsis. Originally — I have a little tape recorder — I had tried taping it, but then I found no one on staff has time to listen to the tape again later. But this way he makes notes, types it quickly, I get a carbon, the artist gets a carbon...so we don't have to worry that we'll forget what we've said. Then the artist goes home...or wherever he goes...and he draws the thing out, brings it back, and I put the copy in after he's drawn the story based on the plot I've given him. Now this varies with the different artists. Some artists, of course, need a more detailed plot than others. Some artists, such as Jack Kirby, need no plot at all. I mean I’ll just say to Jack, ‘Let’s make the next villain be Dr. Doom’… or I may not even say that. He may tell me. And then he goes home and does it. He’s good at plots. I’m sure he’s a thousand times better than I. He just about makes up the plots for these stories. All I do is a little editing… I may tell him he’s gone too far in one direction or another. Of course, occasionally I’ll give him a plot, but we’re practically both the writers on the things. ”
After the artist turned in the finished artwork, Stan would script the dialogue and narration. Usually the artist would write notes in the margins of the penciled pages as a guide for the writer to script by. Jack Kirby, for instance, often wrote dialogue and narration both. Sometimes Stan would use these notes verbatim, sometimes as a loose guide, and sometimes he would ignore them completely and make his own story. Stan always considered the one who scripted the book the “writer,” but in the credits for the books, which Stan always insisted were listed on the first page of every comic, Stan made it known that stories or plots were derived from a team effort (at least since 1966).
Stan became the promoter and public face of Marvel Comics with appearances at comic book conventions and colleges everywhere. His involvement with Marvel diminished as, in ’71, he moved to Los Angeles, where he focused on trying to get Marvel’s characters into films. In 1972 Stan stopped writing monthly comic books and became Marvel’s publisher. This movement away from the day-to-day workings of Marvel didn’t help the attitude of some people towards Stan, especially since every Marvel comic was emblazoned with “Stan Lee Presents” on its first page (he was the publisher after all...).
Jack Kirby was, for the most part, responsible for the look and style of Marvel Comics. Kirby, because of his creativity and speed, would do quick breakdowns of comic book pages for inexperienced artists, quickly sketching each panel of the story, thereby giving them a guide as to how Stan (as art director) preferred the stories to be shaped. Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man, famously left Marvel in 1966 over disputes about royalties and work-for-hire contracts, and Jack Kirby, who’s influence as an artist and designer in comics is still felt today, also quit in 1970 when Martin Goodman presented him with a new contract that required him to sign away certain legal rights. Kirby especially felt betrayed by a company that owed so much to his own vision and story-telling abilities. From the bitter Jack Kirby we get the most vindictive stories about Stan, among them being the claim that Stan didn’t write a single word of Jack’s comic books, and that Jack Kirby himself was responsible for saving Marvel Comics by single-handedly creating the FF, Thor, Spider-man, and all the rest. Jack also claimed sole responsibility for creating Captain America; something that Joe Simon especially took issue with (Simon was Kirby’s partner and writer when they both created C.A.). When Kirby left Marvel and wrote for himself at DC, he worked on at least 10 titles. There is an excellent article in the October 1995 issue of The Comics Journal (#181) that compares the writing on the Kirby/Lee collaborations with Kirby writing alone, and clearly shows that what Stan contributed was far more than just a re-writing of Jack’s stage directions. Personally, I never enjoyed Kirby’s solo work, and always thought that much of his dialogue was more like just a series of statements rather than a depiction of real speech. And it should also be noted that Stan had offered Jack the job of art director, and even suggested associate publisher. Both of which Jack turned down. It’s been suggested that Jack never read the final printed comic books, thereby never knowing that Stan changed much (if not all) of Jack’s writing. I think that, whatever the case, Jack Kirby could be a bitter man who held resentment for co-workers who held more power and prestige than he did, and yet was content not to make waves to change his stature. Roy Thomas, Stan’s first successor as editor-in-chief, once said,
"Whatever he might say or others might believe, Stan, I think, always knew that he was dependent on having the right people around him. Jack, however, though in many ways more the type of creative artist deserving of the overused 'genius' label, never really analyzed these things, and so he ended up merely resenting Stan and thinking that Stan had ridden to glory totally on his (Jack's) shoulders. Which was only half true. No, there wouldn't have been a successful company called Marvel Comics without Jack Kirby ... but there wouldn't have been one without Stan, either."
As far as monetary earnings and copyright holdings go, Nobody at the time got any royalties from the characters they created. Not the artists, not the writers, not Stan, not Jack. As Stan said,
"As far as what they were paid, I had nothing to do with that. They were hired as freelance artists, and they worked as freelance artists. At some point they apparently felt they should be getting more money. Fine, it was up to them to talk to the publisher. It had nothing to do with me. I would have liked to have gotten more money too. I never made an issue of it. I got paid per page for what I wrote, the same rate as the other writers — maybe a dollar a page more. Everybody thought that I was the only one that was getting paid off, but I never received any royalties from the characters. I made a good living, because I was the editor, the art director, and the head writer. So I got a nice salary. That was all I got. I was a salaried guy. But it was a good salary. And I was happy.”
So why do I admire Stan Lee? Although he clearly took advantage of creative people in an industry that took advantage of creative people (at least he wasn’t nearly as bad as Walt Disney — check out any stories about Walt and Ub Iwerks to learn about exploitation...), he was a guy who, using his talent and personality, was responsible for creating a major component of American culture. Mostly though, I still admire Stan because, let’s face it, many things experienced in one’s formative years are difficult to ever see in an objective way again. I still remember that personal touch that Stan imparted, and the chatty, friendly way that Marvel conveyed that I was included in their exclusive circle of astute and discerning fans.
To sum up, I’ll leave you with a quote from (Jazzy) John Romita, Marvel’s Art Director from ’73 through the late ’80s:
“Oh, (Stan’s) a con man, but he did deliver. Anyone who says he didn’t earn what he’s got is not reading the facts. Believe me, he earned everything he gets. That’s why I never begrudged him getting any of the credit, and as far as I’m concerned, he can have his name above any of my stuff, anytime he wants. Every time I took a story in to Stan — and if Jack were reading it, he’d have felt the same way — I had only partial faith in my picture story. I worked it out and I believed in the characters, but I was only half-sure it was going to work. I always had my misgivings. By the time Stan would write it, I’d start to look at that story and say, “Son of a gun, it’s almost as though I planned it,” and I’d believe a hundredfold more in that story after he wrote it than before — and if Jack would’ve allowed himself to, he would’ve had the same satisfaction. I sincerely believe that.
I think Stan deserves everything he gets. Everyone complains, including me sometimes. I used to say, “I do the work, and Stan cashes the checks.” [laughter] It was only a half joke, but it’s the kind of a grumble you do when you’re tired.”
Excelsior!